204 Ruger sub sonic load?

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Cyres

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Has anybody ever loaded a sub sonic load for the above?
Would a Vmax or Blitz king fragment at sub sonic speeds?
If so what powder to use?
Applcation would be for close range shots culling foxs in urban/very noise sensitive area at night.
Scenario is out foxing with 204 and good chance of meeting with fox close to houses/cottages. Also in summer people having double glazed windows open so more aware of noise. Just swap out normal round for a subsonic round. Not practicle to carry around .22lr at same time.
D
 
Cyres said:
Has anybody ever loaded a sub sonic load for the above?
Would a Vmax or Blitz king fragment at sub sonic speeds?
If so what powder to use?
Applcation would be for close range shots culling foxs in urban/very noise sensitive area at night.
Scenario is out foxing with 204 and good chance of meeting with fox close to houses/cottages. Also in summer people having double glazed windows open so more aware of noise. Just swap out normal round for a subsonic round. Not practicle to carry around .22lr at same time.
D
Click to expand...
Sounds like you could be asking for trouble…🙉
DG
 
Cyres said:
Has anybody ever loaded a sub sonic load for the above?
Would a Vmax or Blitz king fragment at sub sonic speeds?
If so what powder to use?
Applcation would be for close range shots culling foxs in urban/very noise sensitive area at night.
Scenario is out foxing with 204 and good chance of meeting with fox close to houses/cottages. Also in summer people having double glazed windows open so more aware of noise. Just swap out normal round for a subsonic round. Not practicle to carry around .22lr at same time.
D
Click to expand...

I use the yardage guide to calibres. 50 yds 22 WMR head shot. 100 yds 22 Hornet. 100 -240myds 204 all factory loads work very nicely keeping noise to a minimum. I kept on the 204 one night around a chicken farm instead of the hornet as normal
The next day up the farm the very happy farmer when we were incinerating the foxes asked jokingly if my moderator is working ok there is a fair bit of difference he noticed the crack of the 204 compared to the hornet
222 is also a sweet foxing round and quiet
 
You'd be surprised how folk don't hear any shots from inside their homes.
TV on helps. Fast asleep snoring helps.

I've shot close to home and no one hears a thing.
That aside, if you have authorisation to be there let them crow.

Faffing with a secondary load and fiddling with the zero at night with Charlie in view will get very annoying very quickly!
Just shoot, step back and return a short time after to retrieve.
 
No reason not to give it a try. At subsonic velocities it’s bullet shape rather than expansion that causes the damage. In the old days of military ball ammo, turning the bullet around so flat base at the front gives better killing thump at close range.

I have an article about an American individual making rabbit loads for his 7x65r and use flat nosed soft metal bullet at subsonic velocities. Another alternative might be an air rifle slug. Not sure though if a .20 air rifle and .204 rifle are the same diameter.

Chances are that with a bit of experimentation you will end up with a load that will shoot close enough to your current sight setting, albeit your standard will be zeroed at 170 but you subsonic is at 50.

Have a google search of subsonic ,223 - you will get some ideas. Indeed drilling out the back of a 223 cartridges to take a shotgun primer and pushing in a 22 air rifle pellet seems to work pretty well, although I haven’t tried it. I can confirm that a small rifle primer only has enough power to push an air rifle out of case and just gripping the rifling :)
 
Smellydog said:
You'd be surprised how folk don't hear any shots from inside their homes.
TV on helps. Fast asleep snoring helps.

I've shot close to home and no one hears a thing.
That aside, if you have authorisation to be there let them crow.

Faffing with a secondary load and fiddling with the zero at night with Charlie in view will get very annoying very quickly!
Just shoot, step back and return a short time after to retrieve.
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I totally agree with this.

Much of my fox control work is done fairly near houses, generally where the owner of the land lives. It is extremely rare for them ever to hear either the 243 or the 204.
In several situations, I am probably no more than forty or fifty yards from the house yet they don't hear a thing. It was a bit different in the old days when we would be shooting rabbits at night with a substantial number of shots from a 12 bore, and then quite a few would hear us. With a rifle, it's usually just a single report (hopefully) and it just doesn't seem to register

I would agree with Smelly, with double glazing, TV and the like it's not surprising the odd rifle shot goes unnoticed.

Incidentally, we no longer shoot rabbits at night on most of the farms with the 12 as invariably people, (newcomers mainly) complain or even ring the police. A sad reflection on how the countryside has changed!
 
work out your energy using the bullet at sub velocities , even a vmax won't open much if at all and frankly i think you will end up with something less use than a 22lr

if you are determined get some tin star or trailboss and work your loads down without a moderator until you are subsonic then check the target holes are nice and round with no signs of yawing before you refit the moderator

there is a reason heavy for calibre bullets are used in all sucessful subsonic loadings like 300 blackout......
 
Cyres said:
Has anybody ever loaded a sub sonic load for the above?
Would a Vmax or Blitz king fragment at sub sonic speeds?
If so what powder to use?
Applcation would be for close range shots culling foxs in urban/very noise sensitive area at night.
Scenario is out foxing with 204 and good chance of meeting with fox close to houses/cottages. Also in summer people having double glazed windows open so more aware of noise. Just swap out normal round for a subsonic round. Not practicle to carry around .22lr at same time.
D
Click to expand...

Too big a case and too small a bullet, you’re on a hiding to nothing and likely to get a jacketed bullet stuck in the barrel.
 
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tackb said:
work out your energy using the bullet at sub velocities , even a vmax won't open much if at all and frankly i think you will end up with something less use than a 22lr

if you are determined get some tin star or trailboss and work your loads down without a moderator until you are subsonic then check the target holes are nice and round with no signs of yawing before you refit the moderator

there is a reason heavy for calibre bullets are used in all sucessful subsonic loadings like 300 blackout......
Click to expand...

Good luck finding either, one is banned and the other is discontinued……
 
Sorry but on some of my perms they must have microphones. Had several complaints when I have shot foxs well.over 100yds away. Always shot away from properties. Many sleep with window open.
On one perm farmer almost always hears shots if I am on the farm house side of the farm.
Alot depends on terrain and ground hardness and prevailing wind.
On my free range hen unit farmer sleeps with windows open all weather and he often hears a shot. Not always me!
On another egg unit it's surrounded on two sides by houses
Hence the thought of the possibility of sub sonic .204 for the occasional fox.
D
 
Cyres said:
Sorry but on some of my perms they must have microphones. Had several complaints when I have shot foxs well.over 100yds away. Always shot away from properties. Many sleep with window open.
On one perm farmer almost always hears shots if I am on the farm house side of the farm.
Alot depends on terrain and ground hardness and prevailing wind.
On my free range hen unit farmer sleeps with windows open all weather and he often hears a shot. Not always me!
On another egg unit it's surrounded on two sides by houses
Hence the thought of the possibility of sub sonic .204 for the occasional fox.
D
Click to expand...
204 has crack alright 222 I think is softer. I shoot my hornet to a 100 and it fills that spot perfectly there is a marked difference in noise without a doubt
If you get a reasonable report of noise and not a loony tune try the hornet in 22 it may help to get some allies. The hornet is a great fox calibre and some shoot and kill foxes a lot further out than I shoot
 
Fundamentally if farmers want you to shoot the foxes then the odd crack is part of the job. Its the sound of the quad bike or pick up roaming that makes more disturbance.
 
Cyres said:
Has anybody ever loaded a sub sonic load for the above?
Would a Vmax or Blitz king fragment at sub sonic speeds?
If so what powder to use?
Applcation would be for close range shots culling foxs in urban/very noise sensitive area at night.
Scenario is out foxing with 204 and good chance of meeting with fox close to houses/cottages. Also in summer people having double glazed windows open so more aware of noise. Just swap out normal round for a subsonic round. Not practicle to carry around .22lr at same time.
D
Click to expand...
Never have I seen data that would support this idea.
 
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I tried loading .243 with reduced loads, think it was between 8 and 16 grains of something (In Hodgsdons load data) and at 100 metres I could collect the bullets off the surface of the sand backstop and they were barely deformed at the tip.
Ken.
 
Cyres said:
Sorry but on some of my perms they must have microphones. Had several complaints when I have shot foxs well.over 100yds away. Always shot away from properties. Many sleep with window open.
On one perm farmer almost always hears shots if I am on the farm house side of the farm.
Alot depends on terrain and ground hardness and prevailing wind.
On my free range hen unit farmer sleeps with windows open all weather and he often hears a shot. Not always me!
On another egg unit it's surrounded on two sides by houses
Hence the thought of the possibility of sub sonic .204 for the occasional fox.
D
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need a .22 then!
 
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