Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Subsonic loads for a .300 WM

Gene

Buy the Oregon Trail bullets without the gas checks. These are not terribly expensive and they perform well at the low velocities.

I have loaded a little for several suppressed rifles. The 45-70 and the 7.62 X 39 are very easy to load accurate ammunition for.
The 45-70 with 18.5� barrel in the unsuppressed Marlin Guide Gun delivers excellent accuracy beyond 50 yards using the Lyman 535-grain 457132 bullet ahead of 2.5 grains of Alliant Bullseye. This load giving between 398 and 416 fps in our powder position tests. Fed through the magazine these are good walking around cartridges and the primer is the only significant noise. The pigs are very alert to this type of �pop� and it is necessary to back off beyond 75 yards if you want more than one shot.
The laser Cast 500-grain flat nose ahead of 3.2 grains of Alliant Bullseye gives 419 fps from the suppressed NEF Handi rifle using a suppressor from Johns Guns. This is a very accurate and quite powerful combination. The sound of the primer is most noticeable behind the firearm rather than out front.

Two equally good and more powerful loads in the same rifle are 8.0 grains of Alliant Bullseye for 825 fps and 9.0 grains of Accurate Arms No.2 for 861 fps. Bullets from these two loads do not seem to run out of steam and penetrate very well.

Both Accurate No 2 and Bullseye will give you single digit extreme spreads in hunting situations where you cannot take time to position the powder in the case prior to loading and firing.

The 7.62 X 39mm has proven to be very adaptable to sub sonic loading. Using the Lee 155-grain gas check bullet (the lube groove bullet not the tumble lube version) I have been able to load some very accurate low velocity ammunition for the SKS and the AK-47.
The load of choice for the 18.5� barrel AK is 5.0 grains of Alliant Bullseye which delivers 1,092 fps and excellent accuracy. This load will not work the action which could be modified by opening the gas port.

I have varied the crimp from none to a heavy using the Lee factory crimp die. Crimp does change the velocity but with the fast powders does not seem to have a significant affect on extreme spreads or accuracy � as long as all of the cartridges are crimped the same.
The low velocity loads are an excellent way to improve your bench technique. You need to handle the rifle the same way every time or you will experience flyers using ammunition of known accuracy.

The suppressors do not seem to have problems with cast bullets. Spray cleaners work well on them.

While not the complete anwer to SEE the article by Charles e. Petty in the June/July 1997 issue of Handloader titled: "Mystery Solved" is a good start for why some rifles come apart.

Yes, I saw those, thanks.

Its the part about measuring where a bullet base is and using that volume as a benchmark for a weight measurement that I was interested in reading. That could apply to reduced loads in several rifles.

The info is from a document that Hodgdon/IMR tech support sent me about a week ago. Unfortunately, it's a PDF that is too big to zip and post here. It isn't any more complicated than what I outlined: A 100%, uncompressed Trail Boss load is safe for pressure for all cartridges. 70% of that is always safe for a starting load.

Okay, thanks, I'll go with that. Just being anal, I always like to read the source documents.

The gun I tinkered the most with mild loads was my 35 whelen ackley. I shot alot of cast pistol bullets in the 150-200 gr range from 700-1700 fps. I found that with Unique, I could get good accuracy at 1200 fps and consistant velocities, and the powder was not sensitive to position in the case. When I backed down to ~700 fps the velocities had a large swing and powder position was sensitive. A dab of toilet paper will hold the powder over the primer and keep velocities more consistant, but you probably don't want tp going through your can. I'd imagine bullseye or red dot would provide subsonic non position sensitive loads. With cast plinker loads you should be able to get 5-10 shot 1" groups at 50 yds, and the can should quiet them right down.

The advantage to the fastest powders is both the small quantity of powder and hence gas for the supressor to deal with, and the faster powders have less pressure at the time the bullet leaves the can.

So long as the bullets are being stabalized, there should be no problem using a can, it's just an upsized 22rf.

Ut oooo, I think we gotta assisian on our hands! he has a silancer, hope BATF is keyed in on him! or maybe he has a license?..maybe he is a terriost, but not a very good one because no reputalbe terriost would try and silance a 300 win mag for goodness sakes.! but hey, the guys from Georgia, those bubbas use beer cans to make silencers to jacklight deer, thats what we got here.:):):)

Just haveing some fun guys, don't get yer shorts in a wad...

I'm sure the Dems would be happy to investigate it for you, at taxpayer expense!!!

I chronographed 170 gr. .30 caliber bullets with 10 gr. of Trailboss. Getting 750 FPS. They're pretty quiet, as you'd think.

I'm going up on the load next time and shoot for 1000 fps.

MIsprint: make that 650 fps.

I think jacklighting for deer is a thing of the past. So many deer around here, it's like jacklighting for starlings.

Starlings?, I don't care who ya are, that's funny! Georgia has so many deer the game wardens tell you were to poach I am told!