308 subsonic hunting bullet

Bucklowery

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Anyone with experience with a good bullet for hunting whitetail. Ours are small so needs a bullet that expands quickly and the lower velocity. Any recommendations? I have been looking but all seem to be sold out except for faster twist 300 blackout. It will be a 308 win with 1:10 twist 26" barrel. I finally picked up some tin star powder it is supposed to be the next best thing to trailboss but it is unobtainable now

Thanks

Buck
 
You're going to have a hard time getting anything to be subsonic in that 26" barrel.

You'll need like 3 grains of powder, but 2 will leave it wedged halfway down your barrel. The heavier the better, regardless of twist rate, so the biggest .30 bullet made by controlled chaos.

I've had real bad experiences with deer shot with subsonic .308 rounds. Like shooting magazines full of ammo into them as they run off and finding them 500 yards away with bullets lodged in the vitals. I would advise against it..
 
Subsonic is more than capable with any 308. As far as bullet expansion....that is a tough one for sure. Not aware of any that will reliably expand as they are....just modify some. I would take a round nose or flat nose intended for a magazine....30-30 lever gun and drill it open as much as you can for diameter and half way down. Will be accurate enough for the distance you would shoot subsonic at game.
 
My personal experiences have been limited to an 18" barreled Ruger American predator compact. I've had exceptional results with Hodgen trailboss and 175gr Sierra match kings as well as 180gr Sierra gamekings. Shots have ranged from 50 to 125 yards most all deer were shot through both front shoulders, the others shot behind the front shoulders. I can only think of a few that ran, and they only made it 25-30 yards before expiring. I've only ever recovered one bullet; a 180gr gameking, and it was tucked just under the hide of the opposite front shoulder. The bullet tip was the only area of deformation. This may not exactly answer your questions, but it's hard to argue 3/4" 3 shot groups at 100 yards. In my humble opinion, I'd much rather sacrifice some bullet expansion for consistency and accuracy. Hope this helps!
 
Zero experience with this, but have been gathering information to load for a .308 once I make it to a free state. Makerbullets.com seem to make a few subsonic 308 projectiles in the 175-180 grn range, should work perfect in a 10 twist. Not sure their performance on game, but I'm going to try them sooner or later.

Ryan
 
There is no benefit to shooting a small bullet subsonic. You are only going to be able to push it to the supersonic threshold..

Think throwing a ping pong ball vs a golf ball. The heavier bullet you throw, the better off you'll be. Load a 220+. You can do it with a 190 in a short barrel, (18" or less), but you are trying to use a hammer where you need a screwdriver.

The screwdriver is a .300 blackout with a 16" barrel or less.
 
See what heavy bullets you can find first, then give Hodgdon a call, there are more than one screwdrivers in the toolbox
 
None available currently but you can backorder them:

I shoot the 200s in 300 BLK - they're designed to open slow, and these two are in your twist range. Hornady 190gn Sub-Xs are ok, you can also use the 160gn FTX for the 30-30. Some people have been pulling the polymer tips from Hornady bullets (especially in the big 458s) to get better expansion. If you did that I would drill the cavity more open.

My opinion (I'll only give it once, promise) is that you're beating a square peg into a round hole, centering mainly around a 26" 10 twist barrel isn't right for this. The 308 can be made to work but the twist is going to hurt you a lot by limiting your bullet weight/length. No way you're going to get there with a 200+gn mono, which are the ones that expand the best in my experience.

If you want to do this though (I'll support it, I'm crazy when it comes to subs), start high, work slower, make sure you don't stick a bullet in the barrel, and make sure bullets are stabilizing before you launch your can downrange.

One issue you'll be working against is the extra case capacity of the 308 relative to the very small capacity of the 300 BLK (I use that a comparison because it's a versatile 30 cal sub). Bullet weight isn't just about retained energy, it's also about being able to use a larger charge weight yet stay slower and because bigger bullets take up more space, both working to maximize your load density. Seat as deep as you can, this isn't the place to seat all snuggly with the lands. You can try to edge up into 180-200gn bullets if they're cup and core, preferably flat base, but shoot enough without the can on to be sure you won't get a baffle strike. This is a big reason I have a Hybrid 46 from SiCo - the larger holes in the baffles give a lot more margin for error when I'm doing sketchy things.

This link is an interesting read where he goes over using pistol powders in the 308 specifically - those powders might be easier to come by than the cowboy powders.
I have NOT tried his shtick about magnum primers and drilling that flash holes on the cases out, I won't vouch for that all nor recommend it until you've loaded a lot of subs. I use magnum primers, but drilling out the flash holes seems like a poor solution to the problem of trying a different powder. Natchez has H110 in stock now, Precision Reloading has IMR 4227, and it seems like pistol and shotgun powders pop up pretty frequently.

Looks like the general wisdom on Tin Star is start at 12.0gn and work down from there. I'd be curious to know what the full case capacity of TS is - fill up an entire case with the powder and weigh it, and see how 70% of that compares to 12gn.

One last thing to leave you with - don't assume velocity will fall in a linear manner, it can drop off very suddenly.... I recorded a 190gn Hornady Sub-X going 614 FPS from a 300 BLK rifle while working down. You'd better believe I checked the bore even after hearing the bullet skip off the ground and hit the backstop. The load dropped from the edge of supersonic to 614 FPS in just over a grain of powder - a 10% load reduction cut velocity by half. This wasn't a poorly charged case - I was intentionally working down ladders with several powders, and that one went south very fast.
 
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I get much more consistent velocity and not as large of changes with different charge weights using Mag Lg Rifle Primers.
 
I've taken 7 white tail deer with Lehigh 197GR ME Bullets loaded to 950fps... solid performance on each one.

Shot out of 10.5" barrel h110 powder 300 blackout.

If you can find some trailboss you can do it out of a .308. Or .30-06. Ive done it with 208 amaxs in the past. Just will take some tweaking.
 
Hornady sub x bullets and check out LeHigh Defence bullets, The have some that will expand down to 750fps
 
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