300 AAC Blackout 208 gr Subsonic A-Max and Silverback

I’m a HUGE fan of .300 blk and have been shooting it since 2012.

A lot of people don’t understand the allure of the .300 blk, and some think it’s ridiculous. That’s fine, but let me SHOW you why I like .300blk subsonic so much and then I’ll give you some quick background on the bullet and tell you some of the top reasons why I shoot it.

Here’s a quick 3 minute video where I demonstrate the accuracy, high speed controllability, and penetration of the round.

The high-speed recoil part should be of particular interest to those of you who asked for it when I did the article on high speed pistol recoil control.

First, in this case, it helps to think of it as shooting a .45 ACP with a shoulder stock, weight out front, and a vertical foregrip.

Second, and this is most important, I’m using a push-pull grip on the AR that helps control recoil, no matter what the caliber/load.

Many people PULL on the vertical foregrip on an AR, but if you do that and have someone try to grab & move the muzzle, you’ll see how unstable that is.

But, if you PUSH on the vertical foregrip with your left hand while pulling on the pistol grip with your right hand, you cause isometric tension and create a MUCH more stable shooting platform.  This is what allows me to put fast rounds on target up close and followup quickly on medium range targets.

Another benefit of this is that if you incorporate the push-pull into shouldering your carbine, you have enough isometric tension to start shooting sooner and have recoil control BEFORE the butt hits your collarbone/chest.

Background on the .300 blk.

The .300 blk round was designed as a replacement for the suppressed MP5 for building clearing operations that would be hearing safe to use while clearing a building and allow operators to immediately engage short to medium range targets in the outdoors by simply changing from a mag loaded with subsonic ammo to a mag loaded with full power ammo. This does not require any changes or modifications to the gun. This is why it’s so different from the MP5/7 and M4.

Ballistically, the way that I think of subsonic .300 blk vs. full power .300 blk is that the subsonic has ballistics similar to a .45ACP and the full power has ballistics similar to an AK-47 (7.62×39). It’s not a magic bullet…it’s a bullet with a specific set of purposes. The subsonic version is hearing safe and the full power version has solid terminal ballistics out past 300 yards (16.7% more energy than a 7.62×39 at 300 yards).

.300 blk uses, essentially a .223 or 5.56 case that has been resized to hold a bullet that is .30 inches in diameter (think .308, 30-30, 30-06, 7.62×39, .300 win mag, etc.) instead of .22 inches in diameter (think .22, .223, 5.56, etc.)

Instead of pushing a 55 grain to 77 grain bullet, like you would with a 5.56, a .300 blk will push a 110-220 grain bullet.

This becomes an advantage when you want to shoot suppressed, without hearing protection. Since the speed of sound is fixed, the goal is to push as heavy of a projectile out of the barrel as possible (within reason) to thump the target with as much force as possible.

But not all 300 blackout ammo—especially subsonic—is created equally.

For the first couple of years after the 300 blackout came out, subsonic ammunition was ALMOST as hard to find as pink unicorn snot and I bought and shot whatever I could find. When you pay for subsonic ammo, you want it to be subsonic and not have so high of a muzzle velocity that it breaks the sound barrier.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers knew that they could throw crap in a box, slap a 300 blackout subsonic label on it, and get upwards of $1.30-$2 per round for it.

What I found with many brands (including big name brands) was that 2-8 rounds per box of 20 would randomly break the sound barrier. This isn’t just a noise issue…it’s an issue of inconsistency. Many bullets lose stability as they go from supersonic to subsonic speed.  In addition, if you aren’t pushing rounds out of your barrel at close to the same speed every time, you can’t accurately sight in or trust your gun to put rounds where you want them to go.  Moral of the story…know your ammo.  I’ve had very good luck with Freedom Munitions 208gr Subsonic.

I like the .300 blk for a few reasons…namely:

1. When shooting subsonic ammo suppressed (I use a 16” AAC upper and an AAC SDN-6 suppressor), I can stand on my deck with friends & family and shoot without any of us having to wear hearing protection, experiencing ringing in the ears, or negatively reacting to the rounds going off. For longer shooting sessions, I wear hearing protection, even though I probably don’t need to…but I’m in my 40s and my cost/benefit calculations are different than they used to be.

2. Again with subsonic, I can do varmint control around the house in the late evening and early morning without waking anyone in the house or bothering neighbors. Our neighbors aren’t THAT close, but still don’t want to hear rounds going off as they’re going to sleep or waking up.

3. Since the .300 blk subsonic has the ballistics of a .45ACP, I can use it in ranges and shoot houses that don’t allow 5.56 or bigger ammo.

4. Since the .300 blk is made from .223 brass, it fits in 5.56 AR magazines. A 30 round 5.56 magazine will hold 30 rounds of .300 blk and putting .300 blk into a 5.56 magazine won’t cause any surprise malfunctions.

5. Since .300 blk in full power has roughly the same ballistics as 7.62×39, it’ll work for any game animal that you’d use a 7.62×39 or 30-30 on, except it’s more accurate than most 7.62×39 and it’s (arguably) got a longer effective range than a 30-30.

6. It’s accurate.  As I showed in the video, shooting golf balls at 65 yards is relatively straight forward.

Let’s get into the performance of the Freedom Munitions 208 gr. Subsonic A-Max and let me start by dispelling a misconception that you might have.  The fancy red tip doesn’t mean that the bullet is going to necessarily explode or have “devastating” expansion on impact.

Conventional rifle hollowpoints don’t expand well at slow speeds. Most 30 caliber bullets are made to leave the muzzle at speeds up to 3000 feet per second. That means they have to hold together well. The downside of this is that there are VERY few bullets that are designed to expand at subsonic speeds of 1100 feet per second or less.

The A-Max LOOKS like an expanding hollow point with a polymer tip. It does expand when it hits fluids at 2,000 feet per second or more, but at subsonic speeds, the main purposes of the A-Max polymer tip are resistance to nicking & deformation during chambering and pushing the center of mass further back on the bullet to improve ballistic coefficient and flight characteristics.

The penetration of the bullet was actually one of the most surprising things that I found in my testing. It punches through the first 8-10” of water jugs like an arrow…a testament to the aerodynamics of the bullet…before yawing/tumbling and cutting a bigger wound channel.

I found the exact same performance on coyote. It punches a clean, small hole straight through the broadside of coyote. In my limited experience, I found that tiny coyote ribs did little to impact the bullet. The subsonic A-Max hardly a “devastating” round, but it will quietly put lead EXACTLY where you want it to go. If your bullet placement is good, it’s very effective at QUIET varmint/small predator control at close range. I would assume, but don’t know, that the round would be comparable to a .45ACP when it hits the bones of larger predators—creating shrapnel and additional wound channels.  This is not a bad thing on small game…simply view your target 3 dimensionally and put your sights on the organ(s) you want to hit and send it.

Want expanding performance with subsonic rounds?  I ran the first version of this article in 2015 and expanding subsonics existed, but manufacturers hadn’t figured out production yet…they have now.  If you want expansion at low speeds, here’s an update for 2017 that may be your answer:

It’s the Silverback round from Gorilla Ammunition.  The bullet is CNC manufactured by Maker Bullets and designed to expand at subsonic speeds.

Here’s an example of what a milk jug looks like after the A-Max (left) goes through it vs. after the Silverback (right) goes through it:

With the A-Max, you have to use a scope to see if you hit the jug.  With the Silverback, the jug explodes.

Hunting with subs is a tricky affair.  First, it needs to be legal where you live.  I can hunt with any center fire round where I live.  Second, you need to hunt like an archer.  PERFECT shot placement is vital.  You can’t count on a temporary wound cavity.  Close isn’t good enough.  You have to know your anatomy, your bullet drops at different distances, and execute the fundamentals perfectly…even if hunting causes your stress level to go up.  You MUST test your round and know your DOPE before going in the field.  Animals deserve quick, clean kills.  If you aren’t 100% sure you can do that with a subsonic round, don’t try.

The Silverbacks are $1.50-$2+ per round, but the nice thing about sub-sonics is that bullets of the same weight have the same muzzle velocities and same points of impact within 50-80 yards, so you can practice with cheaper rounds of the same weight and validate with a couple of high dollar rounds before going into the field.

That being said, I can tell you that I’m 100% harvesting deer with subs in the last few years.  One was a heart-double lung shot with an A-Max.  .30 hole in.  .30 hole out.  The deer ran less than 20 yards before dropping.

My last one was a neck/spine shot with the Gorilla.  This time, the deer didn’t even take a step.

As I was showing this video to people, one thing I kept getting asked was what kind of steel target I was using with the resetting flag target. It’s from www.Range-Systems.com. It’s RIFLE rated, and here’s some quick info on it: https://www.range-systems.com/product/ipsc-flag-target-self-resetting-flag/.

A couple of other questions people had…

The first was how to know your bullet drops for subsonic rounds?  Just like archery, you’ve got to put some time in with live fire at the distances you expect to be shooting at, but my long range pistol drop chart that comes with 21 Day Alpha Shooter and Tactical Vision Training will give you rough holds out to 200 yards.

The second thing I heard from people was that they couldn’t see a golf ball at 65 yards, let alone shoot it.  If that’s the case for you, you may want to seriously consider trying out my Tactical Vision Training course.  It helps old (40+) eyes see quicker and clearer and it helps young eyes see quicker and have a wider field of view.  Get it tonight and you may see better tomorrow by clicking >HERE<

With all of the gear shown and examples, this article may very well bring up more questions than it answers.  If that’s the case, let me know by commenting/asking below.  Like the 300 Blackout?  Hate it?  Sound off by commenting below.

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