What subsonc ammunition are yall hunting with i will be shooting a 308 with 150 yds shot at the most
Range Report Subsonic Hunting rds
- Thread starter BIGBOY1975
- Start date
I'm loading 220 gr round nose sierras. They don't expand worth a shit. In the front of a does neck and back out again with barely a hole you could find and then it entered the backstrap and went almost the entire way back in that one muscle where I found it on butchering. The little lead tip was gone but the cooper jacket was 98% complete.
Its not not the best but I'm not sure there's a better subsonic option that doesn't cost 4 times as much per shot.
Its not not the best but I'm not sure there's a better subsonic option that doesn't cost 4 times as much per shot.
You wont get alot of expansion in a subsonic unless specifically designed for sub expansion. I know there are some .270 bullets made to expand, so im sure someone is making a.308 expanding sub. Like spife said though, it is not going to be cheap. Might have the best luck casting some 230's from lead and using trailboss.
Outlaw State Bullets and Maker bullets have some good projectiles, but as already stated, not cheap $$$
Yeah, they are great at speed, but what it comes down to is you'll loose half your mass (read energy) so they will not hit hard enough to cause deep damage and likely explode shallow on the surface. If they don't explode on the surface you just have a glorified BB gun with zero hydrostatic shock. Two things kill: velocity sending a shock wave through a body scrambling everything up or removing a larger volume of material. That's why the old slow muskets were 50 cals.
And heavy bullets with their mass retaining their energy will drift less at distance. Less being relative because they are still subsonic after all. They don't stabilize any better. In fact I'd say they stabilize worse if we're talking about with normal for caliber twist rates. A1-12 won't stabilize near as heavy a round as a 1-7. Bc is speed related so the less sped the lower the bc will be. To make up for that the heavier twist is preferred so that they can spin enough to remain stable.
F=m*a If a is capped at 1040 fps the only way for more F is more m. So getting more mass and being able to keep that mass stable is the name of the game.
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nosler has a 220gr ballistic tip designed for subsonic expansion out or coming out. I think they're supposed to be priced around $25/50.
I use cast bullets, do they expand? No! However bullet selection comes in second, to placement. Subsonic placement + good hunting skill set = meat w/o adrenalin on the table every-time.
150gr berry's 30/30 flat nose bullet wit trail boss pushing it. it opens nice and wide at the slower speeds.
I have used Lehigh defense 194 max expansion Bullets on deer and they are devastating. They basically expand and petal back with razor sharp edges.....expand down to 700fps if I remember right. They are expensive but they made some excellent wound channels and deer bleed very well when shot in the boiler room. Would caution against shooting through the shoulder or head shots. I don't imagine they would do well on bone though I have not tried it....
Yep +1 on those; if you really want to hunt with subsonic loads and don't cast your own, you need something like these.
With the exception of that special Nosler bullet (maybe, nobody seems to know how well it works yet) no jacketed rifle bullet from a mainstream manufacturer will give any expansion at subsonic speeds, that includes varmint bullets too. You have to use something specifically designed for subsonic performance if you want maximum effectiveness. If you don't want to use a bullet like that and want to hunt suppressed/subsonic, you'd be a lot better off using something like a 357 Mag or 44 Mag rifle and decent hollow points in that. Non-expanding subsonic rifle bullets provide really underwhelming performance unless you can guarantee pinpoint accuracy and/or hit and frag heavy bone.
Personally I cast my own and make my own hollow point bullet molds with hollow points tuned specifically for subsonic use (mainly 30 and 35 calibers). These work really well and I've been very pleased with how well they kill deer. They also prove the lie of the common claim that "bullets at handgun velocity only damage what they directly touch"; a good expanding subsonic hollowpoint can leave a golf-ball sized hole through a deer's heart and lungs, with lots of peripheral damage too.
