I like my Daniel Defense V5 in .300, a reliable and accurate shooter. But I'll probably stick to supersonic in the future, unless it's purely a pest shooting situation, with a can.
I have shot one deer with a 125gr Ballistic Tip out of a mildly loaded .30-30, going about 2250 fps, and the damage was impressive. That's about the same velocity you can reach with the same bullet in the .300 Blackout, so that's what I'd probably use for thin skinned game.
I shot a doe with a subsonic 220 Matchking, and a decent blood trail was found, but the doe ran a long way, jumped a fence on to the next ranch, and was not recovered. I may have hit her slightly high, but it should have been a quick kill with a normal cartridge. I also tried the Outlaw State 220gr bullet, which has a semi-flat nose, and a segmented jacket. I popped a small pig with it, at perhaps 25 yards, and there was no reaction. More shots were fired, and it was eventually dropped. The exit wounds looked identical to the entrances.
If one really insists on trying subsonic loads, I think I might move up to the 240 Matchking, which might be less stable at slow speeds from a 1 in 8", and more likely to tumble. It remains to be seen just how consistent the tumbling and wounding would be, however...
