.300 Blackout deer hunting advice

[SMLEshooter]

I'm looking for some input from the .300 Blackout hunters here.

I put a .300 blackout AR together last year for the purpose of deer hunting. It's a 16" barrel.

Here's what happened:

I purchased a box of Hornady 300 Whisper 110gr VMAX rounds to use as they were all I could find locally.

After a few days of waiting for a deer to walk by, one finally did and I shot it at a range of about 50 yards.

It just stood there looking around, for where the noise came from I thought....

Assuming I missed, I shot it again. It continued to stand there...

Really pissed that I'd missed the deer twice, I fired a third time. This time it dropped, got up and ran a few yards and dropped again.

Overjoyed that I'd dropped a deer with my new build, I got down from the stand and walked over to the 80 'ish pound deer. At that point, it looked up at me, jumped up and ran off.

I chased it down about a 100 yards or so and finished it off with a .45

Now, after finally getting the deer stopped, I discovered 3 neat little entry holes in it's chest (no exit holes...) and one big hole in it's head...

My question is, did I have problems with this because I shot it in the chest instead of the lungs or neck?

Did I use the wrong ammo?

What went wrong here?

Thanks.

 

[strokin99]

And I thought I wanted one for hunting. I'll pass.

 

[smokey30725]

Starting to get the same impression.

 

[jwc0305]

I must say that is strange, I hunt with a .300BLK, but never used Whisper rounds. I killed 2 deer this year, one at 180 yards, the other at over 200 yards and neither ran more than 50 yards and massive damage to the heart/lung area. I was using Hornady 125gr ballistic tip, and zeroed at 100 yards. I have killed many hogs with .300BLK only using Remingtopn 115gr. I think your problem lies in type of load and bullet placement. I wouldn't swap my .300 for anything.

 

[devin25gun]

Bullet placement with this caliber is critical. You are shooting a 30 caliber bullet at a lower speed. You want a bullet construction with a high bc and a 110 does not have it unless u had alot more speed behind it which u wont get with the powder capacity of the round. Me I like a heavier bullet in mine like a 125 bt nosler. Still get get speed with h110 powder . A max 100yd gun but more like 75 yards or less with a good behind the shoulder shot. 223 is still a better killing round on deer because of speed. I still only shoot less than 100 yards. Ive killed alot with my 223 over the years with 78 grain sp and 55 grain hp but they hardly ever drop. But must hit vitals. I;m going to try my 300 blk this coming up season but still have my doubts myself. But then again I shot a buck one time with a 300 mag three times when he came into a grunt and he acted like he was never hit and walked across a field 100 yds till dropping. He had three holes all behind the shoulder and pass thru's. So jacked up on adrenaline he never knew what hit him I guess. I quit after three cause I was just wasting shells I thought. Speed and bullet construction and distance all fall into play with close shots and bullets not expanding or exploding on contact.

 

[thevalueman]

The balistics for both cartridges are for all purposes the same. There are so many Blackout people speaking about this and that, however black is black and white is white. We can argue Blackout vs Whisper, but balistics are what they are, either should kill as good, or better than a 30-30. As hunters, we need to know the limits of what we are hunting with, and shoot acordingly.
:-)Rocky

 

[Lineman73]

I shot a 105 lb (field dressed) doe last year with my Smith & Wesson M&P15 with an S&W .300 Blackout upper. I was shooting a 125 grain Hornady Accu-tip round. I shot the doe in the chest at a quartering to angle. The bullet broke three ribs on the way in leaving a 1 1/2" entrance wound. It literally exploded inside the chest cavity, turning the lungs and heart to soup. The deer ran about 60 yards leaving and excellent blood trail. I didn't even have to bend over to pick up the trail. Every time that deer inhaled, blood sprayed all over the ground.

You were using a light weight pest bullet. Try something heavier weight or heavier constructed bullet. If I was to be buying something new for deer in .300 Blackout it would be Barnes' TTX solid copper bullet. That round should expand and punch all the way through a deer. Try that the next time.

 

[land_surveyor]

Vmax bullets are a varmint bullet. they are designed to "explode" on impact, not really but read up on them. they are not intended for penetration and they are not ideal for deer.

read up on bullets for deer. something that will hold most of its mass upon entry and mushroom instead fragment. remington core lock are barnes tsx my favorite deer bullets.

i despise hornady bullets for anything but punching holes in paper.

 

[jkaczyn18]

I use the Barnes Vortex ammo with decent results on pigs. 300 is not the hardest hitting bullet and as said above **** placement is key.

 

[19 Kilo]

The .300Blkout did the job for me a few times this past year with 125grn heads. It sounds to me that you have more of a bullet/shot placement problem that a caliber problem. With that being said, I don't hunt with my .300 any longer. I switched off to the 6.8 SPC, it does a much better job at any range on deer. I haven't had any deer take a step that me or my kids have taken last year when shot with the 6.8, but all shot with the .300 ran under 100yrds. That fact alone was enough for me, I hate tracking deer and spend many hours at the range to make sure I don't.

The other training aid I used for my kids to get them ready to shoot deer, besides spending a ton of time at the range shooting "deer" targets is the pics from my trail cam. I down loaded the pics from the trail cam and asked the kids if it was a shoot or no shoot picture and then asked where you would shoot it or why you would not shoot it. That little nugget saved me some crawling through the swamp looking for blood on a cold evening I'm sure.

Good luck with your build and your next hunt!