Randominator
Well-Known Member
I have never tried the Hornady Sub-X, but I have taken several deer with the 190 grain Makers at 1060 fps. Distances have ranged from 40 yards out to 136. Excellent results and accuracy.
There's a lot of people having feeding issues in gas guns with the flat point in the SUBXs.I can't speak about how they do on deer, but I do shoot a lot of them. Just bought another 500. I will use them on hogs when they come back on my place. Check over at 300blktalk.
Also, the Hornady 190 factory loads are designed to run in any gun, like gas guns, and you get the noise and all that goes with it.
I suspect that you would get better expansion out of the Makers or some of the other very expensive subsonic bullets. I have settled on the 190s for most of my shooting.
I believe that the biggest problem with subsonic hunting is that most shooters don't shoot enough to know how to range the target and know the trajectory of their bullet at any given range. You've got to shoot...A LOT. 10 or 15 yards makes a big difference in the POI. You also have to have very consistent loads, meaning single digit SDs. The price of the Hornadys compared to the Makers allows me to do the necessary shooting.
I've shot hundreds of rounds working up loads. I shoot a bolt gun. My 190 load is X grains of Unique (HP-38 is my backup). That gives me an average of 993 fps MV, single digit SDs, NO occasional supersonics, and MOA or better accuracy out to 200 yds. Zeroed at 100 yds, there is 34" of drop at 200 yds. Now I have to fill in the gaps at different ranges.
Get him a pair of Ear Pro. I had to for my son who has autism. The make all sound the same decibel levelWell this thread hasn't instilled a ton of confidence in this bullet for me. I did adjust my load yesterday. I'm shooting it in a 308 win Savage FCP-SR 24" barrel. 190 SubX in Lapua Brass with a Federal 215 magnum primer and 10.0 grains of Trail Boss. This gets me an average of 1050 fps and a 17fps spread over 5 shots.
I was previously shooting 10.5 grains with a Winchester LR primer and was averaging around 950 fps but it have like a 50 fps extreme spread. The magnum primer definitely seemed to even out the powder burn and picked up the fps so I was able to cut back on powder some. Which is nice since trail boss is not being produced right now.
My hope is for my autistic son to be able to shoot deer with it since he doesn't like loud booms and such. Next weekend is youth season and he's very excited to use it. I sighted it in at 50 yards and shot a 3 shot group. The fist shot being in the yellow at 12 o'clock and the the next two shots high making it about a 3/4" group at 50. I then went inside and loaded one more cartridge and backed up to 100 yards and ran all the numbers through my ballistic app and dialed the correction for drop and put the second round in the yellow at about 9 o'clock. So I'm pretty happy with it. I'll just take my rangefinder and ballistic calc and dial whatever he needs for him. I'm hoping this bullet performs as advertised. This will be his first time actually shooting at a deer. He's really excited. The past years I took him out and he would line up on a deer and you could see the hesitation in his face and then he'd step away from the gun. Loud noises cause a lot of anxiety for autistic kids and he just wouldn't pull the trigger but since I got my suppressors approved he LOVES shooting. View attachment 501814View attachment 501815
I would go soft lead at that speed, I use plain melted down wheel weights to mold in a 45 hand gun 200 grain and I get expansion to quarter size from 45. I have used on rabbit, deer,hogs. Pass through on deer but not hogs. I bet with a long 200 ish 30 cal it would really penetrate and definitely expand some. It's really interesting how lead also stays together at low speed, the bullets are always intact. I have one here from a deer but not sure how to post the picLooking for results on imPacts and damage from the 190 grain Hornady Sub-X at subsonic speeds. Is it plenty lethal on deer? Or have you had a bad experience.