300 Blackout For Deer?

[Normrep55]

So I was about to go forward with the 30-30AI in the Contender carbine platform and then my neighbor says, "Why don't you think about the 300 Blackout?" That got me scratching my head and my fingers twitching the keyboard to see what I could find out. Looks interesting. I could go less expensive and just shoot supersonic, or spend a pile of money and get a can for it and also shoot suppressed on my six little acres and not disturb the neighbors. That would be a plus. Online posters say the Blackout is good enough for deer out to 100 yards, which is a long shot in these parts. But is it really good enough? I've been hunting with a 357 max carbine in the Encore the last number of years to meet our state's straight wall requirement. I get good accuracy shooting 180 grain XTP's at around 2000 fps. My only complaint is that most of the deer I've shot have gone a good 100 yards, and several onto neighboring properties with a poor, if nearly non-existent blood trail. I confess, I have always been a through and through double lung shooter to save meat. So there's that, which makes me think that going with a 30-30 or a 300 BLK is likely to yield similar results under similar circumstances. Back in the day, I always hunted with the 12 gauge slug gun, or the 50 caliber muzzleloader, or the 44 mag carbine as state laws evolved. With those calibers, it seemed like the deer went down within sight (not further than 40 yards) and always left a decent blood trail. I'm still leaning toward the 30-30 but wondering if some of you have had real world experience with the 300 in the deer woods. And if you shoot suppressed, how quiet are they really, when fired subsonic, and can you shoot supersonic and still get some sound suppression? I'm thinking going down that road might be too big a stretch for me. Nonetheless, I'm always interested in hearing what your insights might be on stuff like this.

[FyrepowrX]

Interesting on the 357max....i shoot a 22" .357max from the TC custom shop, and i've had fast kills with it when using 180XTP's. One deer i recall might have made it 40yards or so, but most were dropped, or at the most went 10-15 yards. However, our deer here tend to be on the smallish side, with bucks dressing out at 125# or so average, with maybe few big ones dressing at 150#...does are usually 100# tops. And, our shots are pretty much always in timber, say maybe 75 yards or so average.

In my 30/30carbines, once i went to lighter bullets...130gr Speer HP, 130Speer FN, 125gr Sierra FNSP, Barnes 120 black tips, etc...most of the deer i've shot were pretty much dead in their tracks. Those hit with 150's of course still folded up, but often there was a short dash, say maybe 20-40yards....kind of thought the lighter slugs dump energy inside the target better, instead of carrying half of it out the other side.

i have hunted with .300black, and shot a few deer, seemed to be about like the 30/30 or so. I've only shot a few deer with it, but i have shot several with the .30reece (.30x357 mag), and with 110's, TTSX's, a few were dead right there, a few more made it a short distance.

One good think when shooting monolithic bullets like the Tac-TX, TTSX, GMX, E-Tips, etc in the smaller cartridges is when busting shoulders, i see much less bloodshot meat...you can pretty much eat right up to the bullet hole...and Shoulder-Shots on deer pile them up fast, and in heavy cover i don't like worrying about long blood trails.

no input on suppressed blackouts, as i usually go the other route and shoot light bullets fast.

[HotRodAl]

I've taken more than 30 deer with the 300W/Blackout, my first few I was using 125 Btips, they all performed well with with broad side hits (50 to 70 yards) getting complete penetration, in a couple the bullet jacket was caught in the hide at over 100 yards, and none went more than 25 to 35 yards. Then I switched to 220 Hornady round nose using a can subsonic. more than 70% of those using this bullet dropped right there or took no more than 2 or 3 steps before piling up. In all causes using this bullet none went farther than 10 to 15 yards. When those 220 Hornady's hit they start to tumble and do massive damage internally. Dr. Rogers has taken more deer with this combo than anyone else has and he mostly usees 220 Sierras getting the same results as I have with the Hornadys.

[Bobby Tomek]

For your situation, I'd go with the 30-30 (or AI version if you prefer) for the very reasons FyrepowrX mentioned. Lighter projectiles like the 125 grain Ballistic Tip and 130 grain Speer HP along with the Barnes 110 and 120 grain Tac-TX and Hornady 110 grain GMX (now called CX) do exceptionally well at these speeds. My son now has my 24" DVH 30-30 barrel, but while I had it, the Barnes Tac-TX Blackout bullets along with the Hornady 110 grain GMX rang up an incredible string of drop-in-their-tracks kills -- and I do not shoot for the CNS. These bullets are designed for Blackout velocities, so the extra boost from the 30-30 is what makes them work their magic.

Granted, lots of folks have had good results with the .300 BO. But we don't always hear about the poor performances. There's a guy here in TX who works large ranches on hog culling operations and also does market culling on exotics at times. The idea of a subsonic load coupled with a good suppressor intrigued him. So he gave it a whirl for several weeks but was not impressed.

One situation that comes to mind is a small (140 pounds) boar he shot using the heavyweight Sierra. I won't swear to the range but think he said it was about 65 yards. He said the point of impact was in alignment with the heart but that the bullet began to tumble (or deflected) very early and exited the bottom of the chest before getting to the vitals. He finally found the hog a couple hours later...not doing well but very much still alive. He had enough of those types of performances to sour him on the .300 BO as a subsonic performer. He went back to his tack-driving 6.8 SPC using Hornady factory ammo with the 120 grain SST and has shelved his custom .300 BO .

If you go with the .300 BO, I'd concentrate on top-end loads with bullets like the Barnes and Hornady that were designed for those speeds. Those will serve you well.

[BruceP]

My first handgun deer kill was with 10" contender in 300 whisper (same cartridge)and the 125 gr. NBT bullet. The shot was at about 25 yards and the small buck only made it about 40 yards but just out of sight. I was not impressed with the blood trail or lack there of. The shot was to the top of the heart and the bullet did a good deal of damage to the heart and lungs and the chest cavity was full of blood but the small entrance and exit did not allow any of it to leak out. It was the only deer I ever shot with it and sold the barrel not long after. It is only a sample of one so take it for what it's worth.