Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 300 AAC Blackout for Deer Hunting

Is anyone using the 300 AAC Blk for deer hunting in the woods?

A friend has used one for awhile, 300 whisper forever and now the AAC. He is a big fan of the 125 NBT killing several all with pass throughs and short trails. He switched to the 110 Barnes this year just because.


He has a model 7 bolt gun, 2 AR's and and 2 different 12" contenders in the AAC.


All his shots have been between 10 and 90 yards, big woods, cut overs and logging roads.

looking at one myself, glad you asked...

Search around for articles about deer hunting with the 30 Herrett as fired from a 14" barrel.

I have a question which I hope could get answered. Is the cartridge when loaded with a supersonic 110 grain hunting bullet of lower dB when fired out of a 16 inch barrel than a supersonic 5.56 hunting load? I would buy the damn thing just to reduce the wear and tear on my ears.

Doubtful it will be much quieter, but in general any reduction in velocity and gas volume should make it marginally quieter. You're going from 23-27grs of powder pushing a bullet at 3000fps down to 2100 fps pushed by 10-15grs of powder.
I hunted with a 125gr load last year, but may try cast subsonic suppressed this year (short range from a stand). Suppressed .300 is ridiculously quiet.

Are you looking for CNS shots, or breaking shoulders?

I would want to shoot a 110 grain TSX at 2400 I think.

how about ribcage lung shots....

Putting a low velocity, small diameter bullet with a small chance of expansion through the lungs seems like a recipe for a tracking job I don't want.

I do fine with a 223, my bud has a new 6.8 but we've not killed anything with it yet, I am waiting to see how this works out for him this season.

A 223 with a high speed expanding bullet through the lungs is a different ball game than a subsonic, 30 cal cast bullet.

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...

I'm at the moment using the Speer 125 gr TNT with Lil'Gun in my Blackout. I may try this load on a Whitetail or two in VA in a couple of weeks. Going to spend a couple of days at my friend place in Nelson County he as over 500 acres, he has a damage permits from the Game Warden to take 30 deer off his property day or night hunting. I'm going to sight my 300 AAC in with both my regular scope and my Gen 3 Night Vision scope. I have QR mounts on both scopes and it only takes a min to swap them out .

I was looking at Nosler's site for another reason, and stumbled across this bullet:

http://www.nosler.com/noveske-bullets/

Hmmm...I bet that one actually works

I gave a AAC Model 7 300 Bkout to my 12 year old niece last year and she loves it!! She has been shooting a 7-30 Waters G2 carbine and she likes shooting this Blackout a lot.. I even got a 10 yr old girl that had never fired a rifle before cutting the bullseye very quickly with it. My niece killed 2 big does with the 125 Gr Btips and I am going to switch her to the 125gr Accubonds or the 110gr Lehigh Controlled Chaos bullet. I love this cartridge and am thinking about getting an AR in this caliber also. Rob

How did the 125gr Ballistic Tips work on the deer? Obviously, the deer died, but wondering about damage done, blood trail, etc.

Was not aware of this one, I'll have to figure out if there are any to be ordered anywhere!

So far, I have not found any one like Grafs or Midway, that lists it

These bullets both super and subsonic are the best i've ever used for the blackout:

http://www.lehighdefense.com/index.php/lehigh-defense-300-game-changer-2