Anyone have poor results with Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout 194gr. Subsonic Maximum Expansion on Deer?

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300black
Silent Operator
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Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 11:54 pm

Anyone have poor results with Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout 194gr. Subsonic Maximum Expansion on Deer?

Post by 300black »

I tried this Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout Whisper 194gr Subsonic Maximum Expansion on deer this year. Out of a 8.5" barrel AR with suppressor.


Had a medium sized doe about 40 yards away. Took a nice relaxed, broadside shot on a doe. Doe jumped and it appeared the front shoulder was broken. Waited an hour and looked for it. Just a very few small drops of blood and no deer recovered after hundreds of yards and 3 days looking.

Took another shot on a similar deer and aimed behind the shoulder in the lung area. Waited 2 hours and looked. A few drops of blood here and there and a lost deer after hundreds of yards.


What's going on? I thought this ammo was supposed to be very good on deer.


Anyone have poor results with Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout 194gr. Subsonic Maximum Expansion on Deer?
tallburnedmidget
Silent But Deadly
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Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:01 pm

Re: Anyone have poor results with Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout 194gr. Subsonic Maximum Expansion on Deer?

Post by tallburnedmidget »

300black wrote:I tried this Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout Whisper 194gr Subsonic Maximum Expansion on deer this year. Out of a 8.5" barrel AR with suppressor.


Had a medium sized doe about 40 yards away. Took a nice relaxed, broadside shot on a doe. Doe jumped and it appeared the front shoulder was broken. Waited an hour and looked for it. Just a very few small drops of blood and no deer recovered after hundreds of yards and 3 days looking.

Took another shot on a similar deer and aimed behind the shoulder in the lung area. Waited 2 hours and looked. A few drops of blood here and there and a lost deer after hundreds of yards.


What's going on? I thought this ammo was supposed to be very good on deer.


Anyone have poor results with Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout 194gr. Subsonic Maximum Expansion on Deer?
I lost a deer with the 194 ME and dropped 2 others with it.
When I had to put 2 bullets into one of the two deer that I dropped and when processing I found the problem.
I hit the shoulder blade and the ME did what it claims and Expanded like crazy. It expanded so much so that there is no way it could penetrate the shoulder blade fully expanded.

I wish i would have known about this happening before I lost the 1 deer.
See when it took 2 shots to kill that doe that had the 1st ME stuck in the shoulder blade I got a little spooked thinking my shot placement was poor due to ranging, bullet drop, etc. So my no so great idea was "well just square up on the shoulder and all will be good if I'm off a little".
I did just that put an ME again right into the shoulder blade of the 3rd deer that I lost.

Lesson learned??? Don't put an ME into the shoulder. Stick to shots avoiding the blade or any bigger bones that may catch and expand the ME. It does expand super wide and super quick so also don't bank on having a blood trail as that giant expanded piece of copper likely won't exit. None of my had exit wounds if I remember correctly and none had blood trails either.

So keep practicing and make sure you have great bullet placement. I hope this info helps :)
tikkablk
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Re: Anyone have poor results with Lehigh Defense 300 Blackout 194gr. Subsonic Maximum Expansion on Deer?

Post by tikkablk »

I’ve had two runners that I didn’t recover because of bad shot placement to far back into the guts and was in a place (National Park) that wasn’t allowed dogs for tracking. Same deal spent two day looking for them and always cursing that I made a terrible decision. In saying that I’ve only lost 1% of the deer shot with subs, 200+ deer mostly with 194gr ME and now using 168gr CF with great results. Double tapping is a good trick if the conditions and circumstance allows as two holes are better than one.
I’m the same as Tallburnedmiget try to avoid the humerus and scapular. In some shots I’ve shot through a rib got the heart and smashed the leg on the opposite side with the 194gr ME. Also had a plenty of shots where the bullet didn’t hit the ribs double lung and passed through the other side with a perfect X shape exit wound.
A good friend has taken some large bodied red deer 450-650 lb all with single lung shots using Lehigh’s 194gr out to 250m.
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