First time using them, and I don’t like it….

May 2023 I bought a 10.5” 300 Blackout AR upper from Palmetto State Armory and instantly fell in love with the caliber, especially when I got my suppressor out of atf jail. So much fun shooting sub sonic 220 gr ammo suppressed, added bonus was the performance, crazy accurate.

Jump forward to January 2024, my annual hog/ram group hunt is booked. Easy decision is ram this year, been trying to bag a nice Corsican ram for years now but things kept getting in the way, like other types of rams that made me forget I was Corsican hunting, it happens. Hard decision was which rifle to use, last year I used my trusty Ruger UL in 243, she is now 5 for 5 with one shot drops, needed to use something else for this hunt, first thought was the Marlin 336 Cowboy in 38-55 Win with peep sights, second choice was the suppressed 10.5” 300 Blackout.

But issue #1 popped up, my eye sight with peeps works ok for general plinking but hunting accuracy was not good enough. Didn’t really want to scope the old girl, doesn’t seem right so I moved onto the second choice where issue #2 popped up. Needed ammo or a hunting bullet, as I had recently started reloading for the 300 Blackout hunting bullet choice seemed logical.

The Lehigh Defense 194 gr Max Expansion bullet made for 30 cal sub sonic loads looked like a good option as the ballistic gel performance was off the charts and Wilson Combat, (current owner of Lehigh) used the 300 Blackout in testing the bullet. Two boxes were bought, and test load made up, first and only load tried did 5 shots into a one hole group that a dime would cover, velocity was 1075 fps, recommended speed from Lehigh, load development was over!

https://lehighdefense.com/308-diameter-194-grain-maximum-expansion-bullets-01308194lhp-...

At this point my concern was the long thin hollow point on 194 gr would just act like a 5.56 55gr FMJ and punch a itty bitty hole thru the Ram and not do much damage. With the average ram size, I was afraid there wasn’t enough body mass to upset the bullet and start expansion.
5 months of waiting were over, and I was in the field chasing Corsican rams, excited to be in the outdoors hunting but also for using an AR rifle for hunting and trying a solid copper bullet, both first for me. After a lot of scouting, then a 250 yard uphill run, way to old and out of shape for that, I was staring at Corsican ram standing broadside at 35 yard, snap the rifle to my shoulder and pull the trigger, he spun 90 degrees to his right with a hit behind the shoulder and ended up facing me directly, a second shot to the center of the chest dropped him on his nose after a another in place 90 degree turn.

Most amazing thing at this point was that I was not lying on the ground from lack of oxygen but the loud whop noise on each bullet impact, I never heard such a loud bullet impact. Even the guide, who was driving up the trail to the far right from me heard the second whop. Suppressed rifle or the bullet expanding so fast causing the noise??? Not sure but am leaning toward the suppressor, but still a cool thing to hear.

Issue…..while the bullet killed I feel like it was slow in doing so, no shock effect like I get with the 243 using 95 gr Ballistic Tips. And to my surprise neither bullet exited nor showed any sign of entry until we got the skin off, that long skinny nose punched thru the skin like it was a rubber band and snapped back into place without leaving a single drop of blood on the outside. Side wound looked it was hit with a sledgehammer with a red area about three inches in size, and a hole about one inch in diameter, we found one tiny piece of pedal at the edge of the hole. Never found any hole or mark in the front area of the chest but the bullet did a buzz saw job on the inside of the body, everything in the body cavity looked like it went thru a blender including the underside of the spine in front of the tail area, he was facing slightly uphill to me on the chest shot. The inside was such a mess we decided not to dig around for the bullet.

On this size of animal, I think the old cup/lead core bullet or a Ballistic Tip type bullet would be a much better choice. In the end it was an interesting experience and I finally got my Corsican ram, oh by the way I was shocked when I walked up to him lying on ground, biggest Corsican ram I have ever seen, just huge, I noticed he stood about 3-4 inches taller in the back than others in the group when scouting and tracking him but I didn’t realize he was that big.

Gunner

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