Hornady 190-grain Sub-XĪnnounced in December 2017 and released for sale three months later, Hornady added an expanding subsonic bullet to its existing five 300 Blackout ammo offerings. Accuracy was plenty good for dispatching critters at subsonic ranges. Not only did it retain all its weight after impact, but petals on the copper bullet remained sharp enough to nick careless fingers when pulling it from the gel block.

One of the two loads achieving subsonic velocities from our 16-inch bolt gun, it’s mouse-fart quiet even in longer barrels.

Gorilla’s monolithic projectile features a gaping hollow point, which initiates pretty healthy expansion after about 3 inches of penetration in gel. On examining the case shoulder (which, in 300 Blackout, is even less significant than Chuck Schumer’s dick) it would appear that it’s both steeper and shorter than competitive brands, allowing the case just enough room to shift forward under firing pin impact. Fort Scott seems to be using a set of dies that diverges from industry norms, which resulted in a misfire rate of around 50 percent in our bolt gun - the only sample to do so. Gasp! The fabled M16 tumbling bullet!ĭespite a healthy dose of skepticism, they turned in a decent performance, coming to rest after 180 degrees of flippage and 15.5 inches of penetration in bare gel, with the bullet’s base just barely under the back end of the block. Unlike the rest of the projectiles in this test, these are non-expanding, relying for their wounding abilities on becoming unstable in media more dense than air. Intrigued, we bought a couple of boxes for testing. Chrono was set up 10 feet from the muzzle, ambient temp was 69 degrees at 2,100 feet elevation, and gel testing was performed using two, 16-inch Clear Ballistics gel blocks, placed end to end.Įver heard of these guys? Neither had we, until we walked into a gun store near San Antonio, Texas, where the counter jockeys assured us they were well regarded by local hog hunters. Velocity readings were taken using a Caldwell G2 chronograph, which has the useful ability to store data on your phone via Bluetooth. Note that all loads except the Fort Scott and Gorilla offerings were supersonic from the 16-inch barrel. The shorty gun was our budget hog hammer - a franken AR built on a Gibbz side charging upper and equipped with a Maxim Defense PDW pistol brace. Five-shot groups were shot at 50, rather than 100, yards as we felt this was a realistic distance for subsonic use.

A Remington 700, equipped with a Nightforce ATACR 4-16×42 and SilencerCo Omega was employed as our longer rifle, and it was this combo that we also used for accuracy and gel testing. If you decide that a subsonic 300 Blackout Ammo fills your requirements for a stealthy hog slayer, or you’ve settled on that caliber for home defense duties, then you might want to avail yourself of our buyer’s guide below.Īll loads were tested for velocity using both 16- and 9-inch barreled weapons. Note there are a few more companies who offer bullets for you to roll your own (Cutting Edge, for example), but as work has displaced gentle-paced pursuits like reloading, we’d often rather pay in money than time. Gel testing confirmed that it performs no better than an unaltered bullet, so why waste the effort? Cutting to the chase, we rounded up a small selection of expanding subs. 30-cal to expand reliably at around 1,000 feet per second requires a specialized projectile, and they’re not exactly inexpensive.īeing cheap bastards, in times past we experimented by cutting back the jacket tip on an SMK and then boring out the meplat, thinking that this would be enough to induce expansion. 308 Win velocities, but from a Blackout you might as well be using a DeWalt. Hornady’s 208-grain A-Max, for example, fragments violently when shoved out the muzzle at even. We’ve tried bullets that in other applications are positively explosive. Common subsonic loads, even if tipped with a fragile match bullet such as the ubiquitous 220-grain Sierra Matchking, plow 0.30-inch diameter holes straight through fleshy targets and keep on truckin’ right into the next inconveniently located piece of real estate.

300 Blackout Ammo has a lot going for it, right up to the point at which you try to take advantage of its subsonic prowess for tasks other than punching paper.

Hornady subsonic blackout expanding