Thread: Subsonic projectiles, where are we at these days?

Originally Posted by ZQLewis

Dam, Friwi, beat me to it. Look at the new specaliy designed 30 bullets for the 30 blackout etc.

I have had limited success on goats. 243 trailboss, with 105gr, subsonic, did not open but tumbled the length of the goat.
Varmint 58gr or heavier bullets leave a nice 1" exit hole and put the goat down however they are still supersonic.

In my 358 win I run 158gr XTP, these work well in goats and as finishing shots but are still about 1500 fps. I can slow them down more but don't like the large empty voids in the case when I'm shooting up and down hills. Could load a heaver bullet I guess.
Z

still got large void with trail boss???? being same case as .308 I wouldve thought somewhere around the same 8.5grns would be order of day and pretty much more than 60% full.

I have been down to about 8gr of tb but that leaves a lot of empty space which I know the published info say is ok but I just look at it and get uncomfortable with jacketed bullets.
Well any bullet actually and that big open space
One shot the powder is up by the primer, the next the powder is sitting low and forward. Surly that can't be good?.
I should buy some soft 180 or 200gr pistol bullets and load 10gr of TB under them.
But it's also lot of fun to wind the velocity (27-2800) up on those 158gr pistol bullets and turn rabbits into red mist.
Z

Im using about 8.3gr in my 151gr load but find different results in different guns noise wise,
Iv backed it off a little to get to 8.3 to hopfully prevent the first one after cleaning going supersonic and to go a little quieter to the ear (no chrony)

Id be real keen to hear how much trailboss you guys are using in 300blk with the 151gr

@Bill999, with 300blk, I wasn't able to get enough TB in the case to get anything over 110gr close to 1000fps, so I switched to using AP70N and AP100.

thats what i found in 44 special cases too

Bummer I still have plenty to burn thru

Hornady are now makeing a range of subsonic for a few Different rounds
I Geuss they might have a perpose built projectile if they do it probably means the projectiles will be available soon

Hey @madjon When I used the 300 Blk - subsonic went for the Le High 196 ME and also the 110 Barnes tac-tx worked pretty well even in light bodied goats.

They must realise this as those are both a bit pricey. also had some good results with 125 Nosler hunting BT in 300 cal (Green tip) in the almost transonic range which was about 9.4gr 2206 in the Ruger ranch 16" plus MAE 8CMP over-barrel supressor. nice big wide front end once the plastic disapears in the skin. That become my Goat cull round.

In .300 BLK I run 9.8 grains of AR2205 behind a Hornady 220 grain RNSP for 1060 fps out of my suppressed Ruger American Ranch. Very quiet and excellent hunting accuracy (1.5 MOA) but I have not yet taken it for a walk among our local goat population. In amongst the rocks and rose hip it should be good to 100 metres or so. There are also a few pigs and Fallow in the same area.

Originally Posted by gundoc

In .300 BLK I run 9.8 grains of AR2205 behind a Hornady 220 grain RNSP for 1060 fps out of my suppressed Ruger American Ranch. Very quiet and excellent hunting accuracy (1.5 MOA) but I have not yet taken it for a walk among our local goat population. In amongst the rocks and rose hip it should be good to 100 metres or so. There are also a few pigs and Fallow in the same area.

That's in the ballpark of the load I use, about 10gr of 2205 and 240smk. Mine is a 30Apache (or 30/223) depending what school you went to. This gives me 980fps, 10.5gr gives me 1040fps...but it can just tip over and "crack" when weather conditions allow, so I play it safe and use the 10gr load to avoid breaking the sound barrier.

I’ve shot a reasonable amount of deer lately with the 300 blackout. Side on, front on and in the head.
The subsonic load is no magic bullet and I’ve used .357, .44, .45/70, .308 and 300 AAC.
The Hornady SubX is ok but nothing beats Lehigh. I’ll post some projectile photos tonight.
Subsonic ammo sounds like a great thing to do, but honestly unless you had to, I really wouldn’t bother. All other projectiles don’t kill that well and the Lehighs are very expensive.

Just my opinion

Originally Posted by craigc

I’ve shot a reasonable amount of deer lately with the 300 blackout. Side on, front on and in the head.
The subsonic load is no magic bullet and I’ve used .357, .44, .45/70, .308 and 300 AAC.
The Hornady SubX is ok but nothing beats Lehigh. I’ll post some projectile photos tonight.
Subsonic ammo sounds like a great thing to do, but honestly unless you had to, I really wouldn’t bother. All other projectiles don’t kill that well and the Lehighs are very expensive.

Just my opinion

Yeah mate, exactly my experiences too. Was just curious if any improvements had occurred...but sounds like nothing has really changed.

About the only advantage would be hunting in areas where you're on a mission to clean up a few animals without spooking the entire catchment with your first shot.

I love how this scenario occurs when I'm bow hunting...where you get to see animals all day long despite having taken a few kills already. When I hunt with the rifle I don't really get that same situation.

Other than that, I don't have a real need for it...hence why its gathering dust.

Wow, I remember that thread from Fishnhunt Kim, weren’t you trying modified SMK’s on goats in the King Country? That was a few haircuts ago!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Im really pleased to see others coming around on this one........ my limited play with them has led me to believe ,good for grins n giggles...AWESOME for finishing shot,close range head neck..... good for possum or rabbit while after other stuff.
deer and pigs...yeah nah,supersonic just has so much more going for it.
Ive said it many times before we have gone full circle...black powder saw big n slow...then smokeless saw speeds go up and weights go down...some older rounds survived. the .44/40 .45lc havent changed all that much and a .32/20 isnt a hell of alot different to a .300 blackout running subsonics.....keep your knickers on.....IF you fed the .32/20 the same quality of projectile as the .300blackout they would be similar speed so preformance HAS to be similar.......feed both cast and its pretty close.

before suppressors came along the .222 and .223 had large following amoung professional shooters because thier little noise spooked less game around the next corner...the suppressor just took it to next level...subsonic with suppressor was better still.....subsonic without suppressor is similar.

A sneak peak at something im working on at the moment, there will be a full write up on this and the rifle it goes with in the future...

Its a 400gr 9mm projectile, sitting in a 308 case cut at the bottom of shoulder and necked to 9mm, similar idea to the russian 9x39 but with projectiles designed for killing the 4 legged variety rather than 2 legged.
Estimated BC on this projectile is somewhere around .500 G1, so should have plenty of energy for medium game out to 400m or so (but it will drop like a rock)
Pure Lead projectiles will be powdercoated to avoid leading barrel.
Casting them didnt work very well so im making a swaging die and press to try swaging them from extruded lead wire.





.223, 9mm Subsonic, 6,5CM

If I did more hunting, even had access to some good goat hunting spots, I'd buy a subsonic centrefire tomorrow. I love using my 22LR with subsonics and a suppressor. You don't disturb anybody and animals wouldn't even know you were in an area. It would be even more fun with a bigger calibre! Back to reality and I don't have those options, plus I've managed to screw up a few shots with 7mm08 lately, so a subsonic centrefire is probably not what I need right now. One day maybe...