Quietest Deer Caliber, Rifle, Suppressor Combo

[24on48hunting]

I’ve grown quite fond of my .308 and can. I shoot a Sako 85S Black Bear here in my home state of Georgia. 168gr Barnes TSX’s cut a ragged hole in the target at 100.
I’ve also used an AR platform in 300 Blackout suppressed with much success on deer and pigs here as well.
130 gr TSX’s are my projectile of choice for it.
Recoil is nothing from either gun. My kids and I have used both setups for many years now.

 

[EM_556]

I use my Marlin 30-30. I have loaded up 170gr Bullets with Trail Boss, coming in right around 1000fps. I have my dead air nomad on the muzzle. The quietest setup I own besides 22LR suppressed. Basically the 300BlkOut of the past.


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[SwiftShot]

This was really surprising. He is ready the decimals it is low. 300 Blackout Subsonics.

 

[fwafwow]

Is there an inverse relationship between how quiet some of these setups are compared to effective range? I had looked at subsonic options for 300 Blackout some years ago and had decided it really limited my range, but I could have been overlooking something.

 

[Sam Colt]

.308 is my go to Suppressed Round.
I have one Gun set up shooting sub sonic hunting rounds. It’s good to a 100 yds. I like it more then my .300black out.
then my main deer rifle and kids deer rifles are .308 suppressed

The real diff between .300 BLK and .308 subsonic is consistency. It’s hard to get as consistent results with .308 because of the case capacity. In my experience, there is more stringing with .308.

 

[Sam Colt]

Is there an inverse relationship between how quiet some of these setups are compared to effective range? I had looked at subsonic options for 300 Blackout some years ago and had decided it really limited my range, but I could have been overlooking something.

Subsonic bullets all travel at about the same speed, regardless of caliber. The key is effective energy transfer at the target.

I’ve found that if you can find a recipe that is consistent in velocity and ballistic coefficient, you can map subtensions to extreme ranges.

At that point you need bullets with sufficient energy transfer at impact. Either larger caliber, or effective expansion at the lower velocity.

 

[fwafwow]

Subsonic bullets all travel at about the same speed, regardless of caliber. The key is effective energy transfer at the target.

I’ve found that if you can find a recipe that is consistent in velocity and ballistic coefficient, you can map subtensions to extreme ranges.

At that point you need bullets with sufficient energy transfer at impact. Either larger caliber, or effective expansion at the lower velocity.

Sorry, my post was poorly written. What I should have said was that when I compared subsonic to supersonic I realized that by going for quiet I was limiting my range - pretty significantly. But again I could have been mistaken.

 

[Southern Heritage]

Is there an inverse relationship between how quiet some of these setups are compared to effective range? I had looked at subsonic options for 300 Blackout some years ago and had decided it really limited my range, but I could have been overlooking something.

Don't take any of this to the bank.
Ive tested all sorts of rounds at subsonic speeds. .300black out best performance was a 220g. My .308 shoots 185g
Both are deadly to 100 yds.
My .308 can reach out to 150 yds.
I keep both under 100yds when hunting.
Still struggling to find a bullet that expands the way i like to hunt deer with them.
To give you a little bit of insite on how slow it is. When i shoot a metal plate at 300 yds you can almost not hear it make contact on a steel plate.

Not that hogs are not living creatures and as important as others. All my testing of different rounds have been on pigs.
At the end of the day i head shoot most of them when shooting sub sonics.

 

[Sam Colt]

Sorry, my post was poorly written. What I should have said was that when I compared subsonic to supersonic I realized that by going for quiet I was limiting my range - pretty significantly. But again I could have been mistaken.

With respect to rifle bullets, you are generally correct. Moving to subsonic, with a large reduction in velocity, reduces effective range.

 

[Formidilosus]

Is there an inverse relationship between how quiet some of these setups are compared to effective range? I had looked at subsonic options for 300 Blackout some years ago and had decided it really limited my range, but I could have been overlooking something.

Sub sonics suck past short range. They are fun and as a close range thing, ok; but as a practical thing they are not all that useful.

 

[wind gypsy]

Are there subs that actually have decent terminal ballistics? I'd be worried about just punching 30 cal holes through stuff.

 

[Formidilosus]

Are there subs that actually have decent terminal ballistics? I'd be worried about just punching 30 cal holes through stuff.

Decent? Yeah, about like a broadhead. But nothing like an actual rifle bullet above 2,000fps impact.

 

[wildwilderness]

Are there subs that actually have decent terminal ballistics? I'd be worried about just punching 30 cal holes through stuff.

As mentioned all subsonic bullets travel at the “same” speed -1050 fps. So the only way to get better terminal performance is to increase the mass of the projectile

The 458 SOCOM, 45-70, 458 win have the option for up to 500+ grain special made subsonic bullets! (See Maker bullets) these bullets usually require high twist rates.

That would have way more energy than a 180gr 30 cal bullets subsonic. Performance would be like a muzzleloader.

 

[wind gypsy]

Decent? Yeah, about like a broadhead. But nothing like an actual rifle bullet above 2,000fps impact.

Any specific ones? Buddy who's a much better than avg rifleman but ignorant about terminal ballistics shot a deer with a hornady 208gr 300 BO a couple years ago and didn't recover it. He felt pretty good about the shot. This was on MN private land where you're not going to be allowed to track a deer for all that far before a landowner says no.

 

[Formidilosus]

Any specific ones? Buddy who's a much better than avg rifleman but ignorant about terminal ballistics shot a deer with a hornady 208 300 BO a couple years ago and didn't recover it. He felt pretty good about the shot. This was on MN private land where you're not going to be allowed to track a deer for all that far before a landowner says no.

The easiest is Hornady subsonic expanding, and reloading 240gr SMK’s (they tumble).

 

[Matthausarchery]

Step one will be to get a 30 cal suppressor, if you file paperwork soon you just might get it before hunting season next year.

If you are partial to your rifle, thunderbeast will mount and index a qd mount for one of their cans even on a sporter barrel. I also would not be worried about 1/2x28 threads on a 30 cal can less than 300WM.

Maintaining 300yds effectively I think 308 is youre huckleberry. Rifles are common and It wont have the piercing high frequency higher velocity cartridges carry and subsonics are always an option.

 

[Sam Colt]

The easiest is Hornady subsonic expanding, and reloading 240gr SMK’s (they tumble).

Add Lehigh max expansion subsonic.

 

[Dobermann]

Are there subs that actually have decent terminal ballistics? I'd be worried about just punching 30 cal holes through stuff.

Some local deer cullers here are using 45-70s, specialised projectiles, suppressed, with night vision, so they can cull fairly quietly at night, relatively close to small block holders ...

 

[gabenzeke]

375 raptor subsonic and suppressed! I want this set up pretty bad...

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[Bluefish]

For sub sonic performance, really all that matters is bullet weight. All subsonic bullets lose velocity slowly, maybe 50 -100 fps in 100 yards. Problem is bullet drop. Time of flight becomes quite long as range increases as the bullets are going slowly. Time of flight is directly related to drop.

to make a quiet gun you really need to be subsonic, then have low muzzle pressure with a big can. As stated above Maker produces bullets that will open at subsonic velocities. They do a 45-70 that’s up to 500g. That’s 1200 fps of energy at the muzzle. cant really get more than that.