First Look: Hornady 300 Blackout Subsonic Ammunition

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posted on November 26, 2017
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With the growing popularity of AR-15 rifles chambered in the .300 Blackout cartridge combined with the use of suppressors, rifle owners need a subsonic ammo option that allows them to take advantage of these platforms without sacrificing projectile performance. Hornady provided an answer in the form of its new 300 Blackout Subsonic Ammunition.

"Hornady's Subsonic ammunition was developed because of the popularity of suppressors, as well as the need to have new bullet designs that are specifically designed for subsonic performance," Hornady Ballistics Engineer Jayden Quinlan said.

The heart of the new Hornady 300 Blackout Subsonic Ammunition lineup is the inclusion of the company's new Sub-X projectile in the load, designed specifically to provide effective terminal performance at subsonic speeds. The new design features a combination of a lead core surrounded by a grooved metal jacket and tipped with the company's Flex Tip insert. The design of the projectile ensures expansion at speeds as low as 900 feet per second.

"The Sub-X bullet was designed from the ground up in .300 Blackout to perform terminally as well as to be a very accurate subsonic bullet," Quinlan said.

Muzzle velocity for the 190-grain projectile is measures a 1,050 fps, and the bullet travels at above 900 fps as far out as 300 yards. Inside of 100 yards, the projectile meets or exceeds the multiple barrier-penetration tests set forth by the FBI testing protocol, so long as the bullet's impact velocity remains at least 1,020 fps. Tests performed in ballistic gelatin by Hornady showed 16-18 inches of penetration with 90 percent weight retention.

"With the Hornady Sub-X bullet in the .300 Blackout load, we designed that so that it would meet the FBI protocol, the FBI protocol consisting of six different tests through intermediate barriers that law enforcement or the military commonly encounter," Quinlan said. "The Blackout is a growing cartridge in popularity in law enforcement as well as military applications because of its suppression abilities.

The ammo performs well in both suppressed and unsuppressed platforms, but the company ensures peak performance when used with a suppressor, thanks to a specially designed propellant that provides little muzzle flash and is optimized for suppressed shooting.

"The Hornady Subsonic ammo is designed to give shooters a very, very quiet weapon system when fired suppressed," Quinlan said. "All these loads are designed to be fired with suppressors, and the propellant technology that's used, the bullet design that goes into it, all of that is designed to give you the most accuracy with the most sound suppression possible with a suppressor."


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