300 BLK Hunting Lessons Learned

[tallburnedmidget]

Well I got back from my big hunting trip in central TX. I managed to bag 5 deer (4 does, 1 spike) on an MLD ranch (hence the high number of animals taken). This was my first successful whitetail hunt with my 300 BLK rifles. I learned quiet a bit and figured I would share my experiences and lessons learned. I have broken things down into two sections, supersonic hunting and subsonic hunting.

Supersonic Lessons Learned:
I hunted with handloads using the 130gr Barnes TTSX and the 110gr Barnes TTSX. The 2 animals shot with the rounds were both at approx 90-100yds.

-Both bullets performed well with the 130gr cliping the spin resulting in DRT
-The 110gr TTSX left a huge hole about the size of a silver dollar. The deer ran about 80 yds and then piled up. Was a double lung shot.
-Supersonic hunting was a breeze with no issues out to 100yds

Subsonic Suppressed Lessons Learned:
OK here is where I learned a lot! I hunted with handloads using 194gr Lehigh Defense Maximum Expansion (ME) bullets loaded subsonic and suppressed. I shot 4 white tail does but we failed to recover the last one

-Shot placement is key! The 300BLK subsonic round does not seem to deliver much, if any, shock so you must hit a vital organ well. This sounds like common sense however the trick is to get the shot placed correctly at various distances. I hit deer at 72, 63, 84, 52, and 58 yds away. I had to shoot the 2nd deer twice.

-You must have a rangefinder and user it! Shot placement being so crucial, you must know exactly where your animal is when you fire on it. A guess will likely result in a shot that does not hit a vital organ or completely misses the animal.

-Practice shots at 50, 65, 80, 100, and 115 yds. Once again this is for proper shot placement. This could be the difference between a lung shot and a bullet that simply enters the body of the deer w/out putting the animal down.

-Have a reticle or quick adjust turret setup that you know well. Again, with shot placement being so crucial, liberally use a rangefinder and support the reading with a well known mil-dot/bdc dot, etc. or a quick turn of the turrets.

-Avoid mid shoulder shots. I had to shoot a deer two times because the 1st shot was mid shoulder and was stopped by the shoulder blade. I found the bullet today while processing the animal. The shoulder blade was broken but the bullet did not penetrate. The Lehigh bullet was fully expanded though. The deer behaved as though wounded and was unable to run on that leg more than about 20 yards and then had to stop. I shot again and missed because I did not rangefind on the deer before shooting. She had moved 25yds away placing my fired round right under her. I quickly did a rangefind on her and noticed she was at 80 yds so I shot with my 75yd measurement and hit her in the liver. She ran about 15 yds and piled up. I think the shock of two rounds was too much for her to handle because a liver shot usually does not kill that quickly.

As for the deer I lost, I aimed mid shoulder and fired a good shot. I did not know about the shoulder blade bullet stopping issue until today or else I would have placed the shot closer to a double lung.

-Expect no blood trail and/or exit wound. Only 1 of the 4 does I hit subsonic suppressed showed blood. Two of them I did not need to track, thank goodness. Another had Zero blood trail and the round did not exit. I hit the lower part of the heart and she ran 80yds and passed out head first in a Cedar tree. We basically had to just search through the Cedar bushes in the direction she ran. One of the guys found her lying right in the tree like she passed out running and was caught by the tree. No blood. The one that left blood was not found and we tracked blood for 150yds making me think the bullet was stopped by the shoulder blade

-When there is an exit wound, it is massive. Of all 4 deer I only had 1 exit wound and it was massive. I could have put 3 fingers into it. The biggest issue is not having an exit wound.

-Be prepared for a double tap/follow up shot. I did not double tap any but wish I did on the one that got away. Knowing what I know now, I would not hesitate to double tap when I shoot subsonic no matter the bullet. With shoulder blades stopping bullets, difficulty getting precise shot placement at the various distances due to bullet drop, the high probability of no exit wound and/or blood trail, and finally with little/no hydrostatic shock, the double tap sounds very feasible. This is really only possible with an AR and it is something I will be trying if I get another opportunity this year.

-Use the best subsonic bullet you can get. With so many difficulties to overcome while subsonic hunting, be sure to maximize your potential for success by using a bullet that will expand/perform at sub speeds. The 194 Lehigh ME did exactly as it was suppose to, however I think I will be switching to the Lehigh Controlled Fracture bullet. The ME will give you like .75" in expansion which sounds awesome however, with no hydrostatic shock, the high potential for off the mark bullet placement, and the high potential for no exit wound and/or blood trail, the .75" expansion does not overcome the challenges of sub hunting [Edit: finished the sentence ]. I want to increase my odds of dropping the animal DRT, or minimizing the distance the animal runs by increasing the bullet trauma from .75" to something more like a 6" diameter with the Controlled Fracture fragments.

-The 4 deer I shot subsonic suppressed could not figure out where the sound/shot came from. In my experience does are more likely to hang around and are much more curious than bucks after a loud noise or a disturbance. In all of my cases of sub hunting the deer did not know what was going on and could not place the source of the sound/disturbance and were all running around all curious. The sound and experience was new to them and they really didn't know how to react. The bucks always ran off out of sight.

-Subsonic hunting is a challenge. With the lessons learned noted so far, DO NOT go subsonic hunting w/out being prepared. Thank goodness I was hunting with the 300BLK reticle Leupold scope, had a rangefinder ready and in use, the ME bullet, and enough trigger time to know how to hit at 50yds, 75yds, and 100 yds. Additionally I had to take shots with like 35 animals out at once. I had to make sure that I could range find on my deer as it moved around w/out the other animals noticing my movement. I had to range the animal 6 times as it moved around before I could take a clean shot. I had 26 Mouflon, 4 bucks, and 6 does all in the field in front of me all the while I was trying to ensure I could take a good clean shot. That specific evening was a tuff hunt!

Conclusion:
Supersonic hunting is very familiar and the Barnes bullets I used worked well with no issues. I think I may switch to the 110gr Lehigh Controlled Chaos bullet as I want to increase chances of DRT shots.
Subsonic hunting is a challenge with 5+ variables that must be addressed (use sub bullet that work well, rangefinder needed, ability to easily take good shots at various distances, avoid mid shoulder shots, expect no blood and/or exit wound, and shot placement is crucial but a challenge to manage). I know I will be switching to the Lehigh Controlled Fracture bullet (gotta look up the heaviest one). In short learn from my experiences and know that there is likely much more to learn but you can reduce issues by being very well prepared.

I hope this long post and all of this info helps. Good luck and happy hunting.

[gds]

Well I got back from my big hunting trip in central TX. I managed to bag 5 deer (4 does, 1 spike) on an MLD ranch (hence the high number of animals taken). This was my first successful whitetail hunt with my 300 BLK rifles. I learned quiet a bit and figured I would share my experiences and lessons learned. I have broken things down into two sections, supersonic hunting and subsonic hunting.

Supersonic Lessons Learned:
I hunted with handloads using the 130gr Barnes TTSX and the 110gr Barnes TTSX. The 2 animals shot with the rounds were both at approx 90-100yds.

-Both bullets performed well with the 130gr cliping the spin resulting in DRT
-The 110gr TTSX left a huge hole about the size of a silver dollar. The deer ran about 80 yds and then piled up. Was a double lung shot.
-Supersonic hunting was a breeze with no issues out to 100yds

Subsonic Lessons Learned:
OK here is where I learned a lot! I hunted with handloads using 194gr Lehigh Defense Maximum Expansion (ME) bullets loaded subsonic and suppressed. I shot 4 white tail does but we failed to recover the last one

-Shot placement is key! The 300BLK subsonic round does not seem to deliver much, if any, shock so you must hit a vital organ well. This sounds like common sense however the trick is to get the shot placed correctly at various distances. I hit deer at 72, 63, 84, 52, and 58 yds away. I had to shoot the 2nd deer twice.

-You must have a rangefinder and user it! Shot placement being so crucial, you must know exactly where your animal is when you fire on it. A guess will likely result in a shot that does not hit a vital organ or completely misses the animal.

-Practice shots at 50, 65, 80, 100, and 115 yds. Once again this is for proper shot placement. This could be the difference between a lung shot and a bullet that simply enters the body of the deer w/out putting the animal down.

-Have a reticle or quick adjust turret setup that you know well. Again, with shot placement being so crucial, liberally use a rangefinder and support the reading with a well known mil-dot/bdc dot, etc. or a quick turn of the turrets.

-Avoid mid shoulder shots. I had to shoot a deer two times because the 1st shot was mid shoulder and was stopped by the shoulder blade. I found the bullet today while processing the animal. The shoulder blade was broken but the bullet did not penetrate. The Lehigh bullet was fully expanded though. The deer behaved as though wounded and was unable to run on that leg more than about 20 yards and then had to stop. I shot again and missed because I did not rangefind on the deer before shooting. She had moved 25yds away placing my fired round right under her. I quickly did a rangefind on her and noticed she was at 80 yds so I shot with my 75yd measurement and hit her in the liver. She ran about 15 yds and piled up. I think the shock of two rounds was too much for her to handle because a liver shot usually does not kill that quickly.

As for the deer I lost, I aimed mid shoulder and fired a good shot. I did not know about the shoulder blade bullet stopping issue until today or else I would have placed the shot closer to a double lung.

-Expect no blood trail and/or exit wound. Only 1 of the 4 does I hit subsonic suppressed showed blood. Two of them I did not need to track, thank goodness. Another had Zero blood trail and the round did not exit. I hit the lower part of the heart and she ran 80yds and passed out head first in a Cedar tree. We basically had to just search through the Cedar bushes in the direction she ran. One of the guys found her lying right in the tree like she passed out running and was caught by the tree. No blood. The one that left blood was not found and we tracked blood for 150yds making me think the bullet was stopped by the shoulder blade

-When there is an exit wound, it is massive. Of all 4 deer I only had 1 exit wound and it was massive. I could have put 3 fingers into it. The biggest issue is not having an exit wound.

-Be prepared for a double tap/follow up shot. I did not double tap any but wish I did on the one that got away. Knowing what I know now, I would not hesitate to double tap when I shoot subsonic no matter the bullet. With shoulder blades stopping bullets, difficulty getting precise shot placement at the various distances due to bullet drop, the high probability of no exit wound and/or blood trail, and finally with little/no hydrostatic shock, the double tap sounds very feasible. This is really only possible with an AR and it is something I will be trying if I get another opportunity this year.

-Use the best subsonic bullet you can get. With so many difficulties to overcome while subsonic hunting, be sure to maximize your potential for success by using a bullet that will expand/perform at sub speeds. The 194 Lehigh ME did exactly as it was suppose to, however I think I will be switching to the Lehigh Controlled Fracture bullet. The ME will give you like .75" in expansion which sounds awesome however, with no hydrostatic shock, the high potential for off the mark bullet placement, and the high potential for no exit wound and/or blood trail, the .75" expansion. I want to increase my odds of dropping the animal DRT, or minimizing the distance the animal runs by increasing the bullet trauma from .75" to something more like a 6" diameter with the Controlled Fracture fragments.

-Subsonic hunting is a challenge. With the lessons learned noted so far, DO NOT go subsonic hunting w/out being prepared. Thank goodness I was hunting with the 300BLK reticle Leupold scope, had a rangefinder ready and in use, the ME bullet, and enough trigger time to know how to hit at 50yds, 75yds, and 100 yds. Additionally I had to take shots with like 35 animals out at once. I had to make sure that I could range find on my deer as it moved around w/out the other animals noticing my movement. I had to range the animal 6 times as it moved around before I could take a clean shot. I had 26 Mouflon, 4 bucks, and 6 does all in the field in front of me all the while I was trying to ensure I could take a good clean shot. That specific evening was a tuff hunt!

Conclusion:
Supersonic hunting is very familiar and the Barnes bullets I used worked well with no issues. I think I may switch to the 110gr Lehigh Controlled Chaos bullet as I want to increase chances of DRT shots.
Subsonic hunting is a challenge with 5+ variables that must be addressed (use sub bullet that work well, rangefinder needed, ability to easily take good shots at various distances, avoid mid shoulder shots, expect no blood and/or exit wound, and shot placement is crucial but a challenge to manage). I know I will be switching to the Lehigh Controlled Fracture bullet (gotta look up the heaviest one). In short learn from my experiences and know that there is likely much more to learn but you can reduce issues by being very well prepared.

I hope this long post and all of this info helps. Good luck and happy hunting.

This is very good information. As one of the loudest proponents of subsonic hunting, I completely concur with what you have stated. Especially about practicing at the possible distance one would shoot and either being excellent at range estimation or using a rangefinder. Shot placement is in my opinion the most critical aspect of subsonic hunting.

For me it is simple being as how I hunt thick woods and have never had to shoot a deer past 50 yds. To me that is what makes sub hunting thick woods so ideal.

I have used non expanding rounds as well as heavy gr jacketed deep hollow points similar to the Outlaw State bullets, which I found very effective. I put one of these strait thru both shoulders of one and it left a very good blood trail. twice I have had the same bullet stopped by the spinal cord and one time I recovered it in the opposite shoulder.

Ironically for those i shot and they did not drop on the spot, the worst and the best blood trails were with non expanding rounds. The best was with a 178gr AMAX and the worst meaning non existent was with a 247gr cast. She only made it 25 yds but there was Zero blood trial.

[rebel]

tallburned -what you have described is an analogy I have used for quite some time when discussing sub hunting. It is bow hunting with a 1000 fps broadhead. Shot placement with both weapons ( arrow or bullet ) must be precise. You cannot rely on hydrostatic shock, the bullet gives some, but not enough. Even if the bullet placement is perfect, sometimes little to no blood. Practice,practice, practice. So similar to bow hunting. Of course I even do this with a 308. Point being, know your weapon and it's capabilities.

[randyrucker]

Tallmidget, what did you use for a zero range for the subs ?

[talonxracer]

Congrats on the hunting! and thnx for the posting up your results and impressions!

It is absolutely imperative to have a range finder when hunting with subs as tallburnedmidget noted, the rainbow trajectory dictates that it is essential. The only exception would be from a stand that you had previously ranged out and placed markers to designate yardage points.


The 174CF from LD is an awesome projectile, a real long bugger. Shot a beaver last night, the round impacted the water about 3 inchs from the beavers body, it literally sliced that beaver in half and created a huge slick on the water.

[munchie3409]

Thanks for sharing your experiences with super and subsonic. I'm just starting to load supers since my suppressor will not be approved before PA rifle season.

It's great hearing other people's experience/results with this caliber.

[BlogSarge]

Thanks for the thorough analysis and congrats on what sounds like a full freezer!

I like the shoulder shots, too. Anyone have much experience with the supersonic TTSX bullets on shoulders?

[tallburnedmidget]

Tallmidget, what did you use for a zero range for the subs ?

[Edit: Corrected statement and elaborated.]
100 yd zero with supersonic which makes a 50yd zero for my subs. I was shooting with the Leupold Mark 4 w/300 BLK reticle. The reticle is not spot on perfect, but is very good at all ranges I made shots at using the default aiming points designed into the reticle and listed in the manual.

On my bolt gun I am using a Nikon P-22 BDC. I did not attempt subsonic hunting with it since I have not shot subs and lined them up with the BDC dots. I will remedy that soon with some range time

[tallburnedmidget]

Thanks for the thorough analysis and congrats on what sounds like a full freezer!


I like the shoulder shots, too. Anyone have much experience with the supersonic TTSX bullets on shoulders?

Our does are small bodied, the largest I took was 97lbs, the avg was probably around 85lbs of the 5 deer I brought home. Should have 125lbs of meat or more for the next year! ))


I only went through shoulder with the supersonic 110 TTSX bullets and it performed perfectly. I prefer double lung shots a bit in the ribs to avoid losing meat in front shoulders but after my initial subsonic outings I decided to play it safe and go mid shoulder from that point on. The 130 gr performed well also but the shot was high and clipped the spine, the exit was nice but not as impressive as the 110 TTSX that went through the shoulder bone.

Also I may as well elaborate. The first doe I shot subsonic dropped right there but was not dead. I then almost immediately took my second subsonic doe that I had to shoot twice. 15 min later the 1st doe regained consciousness and tried run but had no use of her front legs so I guess I hit some nerves (not spine) that made her lose use of her front legs. I tried to let her bleed out but she kept trying and trying to get up and run with her back feat and it was clear that she was not going to lie down and die. I popped in a 130gr TTX and shot through her neck as she was lying facing me. The bullet went through neck, shoulder, and chest to finally exit and put her down.

I was rattled after having to take so many shots on deer (3 subs shot at doe 2 with two hitting, and 3 shots on doe 1 with the sub hit, a super miss while she was kicking, and finally a super through the neck) so I then decided to switch to all mid shoulder shots, not realizing that the shoulder bones were stopping subsonic bullets.

Once again I hope this info helps you understand my experience with the sub hunting and where I am getting my lessons learned

[talonxracer]

I would opt for double lung shots or a neck shot if close enough. I wouldn't take a shoulder shot, messes up too much meat and there is a lot of bone to stop a sub like the ME.

I found the 130TTSX to be marginal at 100 yards as far as expansion goes, it works, but the 110TTSX is far more impressive.