Subsonic Centrefire reloads.

shortshot

Well-Known Member
Anyone else load, utilise subsonic ammo? I've been having a play and have loaded some 308 sub sonic cartridges. Fun, economical and useful tool this time of year.
An hour spent downwind of an earth on sunny evening will likely prove productive with a quiet 170 grain round.
I started with 12 grains of red dot and went down to 7 grains under 170 grain hornady flat nose.
I drilled the primer pocket out with a 4mm drill and use magnum federal primer. Its powerful and quiet and after put a dozen clicks on the elevation will put three rounds on a postage stamp at 50 yards and through a 5" lump of wood behind and its near as quiet as moderated .22. awesome.
 
2 posts and both highlight my experience.

First, quiet
Second, using hpbt most rounds did richochet/bounce.
I used RUAG Swiss P HPBT btw

Yes it was an interesting experiment but it didn't result in me adding sub 308 to my list of "must use ammo" however thanks to the opening post I will experiment some more.:)
 
Anyone else load, utilise subsonic ammo? I've been having a play and have loaded some 308 sub sonic cartridges. Fun, economical and useful tool this time of year.
An hour spent downwind of an earth on sunny evening will likely prove productive with a quiet 170 grain round.
I started with 12 grains of red dot and went down to 7 grains under 170 grain hornady flat nose.
I drilled the primer pocket out with a 4mm drill and use magnum federal primer. Its powerful and quiet and after put a dozen clicks on the elevation will put three rounds on a postage stamp at 50 yards and through a 5" lump of wood behind and its near as quiet as moderated .22. awesome.

What was is the twist rate of your rifle? And have you chronographed the loads?~Muir
 
Shooting these out of Rem. 700 with a 18" long barrel and T8 moderator. The twist looks like 1 in 10" the bullets are designed for shooting in 30 30 they have cannular but I opted too seat just short of cannnular (after the bullets drove me mad by keep dropping into case and having too be retrieved with pliers) and the loaded oal is 2.57 so there is a fair jump into rifling.
I haven't speed tested this load as my chrono is stuffed. I just read round the subject for couple of evenings on internet made a few notes on back of envelope rang up local gunshop and asked him what shotgun powder he had?
One of my notes says don't go any lower than 6 grains of red dot. Another says work down not up. Another says use chrono! Another says heavier flat base bullet good. Another ensure loaded round has bit of jump. Another says bullet won't expand at low impact speeds.Another says check for bullet stability/ keyholing without moderator on first. Magnum primers and drilled flash hole.
The most important one says make sure each bullet exits the barrel!!!
 
I took some commercial SAKO sub sonic .308 cartridges apart once, I'm a bit like that, if anything comes apart I want to do it to see how it's made. It works out quite expensive sometimes !!
Anyway, I digress.
The cartridges I took apart had 6gns of fine powder inside, no idea what sort.
The bullet was a full metal jacket, boat tail and weighed 180grns.
The primer/flash hole didn't appear to be any different from the usual size.
Fired from my rifle, zeroed at 100yards with normal ammo, they dropped about two feet and bounced all over the place.
 
Short shot, you must have been on the Finnish site then! Try shooting the bullets out of the case base first, effectively a big metplat and therefore big impact.

Bob
 
Short shot, you must have been on the Finnish site then! Try shooting the bullets out of the case base first, effectively a big metplat and therefore big impact.

Bob
apparently ww1 snipers used to reverse the bullet to fire base first so it would penetrate the steel plate that enemy snipers were hide behind
 
This what you need for sub loads .308 200 grain 8.5 grains of Train Boss 1047fps in a .308 win
MP 31-200E.JPG
Or if you are serious about sub sonic loads, .338 314 grains 13.5 grains 2400 1060fps in a .338 Federal
AM .338  314.JPG
Accuracy is 3/4" groups at 50 meters just about to started testing at 100 metres, not much point in trying farther
they drop to much, most of the shooting is in the bush at less than 100 metres,
Robert.
 
Probably an obvious point for most but for those who don't know - Subsonic ammo is not going to be deer legal in the UK !

Would love to have a play with subsonics though. What is the availability in factory .308? Is it expensive?
 
This what you need for sub loads .308 200 grain 8.5 grains of Train Boss 1047fps in a .308 win
View attachment 15937
Or if you are serious about sub sonic loads, .338 314 grains 13.5 grains 2400 1060fps in a .338 Federal
View attachment 15938
Accuracy is 3/4" groups at 50 meters just about to started testing at 100 metres, not much point in trying farther
they drop to much, most of the shooting is in the bush at less than 100 metres,
Robert.
+1 on that -why waste good money on Jacketed bullets when cast do the job so well.
 
yes you need plenty of room or a soft backstop ,they go howling away at the least provocation ,the cast lead perhaps not as bad ,with the cast bullets there is no chance of mixing up rounds when you take a couple or so with you on the hill.
 
I tried a .243 a few years ago, I did not have any success, a friend had a Tikka M55 in .243 that shot very well
with cast bullets he used it for rabbits and the odd feral goat head shots only,
I think 7mm and .30 cal are the smallest calibres for practical use,
In New Zealand we don't have minimum calibres,power factors or bullet weights
for hunting any animal, most of the deer shot are at close range, a 100 metres is along shot around here so subsonic loads are quite feasible, the 200 grain flat point will expand to .50 cal at 1000fps,
you need to watch your back stop the penetration is impressive,
I have a .22 calibre mould on order 37 grain gas check to use in .22 hornet and .222 should be great for rabbits,
unfortunately we don't have foxes, but we do have an abundance of feral cats,
This bullet should be good on foxes.Robert.
ness safety bullet.jpg
 
Anyone else load, utilise subsonic ammo? I've been having a play and have loaded some 308 sub sonic cartridges. Fun, economical and useful tool this time of year.
An hour spent downwind of an earth on sunny evening will likely prove productive with a quiet 170 grain round.
I started with 12 grains of red dot and went down to 7 grains under 170 grain hornady flat nose.
I drilled the primer pocket out with a 4mm drill and use magnum federal primer. Its powerful and quiet and after put a dozen clicks on the elevation will put three rounds on a postage stamp at 50 yards and through a 5" lump of wood behind and its near as quiet as moderated .22. awesome.
Its alot of trouble to go to for a 50yard gun to use on earths when you can just use a 22LR . What will happen is the rounds will coat the inside of you barrel and the pressure will inrease until your rounds are no longer sub sonic
 
Its alot of trouble to go to for a 50yard gun to use on earths when you can just use a 22LR . What will happen is the rounds will coat the inside of you barrel and the pressure will inrease until your rounds are no longer sub sonic

That is a load of rubbish with correct sized bullets and good lube at subsonic velocity there is never any leading
I shoot cast bullets to 2300 fps before I get leading and it cleans out with a couple of wet patches,
Rifles shooting lead bullet are dead easy to clean just like a rimfire and the barrels don't wear any were as much
as a barrel shooting jacketed bullets, don't knock it until you try it,
Also casting bullets is a great hobby, I will always have bullets to shoot at almost no cost, even if they ban the import of bullets I will still be shooting, I don't have to shoot subsonic full power loads kill deer real just as well
as jacketed. Robert.
 
I tried a .243 a few years ago, I did not have any success, a friend had a Tikka M55 in .243 that shot very well
with cast bullets he used it for rabbits and the odd feral goat head shots only,
I think 7mm and .30 cal are the smallest calibres for practical use,
In New Zealand we don't have minimum calibres,power factors or bullet weights
for hunting any animal, most of the deer shot are at close range, a 100 metres is along shot around here so subsonic loads are quite feasible, the 200 grain flat point will expand to .50 cal at 1000fps,
you need to watch your back stop the penetration is impressive,
I have a .22 calibre mould on order 37 grain gas check to use in .22 hornet and .222 should be great for rabbits,
unfortunately we don't have foxes, but we do have an abundance of feral cats,
This bullet should be good on foxes.Robert.
View attachment 15953
Thanks Robert I shall hold off untill i get my 7mm cheer Martin
 
If your interested in finding the facts and not myths on shooting cast bullets then do a search for the Cast Boolits forums.

You will find people are friendly and helpful and you will also find people there who shoot cast boolits as they call them to jacketed velocities like 2400-2700fps in .308 without leading problems. They will help you find out what you need size wise and tooling wise.

Another place for real world information and experience is over on GBO in the cast bullet discussion forum:-

Cast Bullet Discussion Sponsored by LBT

Where you will find Veral Smith from Lead Bullet Technology.



I hope you find this information useful ;).
 
I have thought about making some but never got around to it,if I didn't have a 22lr I probably would have
 
Hi all ,I reload for my nieces partener ( tikka .243 ) and his brother asked me to load some subsonic rounds for his .308 ..I was not very interested but he kept at me so I had a bit of a study and experimenting and came up with 10 grains of Trail boss behind 150 grain flat point 30-30 projectiles gets a 1000fps in his Tikka .. This load dropped 12 inches at 100 yards with 1.5 inch groups I loaded 10 rounds for him to try .. So far I have not spoken to him but his brother said he has taken 3 fallow with it .. Trail boss is the powder to use it is used most by cowboy action shooters and it is said that you can fill any case and fire it without dire results , it is a very bulky powder and takes up a lot of room in most cases
 
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