Quick hunt this morning while visiting family. I had planned to shoot one in the back 40 and figured a subsonic round would be fine. All I saw at the house were whitetails so I went off down the draw.



Found this little buck this morning about 10 minutes into my hunt. There were whitetails everywhere. Gun is a frankengun 300 blackout. 14.5 rainier arms and Leupold 1.5-5 mark IV blackout scope.



Directly in front of the picture is where he was standing. Ended up straight ahead in that small thicket. Maybe 20 yards tops.



Bullet entrance on the left. Exit on the right. Was shooting from above so there is a downhill angle.
Heart was hit at the top and the lungs were a mess.



This is the front shoulder but on the exit side. The whole upper leg was wrecked.



Bullets were 220 grain subs. I would've liked to find it afterwords but it passed through. I didn't realize they would be that devastating at 100 yards but am pleased with the outcome. Happy hunting guys!

Thanks for the post.  I was interested in using my blackout on whitetail this year; it's always good to see examples of its performance on game. Thank you for sharing and congrats.

I almost swapped to my 125 sst supers before going out but figured it'd be a fun test. I'd be confident under 200 with those subs. I want to load up a bunch and check the hashes as far as the Leupold goes.

Pretty cool. I built a 300 BLK upper with a 10.5" for this very purpose, but I planned on using 125gr for better range and flatter trajectory, etc.

Good to know that the subs will get the job done with a well-placed shot.

Well done.

Thanks!

Yeah I thought the subs would only be for fun but I guess I can now plan depending on range.  Classic ARFCOM "Get Both"

Nice kill. What round were you using?   Spill the beans.  Load data!!!

220 bthp Sierra match kings. Just some chopped up reloads.

Nice kill. Congrats!

Thanks! 10 minute hunt just doesn't seem fair. Second easiest to my Glock in the driveway deer.

Sierra SATs these arnt designed for hunting.  Do you think they expanded in above deer?

Good job, impressive performance for the subs!  I'm still staying with the 125 Nosler BT's in supersonic config this season, but good to know subs work too.

I definitely had it loaded sub so I doubt it did. The exit hole looks like it may have been starting to tumble. It's wrecked that outside shoulder.

Thanks. That's what I thought too. I actually pulled the 125s at the last minute.

How far did the deer run after the shot?

but, but I have been told multiple times that subsonic hunting won't work.

Good job.  

While I don't recommend the Sierra match kings for subsonic hunting there have been some good success using it.

My personal preference in this order for subsonic hunting

Heavy grain Cast hollow point( I use the 247gr NOE, but a modified Lee 230 would work also) (mainly because I am cheap)

Fat MCnasty has some jacketed hollow points he has developed that expand at sub velocity.  Not for sale yet but they will be soon hopefully

Outlaw state has a few selections that have worked well as reported by others

Lehigh defense 174 gr

Lehigh defense 194 gr  (the 194 may have under penetration issues at least reported by a few that have used it)  (the only reason I put these down the list is because they are expensive.

heavy gr subsonic Cast non hollow point(again I am cheap)

heavy gr jacketed non expanding, ie 220 Sierra match king, 208gr Amax,

The tumbling effect has to many variables in my experience to use it exclusively any more.  

But again it has and does work.

Good Job again.

Nice kill! I use 208 hornady a maxes. They leave an exit hole about the size of a nickel at sub sonic velocity. Trail boss for powder. 10" barrel

The following is my personal experience with 300blk subs on deer.

He went about 20 yards. I shot and he jumped forward and looked fine. Then just crashed.

Yeah I would love to get ahold of Fats new magic bullet. I was fortunate to have perfect shot placement because I think you are absolutely right about their usefulness. I normally run the amax but I suspect the results wouldn't be much different than the 220. Just because I had success with I doubt I'll keep using them for hunting just because of range issues. Where I hunt it's not uncommon to have opportunities to outshoot my comfortable range with the sub.

This would be my fear a well. I'd hate to lose a nice animal over my desire to play with subsonic ammo. As long as you hit vitals I have no doubt that it'll do the job. However, the entrance and exit wounds in the chest cavity were pretty minimal. Hitting that opposite front shoulder definitely helped and made a big mess. There was no blood trail to follow an only a palm sized blood pool under the exit wound where it fell.

Eta: I will say that 300blk is plenty of gun for using around here with shots under 300y but that's with a supersonic 125 or 110tac.

Thanks! The 208s are all I can usually find. I have imr 4227 in bulk and a little bit of 1680. I'll hopefully sbr my 10.5 soon and be able to see if I need to modify my load data for a round to work in both effectively.

It being subsonic is not the issue,  it is bullet design.  If you were to use a properly designed bullet it is more then enough gun.

Well go tell Fats to hurry up and ship me the goods.

I know right

Although i love my cast hollow point subs.

I do need to try some cast subs for sure.

Congrats, he will be good eating!!!

Nice looking deer, have yet to see a legal deer here in OR while out hunting

Nice shooting.

I've taken deer and pigs with my 308 with subs without a can.... haven't gotten my stamp yet, but subs still are quiet out my 20" 308 without a can... started out loading them for pigs so I could get multiples, or hunt em in areas where land owners had a pig problem but didn't want to be waken up with gun shots in the middle of the night and after they worked good on pigs I tried em on deer.... first I started out with 190gr match bullets, they did ok, which most of the damage they did was from the bullet tumbling.... but then I found out about outlawstatebullets.com.... they actually make expanding bullets for hunting in different calibers, and I got the 210gr segmented jacket flat tip hollow point that has a segmented lead core that fragments... it is awesome on deer last year myself and some friends used them and I killed a nice mature 6 point spine shot, dropped him, bullet tore a big chunk out his spine and ruptured the lungs, my dad killed a doe with my 308 and I was in the stand with him, which my dad is having health issues so I had him setup with something low recoil to shoot and he shot a doe with it, twice, first shot, was far back in the ribs, and we thought he missed because the deer didn't react, the second shot he hit her right behind the shoulder and she stood up on her hind legs, took a leap forward and dropped and didn't move...  I've recovered 3 of these bullets from deer mostly because they hit spine or went thru a shoulder, and two out of those three had nice expansion, the other was a little further off and may be why it didn't expand,  others were clean pass thrus and you could tell from the wound channel it expanded, also have tested them before I used them for hunting at various speeds they like to be shot around 1040fps and they will expand nicely... haven't had a deer go more than a few yards I've only had a chance to carry them pig hunting twice so far and one hunt I didn't see anything but the second hunt I killed two, one was a 60lb pig, the other was a 185lb boar, the pig dropped in his tracks, the boar I shot him in a field, shot first time thru the lungs  at about 75yds, he twitched a little at the shot, and didn't know where it came from and he started coming my way, he ran to within about 30 yds of me, and stopped, I assume he was about to fall over, but I put another one in front of his shoulder like between the front of the shoulder and the rib area "just another quick shot didn't take time to make a perfect hit being I already hit him once, plus he was getting a little close for comfort"  and he dropped, it was a quartering shot, it went under the shoulder, thru the vitals and stopped in the ribs on the opposite site... second bullet had expanded nicely, but the first shot not so much due to low velocity,  it expanded a little but not much

The younger ones usually turn out quite a bit better. Plus he was at the butcher within 2 hours tops.

Sounds like you're due!

I was almost bummed my season was so short.



How far out are you for your can? Sounds like you get more fun time than I do. I need Fats to start selling me his new expanders.

 well I haven't actually really done anything with it yet, at first I was really wanting one, but being the subs I'm shooting have been quiet enough for what I'm doing and not spooking the pigs when I shoot them and not alerting the peta supporting neighbors where I deer hunt I've kinda put getting a can on the back burner, which I started experimenting with subs to see if it was worth doing, and I've had some HOLY s@#% suprises with subs they work a lot better than I thought they would...  which right now I'm probably going to get a can for my blackout instead of the 308 which Is what I kinda decided on a few months back when I first started building this ar, and I haven't even gotten the blackout upper completed yet, just running a 223 upper on my lower right now, but once the blackout is done i'll probably look into getting a can, and possibly what kind of paperwork it takes to make my own "legally of course" which I have met guys at the local range that have fabbed their own that work just as good, as the high dollar ones for under $100.... I'm no rich man so I can't afford to invest $1,000+ in a can... at least for all I'm using it for to bust a few pigs and maybe a deer or two....   to me hunting with subs is better than bowhunting you still have those limitations but still have the fun of a rifle...
the outlaw state bullets work excellent but they're kinda pricey but not bad compared to what they sell loaded hunting sub rounds for at some places at like $100.00-$120.00+ a box... ridiculous!!!

 i'll put em on ice for about 3-4 days to tenderize and bleed out the meat before I take em to the buther, that way all the rigimortis is out of it, and it bleeds it which takes some of the "wild" taste out the meat...  with a wild hog i'll bleed them suckers on ice for about 5-7 days

Hes a buddy of mine. It'll hang there until it's gtg. Then it'll get processed.

ETA: sub hunting rounds are that expensive?

 from what ive seen when I googled it one time, but that's for a 308, and it's a lot cheaper to handload em... ALOT cheaper, I can load 50rds for close to half that.... the sub bullets are on sale right now from outlaw state 100.00 per 100 of em....

That's still pretty stiff. I Would buy from Fats and only use em for hunting but I'll stick to the home rolled 208s for now.

Nice kill.

Sooo wait. You guys are in gun season already? The season just started.

Yeah this is the 3rd weekend already. Our seasons are staggered with archery.