I have looked at the 300BLK for a lightweight setup, and have been told several times that it will not cut it as a hunting cartridge. People's bias aside, aren't the velocity and energy (super sonic) similar to a 30-30? Subs for hunting will take more looking into to find the right bullet I think, but Super sonic should be good, or am I missing something important here?

Looking at the quoted supersonic velocities, using 125 grain bullets or so, it is fairly comparable to the 30-30. It uses a little lighter bullets, pushed to a slightly higher velocity.

I would want to make sure that those velocities are actually what is being produced in my rifle before I hunted with it, but you are correct in most of your concerns. It won't have a lot of legs, because light for caliber bullets like the 125 grain range for .30 caliber don't have great BC's, but for out to 200 yards, it should be plenty efficient.

Bill

Agree with Bill,

From the numbers I have seen it should work fine out to 150-200 yards for deer sized game.  I think it's a bit small for elk or bear sized animals.

OP, for your viewing please.  I think people in the gun world get caught up in bigger, better, faster just like people do in every aspect of life and tend to lose sight of  how devastating those little lead pills are that we sling down range to take game even if they aren't going as fast as physically possible.

300 BLK Hunting Thread

270 lb Pig at 80 Yards via SBR and Subsonics

The guy that made that video has lots of others as well of shooting hogs.

THe 300BLK (the SAAMI version of he 300-221 Fireball/300Whisper) is plenty of gun for eastern white tail deer. I have shot one version or another of this cartridge for about five years. It is indeed ballistically  similar to the 30-30.  With my 300 BLK I get the following results with a 16-inch barrel:

300 BLK 16 in. barrel
125 gn bullets 2250 fps/1400 ft-lbs
150 gn bullets 2000 fps/1330 ft-lbs
180 gn bullets 1820 fps/1295 ft-lbs

30-30 14 in barrel (the closest barrel length comparison that I could find)
130 gn bullets 2240 fps/1448 ft-lbs
150 gn bullets 2120 fps/1497ft-lbs
170 gn bullets 2020 fps/1530 ft-lbs

320pf

I have killed 3 deer with my 300 Whisper (handloaded Sierra 125gr pointed soft points at 2231fps muzzle velocity) at distances from 50-75yd.  All were broadside lung shots.  All bullets in one side and out the other.  All bullets expanded (more so when a rib was hit).  Deer ran 10-50yd.  If I wasn't such a novice, I'd of held lower for the heart area, but that aside, I felt the performance was fine and so did my brother (he's killed dozen of deer and normally uses a 7mm Rem Mag).  

Note:  I also missed 2 deer at 200yd by holding dead on when I should have held at the top of the back and let the bullet drop into the lung area.  My Whisper was sighted in at 100yd and I knew the drop, but my novice nervousness got the best of me.

My father killed many many deer with a 256 winchester. The numbers on that round suck...
A comparison of the 300 blk and the 256 win would make you think the blk was a super magnum.
Agree with everyone else its more than enough cartridge for deer, depending on your aim and the bullet you use.

Using a 125gr ProHunter a 16" 300 BLK hits like a 24" 300 Win Mag at 350 yards.  

The 300BLK is fine for deer hunting provided you use good projectiles and keep the ranges modest.  You just need to know its limitations.  

If you use a bullet like the Barnes 110gr TAC-X SBR, which is designed to expand at lower velocities.  It will expand out to over 250 yards.  I think using that bullet and keeping ranges under 250 yards should make for an efficient deer killer.  With a 30 yard zero the bullet is at the highest point of 2.7" high at 122 yards and is 5.19" low at 250.

If you use something like a ProHunter the limitation becomes velocity.  Using the 2250fps for muzzle velocity the bullet drops to its 1800fps expansion threshold by 150 yards.

The Remington Managed Recoil .30-30 load has a 125gr Corelokt bullet at a nominal 2175fps, which sounds a lot like the 125gr loads in the BLK.  It works well on whitetails and mule deer although it is probably best to avoid shoulder shots on big deer.  My kids have shot 8 or 9 deer with it and the only one that needed a second shot was a fair sized muley that was quartered towards us about 60 yards away.  My son hit it exactly on the point of the near shoulder.  It broke the shoulder but the bullet turned and only hit one lung and then went down into his guts.  The deer really wasn't going anywhere far but he was already close to the property line and started heading that way.

It should work fine for most deer but I'd be careful of shoulder shots on big bucks.  

Thanks for all the replies, reading so much before buying was making me question  the rounds abilities. Wrongly it seems

Just in case anyone is searching for factory supersonic loads Summit Ammunition is currently manufacturing a 147 grain load with 2025 fps. They will also have a 175 grain subsonic load.