Subsonic Hunting and Shooting @ 100+ Yards

[Wedgy]

I've been disappointed in 8.6 BLK so far. I have a bolt action 16", and it took two shots to put any hurt on a moderate sized sow at 80 yards. First was broadside in the shoulder, zero blood and acted like no broken bones at all. Follow up was the Texas Heart Shot... right up Main Street, good amount of blood but still managed to go more than 200 yards and under a fence line. She's definitely dead somewhere at least. I'm still going to shoot it and see if it does better, maybe I hit an unusually fat pig, even though she looked like all the others.

What bullet were you shooting ?

 

[Pastor Gun.zales]

I've been disappointed in 8.6 BLK so far. I have a bolt action 16", and it took two shots to put any hurt on a moderate sized sow at 80 yards. First was broadside in the shoulder, zero blood and acted like no broken bones at all. Follow up was the Texas Heart Shot... right up Main Street, good amount of blood but still managed to go more than 200 yards and under a fence line. She's definitely dead somewhere at least. I'm still going to shoot it and see if it does better, maybe I hit an unusually fat pig, even though she looked like all the others.

I haven't hunted with mine yet, though I have had it for about a year and a half. I have mine cycling good enough, but now to actually see what it does on Arkansas Whitetails.

 

[Mike6158]

Out of curiosity I rearranged the sonic velocity equation to solve for temperature (deg F) and I got this (last row).

I used the average velocity for the calculation so if you're close to or below the temperature shown you'll want a load with a tight ES.

So what does it tell you? It tells you that column 7 is supersonic at 1,144fps at 84 deg F and cooler (I think I have that right?). Nope, it tells you that the velocity of sound at 84 degrees is 1,144 fps. Any velocity at or above that is supersonic. So the hotter it is, the higher the sonic velocity is. Then I look up at the 3 shots and see that at least one round was supersonic and one was pretty close. I wish I had all three velocities for column 3 AND the ES was still 0.9. I'd pick that one.

So when you see a box (or bucket) of ammo labeled supersonic, see if they tell you what the velocity is and remember temperature matters.

BTW - this is one of my recent load tests for my 8.6BLK, AR platform. Testing is on hold until my new barrel comes in. The Faxon that I bought a few years ago will make a nice yard ornament. It's OD is small and the ID isn't so the walls of the barrel are thin and it moves a lot. The new barrel is heavy and shouldn't look like someone used a chisel to make the grooves.

The load data sheet is a Numbers (Apple) spreadsheet. I can export it to Excel format. It does the heavy lifting for you. Everything from Count down to SD is calculated from the velocity that is input. I limited the number of cells for each charge to 5. It's easy enough to insert rows if you have lots of primers, powder, and bullets to spare. I shoot 3 and I've found that to be adequate for initial testing.

Supersonic Temperature (SST in the last row) is also calculated. Velocity, powder charge, other load data, are all entered by hand.

About the 280gr Barnes LRX. I have not been able to test it on a hog yet. I want to see what the bullet does subsonic before I go all in on it. I shoot with a can (Dead Air Primal) and the bullet doesn't mind the 3 twist since it's a solid. Ie it doesn't explode in the can and trash it. Group size listed is for 100 yards.

 

[QuietTexan]

What bullet were you shooting ?

Missed this, sorry. Makers 350gn sub expander, the 8,6 BLK version.


His bullets are 95% of what I shoot subsonic and normally they work really well. Nothing bad to say about them at all, just the one shot I've taken with this one rifle so far was underwhelming for an unknown reason. Everything except the cartridge and the barrel are things I've used before, so I have a lot of faith in the scope, action, stock, trigger, bipod, suppressor, etc. And I hit the thing twice for sure, I got it on video. Just wasn't a clean kill.

Watch it the next one tears an entire shoulder joint out or something unreal like that. Just got some 1000gn for 510 Whisper, those are going to really put a hurt on something

 

[Bravo 4]

Just got some 1000gn for 510 Whisper, those are going to really put a hurt on something

I spoke with him a few months back about the 1000 grainers. Glad he has them out, now I need some. My rifle doesn't care for the 750's, and I still have 2 or 3 boxes. If you're interested in them shoot me a pm.