My Maker Bullet project

[dpete]

This has been my first year of subsonic hunting and I thought I would share some info on what I have found. I built my 8" Blackout 2 years ago as a pistol then last year I jumped through all the hoops and SBRd and suppressed it. I shot my first deer with it last fall using a Barnes black tip which performed perfectly. Entry between shoulder and briscuit, exit out the side just in front of the left hindquarter. The deer went 40 yards and piled up.

This year I wanted to load up some subs and "bow hunt with the rifle". Over the spring and summer I loaded Hornady 225gr BTHP and 220 gr SMKs and amazingly both shot to the same impact point at 50 yards with their corresponding 4227 powder charges. Both bullets were running in the 970-980fps range touching holes at 50. I had high hopes for the Makers when I finally got them.

Being twice the price of the other two bullets I cheaped out and loaded a ladder series of one bullet each for each charge, decreasing charge by .3 of a grain as I went down. This was just to find the charge that would get me into the 970-980fps range that my rifle seems to like. Once I had that I did a proper load ladder and found the charge that fell into that range also had virtually the same impact point and accuracy as the Hornady/SMK loads.

Fast forward to yesterday, first day of WI state wide antlerless season. I'm watching a fawn poke around not wanting to shoot bambi when suddenly it looks up, tail goes up, and zoom off it goes. OK I'm now looking for what spooked it off, and here comes a nice doe (a buck would have really pissed me off cuz they are off limits for the 4 day doe season). She walks in, starts sniffing around where the fawn was and stops facing me almost straight on.

An almost identical shot to last year except now I have the 200gr Maker loaded up. I aimed between her shoulder and briscuit as before and pulled the trigger. She hunched/jumped at impact and took off straight away from me. I settled down and got out to take a look. No blood where she was standing but there were deep digging footprints in the snow and I knew where she had gone. 5 minutes later after slowly beaming around with the flashlight I saw a silver eye reflection on the ground and it turned out to be her where she had flopped over. She had gone 30 yards before piling up.

While field dressing her out I found the reason for no blood. The bullet entered high on her chest wall and it all pooled around her lungs and heart in front of her diaphragm. The entry wound through the skin was .308 size but it must have started mushrooming immediately and blew through a rib leaving a 1 inch diameter entry hole. The stomach had a nice entry hole in its front so I opened it up and lo and behold found the bullet. It had opened up almost perfectly even at the severe angle it had entered with. I'm not too fond of doe pictures but I am impressed with what the bullet looks like.






Maker bullets have instantly become my go to subsonic hunting bullets. The bullet retained vitually all of its weight, weighing in at 199.24 grains after being washed off.

[rebel]

This has been my first year of subsonic hunting and I thought I would share some info on what I have found. I built my 8" Blackout 2 years ago as a pistol then last year I jumped through all the hoops and SBRd and suppressed it. I shot my first deer with it last fall using a Barnes black tip which performed perfectly. Entry between shoulder and briscuit, exit out the side just in front of the left hindquarter. The deer went 40 yards and piled up.

This year I wanted to load up some subs and "bow hunt with the rifle". Over the spring and summer I loaded Hornady 225gr BTHP and 220 gr SMKs and amazingly both shot to the same impact point at 50 yards with their corresponding 4227 powder charges. Both bullets were running in the 970-980fps range touching holes at 50. I had high hopes for the Makers when I finally got them.

Being twice the price of the other two bullets I cheaped out and loaded a ladder series of one bullet each for each charge, decreasing charge by .3 of a grain as I went down. This was just to find the charge that would get me into the 970-980fps range that my rifle seems to like. Once I had that I did a proper load ladder and found the charge that fell into that range also had virtually the same impact point and accuracy as the Hornady/SMK loads.

Fast forward to yesterday, first day of WI state wide antlerless season. I'm watching a fawn poke around not wanting to shoot bambi when suddenly it looks up, tail goes up, and zoom off it goes. OK I'm now looking for what spooked it off, and here comes a nice doe (a buck would have really pissed me off cuz they are off limits for the 4 day doe season). She walks in, starts sniffing around where the fawn was and stops facing me almost straight on.

An almost identical shot to last year except now I have the 200gr Maker loaded up. I aimed between her shoulder and briscuit as before and pulled the trigger. She hunched/jumped at impact and took off straight away from me. I settled down and got out to take a look. No blood where she was standing but there were deep digging footprints in the snow and I knew where she had gone. 5 minutes later after slowly beaming around with the flashlight I saw a silver eye reflection on the ground and it turned out to be her where she had flopped over. She had gone 30 yards before piling up.

While field dressing her out I found the reason for no blood. The bullet entered high on her chest wall and it all pooled around her lungs and heart in front of her diaphragm. The entry wound through the skin was .308 size but it must have started mushrooming immediately and blew through a rib leaving a 1 inch diameter entry hole. The stomach had a nice entry hole in its front so I opened it up and lo and behold found the bullet. It had opened up almost perfectly even at the severe angle it had entered with. I'm not too fond of doe pictures but I am impressed with what the bullet looks like.






Maker bullets have instantly become my go to subsonic hunting bullets. The bullet retained vitually all of its weight, weighing in at 199.24 grains after being washed off.

Good job.

[smustian]

Nice. You put in the work to see what works and it paid off.

[BlogSarge]

Nice work in prep, shot and write-up.

I've not tried sub hunting but I'm starting to get the urge!

[dpete]

Nice work in prep, shot and write-up.

I've not tried sub hunting but I'm starting to get the urge!

If you already bow hunt you'll like it. If you hunt with a crossbow you will see definite similarities. Here I'm shooting a 200 grain bullet at 970fps and it penetrated 3/4 of the way through the deer with a head on into the chest shot. Earlier this year I had almost the same shot from the same stand with my crossbow. 435 grain grain arrow going 380fps penetrated completely through the deer that was facing me again. With her facing head on, the arrow entered at her neck/chest junction, ducked down going through her heart and lungs, then stomach, and exiting out her abdomen putting a 6" slice in her abdomenal wall. Blood trail a blind man could follow by feeling wet leaves.

I'm not saying a crossbow arrow is better, just different. An arrow is a more efficient cutting machine. The arrow cuts its way through as it bleeds off energy after impact. These subsonic hunting bullets plow through with their edges doing much less cutting as they bleed off energy. There will be blood but it may not make it to the outside of the deer as in this case.

[plant.one]

nice job!

one of these days i'll take a deer truly quietly just to say i've done it.

[dpete]

nice job!

one of these days i'll take a deer truly quietly just to say i've done it.

For shots with neighbors close by they can't be beat.

[plant.one]

neighbor's wont care. we're in the unrestricted firearms zone of michigan.

i could hunt with a 338 lapua and nobody would bitch - other than me for putting a hole that big into a deer.


i took my first deer suppressed last year, as silencers just became legal for hunting a few months prior.