Need some help with Bullet choice 300 AAC

[Luked]

Need some help from you all.
My Daughter's first year hunting was this past season.
Shes pretty small framed even for her age so I put together an AR in 300 Blk for her to use.
Right now the load in it is a 125 gr Sierra Pro Hunter.
Now with that said we never shot anything with it yet, but I have heard quite a few people saying that the Pro hunters dont expand well at the lower velocities of the 300 Blk.

Have done some reading and a lot are saying that the 110gr Barnes Tac-TX are some of the best due to expanding at lower velocities.
Do any of you all know of any others or is this my best bet.

Another reason I want to get something figured out for this is I will also be using a 300Blk for our Alternative season in a pistol length Barrel setup with an AR I am about to build.

So if the Barnes 110 Tac TX are the best im going to order a bunch of them and see what I can get but thought I would ask you all first.

 

[jhm2023]

115gr Lehigh Controlled Chaos for supersonic hunting loads and 190-220gr Maker REX for subsonic hunting. I built my now 9-year-old daughter a 10" 300 blk specifically for shooting bears with and she does great with it. I also have a 300blk and we've taken nearly 20 bears with them, to include a couple of grizz. About 30% of those kills were with subs. I'm getting a little bit under 2,200 fps with the 115gr from the 10".

 

[Pescetism]

Small sample size but confident with Sierra's 110 gr HP if shots aren't much over 100 yards. After that, wound channels are smaller and blood trails longer than I'd prefer. No lost deer though. Got 2,100-2,200 fps out of a 10.5". Don't use 300 BLK anymore but if I did I'd be trying the 125 TMK.

 

[Schutzprecision]

I have shot a few 100-150 pound wild hogs with my blackout using the Barnes 110. I load it to 2400 fps in 16 inch ar barrel. All were shot under 100 yds and were pass through with good terminal performance. Hope this helps. I’m interested in trying the 125 tmk also

 

[Luked]

I have shot a few 100-150 pound wild hogs with my blackout using the Barnes 110. I load it to 2400 fps in 16 inch ar barrel. All were shot under 100 yds and were pass through with good terminal performance. Hope this helps. I’m interested in trying the 125 tmk also

Have thought about the TMK also. Just did not know how they would do at a lower velocity.

 

[Schutzprecision]

I’ve been wanting to try the 190 sub x bullet. I’ve read good reports on them.

 

[Eleven]

Are you looking at subsonic or are you keeping above the sound barrier? What length barrel do you have now? What length are you going with for your pistol build? Are you hoping to use the same bullet/loading in both setups? The blackout is one of the those cartridges that can have a giant difference between usage scenarios. As an example, using it in a 9” pistol strictly with subsonic is worlds apart from an 18” bolt gun going as fast as that little engine will get it going. Both are absolutely in the 300BO’s capabilities but I’d use different loads and setup for each use scenario.

Any reason you want to stay with the 300BO instead of something like an .223 in the same setup for your daughter? Not being a jerk, serious question.

 

[Luked]

Are you looking at subsonic or are you keeping above the sound barrier? What length barrel do you have now? What length are you going with for your pistol build? Are you hoping to use the same bullet/loading in both setups? The blackout is one of the those cartridges that can have a giant difference between usage scenarios. As an example, using it in a 9” pistol strictly with subsonic is worlds apart from an 18” bolt gun going as fast as that little engine will get it going. Both are absolutely in the 300BO’s capabilities but I’d use different loads and setup for each use scenario.

Any reason you want to stay with the 300BO instead of something like an .223 in the same setup for your daughter? Not being a jerk, serious question.

The AR that my daughter has is a 16" barrel.
The pistol build that I am looking at doing is a 8.5" barrel
I don't have to use the same load in both. but would like to use the same bullet.

There is no reason with the 300 BO vs the 223 as at the time I built this for her I didnt have a 223. I do now. But she also now has her own rifle that she likes as well and is excited about having her own.

I could also do a 223 pistol build for myself. No issue there either.

 

[TxLite]

I’ve heard the 110 vmax does well at 300blk velocities but haven’t tried it

 

[Eleven]

There is no reason with the 300 BO vs the 223 as at the time I built this for her I didnt have a 223. I do now. But she also now has her own rifle that she likes as well and is excited about having her own.

Becasue she likes it, a legitimate reason enough!

I've been working with the 190gr sub-x a little bit. Hesitate to reccomend it only becasue I haven't taken anything with them yet. But so far they shoot very well in factory loads and my reloads with N120. They are supposedly good for expnasion down to 900fps and hold up to supersonic speeds too. Some bullets desinged for subsonic will not hold up to supersonic speeds.

From my reading (not experience) the Barnes 110 tac used to be kinda the gold standard for the BO in supersonic. I've never used them though. But if you're planning on staying with supersonic loadings I think you can find some decent bullets and a lot of the already mentioned ones should work great. My only concern is that the BO doesn't start with a lot of speed and can lose it pretty fast. That's why I'm playing with the sub-x stuff. So I'd look at minimum upset speed for each bullet you are considering, plug it into a ballistic calculator and see what distance you get to that minimum. Then decide if it meets your needs or not.