Best .300 Blackout Subsonic Ammo for Deer Hunting with Suppressor

I do not have experience with that particular Winchester ammo.

I did shoot a bunch of the Hornady Sub-X and though it functioned fine (was not always sub-sonic in my 16 inch gun but was good in my 9-inch) It did not expand as nice or reliably as I would have liked. The bullet often lost mass and frequently simple tumbled through the water jugs I shot them into.

My sub-sonic load of choice is Maker Bullets 220 gr REX. An excellent all copper bullet that is designed to expand at sub-sonic impact velocities. It has performed very well for me in testing in both water jugs and armadillos. You can buy them as just bullets for reloading or Maker Bullets offers the bullet in loaded 300 BO ammunition. The only minor draw back to them is I have found they really need a 300 BO specific magazine to feed 100% reliably. I am using D&H 20rd 300 BO magazines and they have been 100% for me with my load.

https://makerbullets.com/index.php


Maker Rex on the Left, Barry's 220gr plated on the right.


This bullet was fired into a line of milk jugs full of water at ~50 yards. Split the first two wide open. Made a hole that look like a dull broad-head punching through the third and was found in the forth milk jug.


This pullet expanded fully in the width of a 12 oz Gatorade bottle. Dug the bullet out of the dirt back stop behind the bullet.


This one was found in a fist size pile of busted up chert rock after passing through a moderate size armadillo. Sort of sounds like hitting a truck tire with a hammer when you hit the armadillos with these bullets. It does bad things to armadillos.

Accuracy from my 9-inch AR pistol is about 2 MOA at 200 yards. But I am only using a fixed 3x prism scope so some of the group size may be my fault not the bullet's. They do require a 1: 7 twist and they are not cheap but they work very well in my experience.

-rambling fanboy of Maker Bullets.

I killed a deer 2 years ago with my Ruger American 300 BLK using Hornady 190 grain sub-x, from about 50 yards. Ran about 20 yards and dropped. The bullet did a complete pass-through and caused extensive lung damage. The price range (last time I bought some) was about $26 at academy, so the same price as the Winchesters in your pic. So I can only speak for that experience from a 16" barrel bolt action rifle. Hornady has a neat video on youtube about the round. Supposedly it was designed for suppressed short barrel AR's.

The owner of a TX hog hunting place once told me he was unimpressed with that round on hogs, he doesn't allow that caliber anymore.

Don't take this the wrong way but there are much much much better calibers for deer- maybe consider changing-

....just a suggestion-

Does that say 499 lbs of energy at the muzzle? I would use something with a little more pop than that. I know it doesn't take much to kill a deer, but you aren't hitting them in the right place with that type of load. If I were using a silenced 300BO running 500 pounds of energy I wouldn't shoot lungs, just shoot it in the head and actually kill it. The better option would be to use super-sonics or a bow if you must remain stealthy.

So, a few years ago I tried .300 Blackout subsonic Noveske deer hunting ammo with a 9.5" barrel and Sig Titanium Suppressor.

I made 2 lung shots on 2 different smaller does. I found very little blood and after 2 days of looking did not recover either deer.

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I’d take that as your standard and go in the opposite direction to see what works. It’s not like your stuck with something that hasn’t worked before.

I am a older guy and shot my first deer with the now bazooka like 30-06 (at least compared to the 223 for deer threads) but it worked. Since then I have refined techniques and killed stuff with less than ideal rounds but if they start not working, I’m moving on up again.

.357 is a better option than 300BLK subsonic in my mind as I'm confident the .357 will expand. I think many pistol calibers are better than a .30 going slower that may not expand. Yes, it can be done but as you have seen not reliably.

Have you chrono'ed your ammo? Key to knowing if things will expand. Many say they will expand at subsonic velocity but what does that mean? 600fps or 1000fps?

I have a 300BLK and like it subsonic but it is rather limited in my mind.

As was said by @mcb, search "maker bullets" add to cart and whip out the plastic.

Ohen Cepel said:

.357 is a better option than 300BLK subsonic in my mind as I'm confident the .357 will expand. I think many pistol calibers are better than a .30 going slower that may not expand. Yes, it can be done but as you have seen not reliably.

Have you chrono'ed your ammo? Key to knowing if things will expand. Many say they will expand at subsonic velocity but what does that mean? 600fps or 1000fps?

I have a 300BLK and like it subsonic but it is rather limited in my mind.

Click to expand...

I would feel more confident with my 300 BO than my revolvers simply because I know I can shoot my 300 BO more accurately, over greater distances, and in more difficult shooting positions than I can my revolvers. I say that as an avid and fairly experience (competitively since 2007) revolver shooter. I have taken deer with my revolvers with excellent results. But having a stock and a scope makes a huge difference in accuracy in difficult situation compared to an un-scoped revolver.

I have no doubt my 300 BO subsonics will expand they have yet to fail to do so for me in a variety of targets.