When I first heard about the 300BO it seemed like a great idea but I read some articles and saw some video that really didn't impress me very much (one was the TAC-TV comparison with the 5.56 vs .300BO vs 7.63x39 where the .300's performance was just shockingly bad) and I've always read that the 300BO was a good 100 yard caliber but after that it really runs out of gas too fast to be any use for hunting past the 100-150 range which made sense from what I had seen, heard and read but then I come across the occasional person who says the 300BO's hunting range is far more than that.  That it still has plenty of energy for deer sized game at 300 yards or longer, having more than enough energy to kill deer sized game past ranges where the shots become unethical.  

I'll be the first to admit I don't know enough about the 300BO's ballistics to know what the truth is so I come to here where I know we have several folks with a lot of real life experience both shooting and hunting with this caliber.  What is the truth? Where does the 300BO really stand as far as reasonable target distances and ethical hunting distances?

What is your email address? Ill send you a pdf file that gives you charts and compares barrel lengths, calibers, and different ammunitions.

.300 Blackout will do everything 5.56 will do, you just have to use a dedicated load.

The 300 blk is as capable as the guy behind the trigger.  I hunt exclusively subsonic and have been very succesful.  Even with non optimal bullet selection. Shot placement in my opinion.

Here is a chart I posted in another thread about effectiveness on deer.  IMHO, inside of 200yds it will out do both 5.56 and be on par with 7.62x39, if not better due to better bullet options.  I say 200yds not due to energy drop off, but to trajectory and velocity.  Beyond 200yds it is dropping pretty quick, and velocities are starting to get close to expansion limits for a number of ballistic tip bullets.

Note this table is lb-ft of energy for some of my loads for a few of my rifles.





http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_23/676868__300_BLK_for_deer__what_bullet_weight_is_best_.html

This.  I hunt with supers though and never have had a deer run, even at 200yrds.  The beauty of the round is out of an SBR with a suppressor.  The benefit is a .30 bullet out of an AR using standard parts exception being the barrel.

If you want a suppressed SBR, 300BO is the way to go. For hunting, there are better choices.

And the right bullet. For hunting you need penetration and expansion.

In my opinion, in ranges out to 100 yards the .300 BO is by far the superior round.  It offers a heavier punch than the 5.56 (and being .30 cal it has a wider range of bullet designs) and has better accuracy than the 7.62x39.  This is because the .300 BO is loaded with heavy charges of faster burning pistol powders to take advantage of the shorter barrel carbines that waste the energy of cartridges originally designed for longer length rifle barrels (I.E. the M16 Rifle and the SKS)

Also in my opinion, in ranges beyond 100 yards, all three are inferior to a full power rifle round like the .308.  That's why they are referred to as intermediate powered rounds.  You don't bring a Hyundai Sonata to the Indy 500 and you don't bring .300 BO/5.56/7.62x39 to a sniper duel.

the real answer is a lot easier.


It's a pain in the ass.


Once you get your rifle running right on your favorite load, which will take a lot of time and experimenting because everyone in the world is snapping up all the decent powder and 208gr AMax bullets, you will spend the rest of your life making .300BO brass from 5.56 cases.  Now everytime you go shooting you will giggle like a retarded 5 year old with a bunny and do suppressed mag dumps, then remember you spent all that time making the brass and you just lost half of it.  Then you have to go back to casting more lead bullets because you can shoot so cheap, and now casting and cases become a chore.  Then you do another mag dump or smack a marmot in the backyard, giggle, and go back to looking through the weeds for brass.  Or you can buy ammo.  Good luck, Mrs. Rockefeller, plan on breaking the piggy bank to keep up with your finger.

To hell with ballistics.  I've got a lot of calibers that are better suited for anything but suppressed shooting than the BO.  The REAL .300BO is a pain in the ass.

I have about twice this many necks around here, but only about 100 reloadable cases for the BO.  I've even hired my 12 year old son and taught him to read a mic, he makes them in batches of about 100 at a time, and I just lose them.

The 300 BO compares to the 32-40 of 120 years ago. Original black powder load killed lots of deer.

Everything old is new again.

I saw one of those for the first time last weekend, definitely getting one of them.  Too bad it won't fit on my Creedmoor, no room under the scope.

I think they make a few different variants that can also Velcro around the action of a rifle.


As far as caliber comparisons, its not far off from 30-30 as well, which is also a pretty good hunting round of days gone by.  I'm playing around with some 30-30 hunting bullets to see if I can come up with a recipe that might utilize some of those rounds.  I'm really interested in trying to find a 180gr Subsonic load with some of the old flat lead tip hunting bullets.

Guess I'm doing it wrong, I toss a couple hundred .223 in the casefeeder , pull handle for 15 minutes, repeat 2 more times then tumble for 2 hours and then reload. That said 300BO is the only build I wished I'd passed on

the 300 has more than enough energy to kill deer at 300 yds if the shooter has took the time to aquire the right ammo and proficient enough to put the round where it goes . Its a fun rifle to shoot and if you get a can it will become very addicting .

Thanks for all the replies.  I'm not actually looking to buy or build one, I already have a 5.56, 6.5G and .50Beowulf so the .300BO doesn't have anything to offer me but I was curious since I had heard so many conflicting stories.  So 150-200 is really the maximum hunting distance before it starts dropping too fast to work well.  I knew it had great potential suppressed, I just didn't know it's limits supersonic.

Thanks!

"That said 300BO is the only build I wished I'd passed on"

Why is that?  

Is imagine once I get a better case handling setup I'll shoot it a lot more, and I can shoot it cheaper than 5.56 and at close range it's a great blaster.  I haven't hunted with it yet, but night vision with a suppressed BO is on the menu this winter.

Really not sure why just didn't warm upto it. It punches holes just as good as anything else at the local 100yd range, cheap enough to shoot as I ended up with a bucket full of 147 fmj for .50¢ a pound

Yep...have to remember that coming out of the barrel it is moving at about the same speed .308 Win at 300+ yds (depending on the bullet and load of course).

"I'll be the first to admit I don't know enough about the 300BO's ballistics to know what the truth is so I come to here where I know we have several folks with a lot of real life experience both shooting and hunting with this caliber. What is the truth? Where does the 300BO really stand as far as reasonable target distances and ethical hunting distances?"

Here's what I advise:

Take the bullet that you will be hunting with (I use Nosler 125gr Ballistic Tip) and find the velocity needed for expansion (Nosler says 1800fps for "optimal" expansion).  Chronograph the load you are using.  Plug into ballistics program and find the distance in which the velocity is at 1800 fps.  That will give you at least an idea of the range.  For my 8" 300BLK bbl that is 100yd.  For my 9.5" and 10.3" bbls that is 150yd.  For my 16" bbl that is 200yd.  I would be hard pressed to hit a deer beyond 200yd...your ability may be better or worse than mine, so the 300BLK is fine for the hunting I do.  11 deer, 2 pigs, and 2 coyotes tell it's working fine for me.  My farthest deer so far was 187yd.  Except for 1 deer (that deer was facing me at 187yd, so the bullet had more deer body in the bullet path to stop the bullet), all bullets have been pass throughs.  It took about 18" of deer to stop the bullet (clipped spine, through lung, through stomach and stopped just inside hide).

Here's that recovered Nosler bullet.  Didn't find the jacket.

Same here.  I keep my original Sporter rifle upper in 5.56 and my carbine upper in .300 BO so my one rifle is able to shoot two calibers (three, if you count the .22 adapter)

Besides, how can anyone turn THIS down?  Not even 5.56 can match this kind of firepower...

I found tac-tx bullets, lil gun, aa1680 and 208 Amax this week. I have fallen in love with my Blackouts again. I have always had H110 and IMR 4227 but this brings a whole new level with the new finds.

I just wanted to add a few numbers here. Info is taken from either my Hornady reloading manual, Barnes website, or Hornady's online ballistics calc

Hornady 75 grain AMAX, loaded to 2800 fps
Muzzle: 2800 fps, 1306 ft/lb
100 yd: 2592 fps, 1119 ft/lb
200 yd: 2393 fps, 954 ft/lb

Barnes 70 grain TSX, loaded to 2800 fps
Muzzle: 2800 fps, 1219 ft/lb
100 yd: 2514 fps, 982 ft/lb
200 yd: 2246 fps, 784 ft/lb

Without getting into a discussion about ethics, both of these bullets (the Barnes in particular) have their advocates for deer hunting.

I just wanted to through these numbers out, as so many of the charts comparing caliber ballistics look at 55 grain & 62 grain mil-spec ammo & ignore the potential of heavier bullets in 5.56. As you can see, particularly with the AMAX, the numerical differences between 5.56 & lighter .300 blackout bullets pretty much disappear.

That being said... bullet size needs to be taken into account. Given the same fps & ft/lb then, sure, the larger bullet will perform much better. I just wanted to through these numbers in to better represent what 5.56 is capable of.
Muzzle:

Picked up a few boxes of these at Academy today

Yep, that is a fair point...thanks for the info!  Nothing at all wrong with the heavier .223 bullets, especially for varmints.  I'm not quite on the page of using .223 for deer just given the fact that it takes even more precise shot placement to ensure a quick ethical kill.

Decisions, decisions...

that is the problem I am having

http://www.brasscatchers.com/store/univbc.html

Nice, I think that will work.

the 70 grain barnes has plenty of gitty up go for deer I have killed several with it and no doubt will kill more ,  If a person is not comfortable using a particular caliber thats ok its their choice . If I lived some where that had open prairies or large medows I would probably have a something magnum but in my neck of the woods it isnt going to happen . every caliber mentioned here is more than capable of killing deer at a reasonable range  and I feel a precision shot needs to be made with any caliber betting on mass and velocity to make up for shotty marksmanship will get you gut shot deer that run off and are not fit to eat .