By Jeff Johnston, FE Hunting & Shooting Editor
First called the .300 Whisper when it was invented by J.D. Jones in 1991, the copycat .300 Blackout cartridge took off with the rise in popularity of modular AR-15s. Its purpose, mainly, was to provide a larger-caliber alternative to the 5.56 round that would produce more energy when suppressed yet require only minimal modifications to the AR-15 rifle itself in order to shoot.
Really, the Blackout was meant for America’s Tier 1 operators, mostly in the urban warfare environments of the Middle East, who found themselves routinely needing to take out sleeping targets without waking the people in the next room. Because bullet energy is a product of mass times velocity, once the velocity of any round is reduced below the subsonic threshold—about 1125 fps at sea level—the only remaining determinant of that round’s downrange energy is the weight of its bullet.
In standard charges, a 220-grain .300 Blackout round fired 1050 fps (this gives a margin for error when fired above sea level) produces approximately 540 ft.-lbs. of energy at the muzzle, which is comparable to a nominal 10mm pistol round. (Even if a 55-grain 5.56 round was downloaded to fire at subsonic velocities, it would not cycle an AR-15’s action, and would only produce about 135 ft-lbs. of muzzle energy, which is only slightly more than a high-velocity .22 LR bullet.)
With the burst of popularity in suppressors over the last couple decades, Americans have discovered how fun the .300 Blackout is to shoot, and that it functions well even in pistol-length, suppressed ARs. Most guns will run anything from 110-grain supersonic loads (that perform similarly to the 7.62×39 round in terms of energy) to 220-grain subsonics without problems.
Black Hills Ammunition has taken full advantage of the .300 Blackout’s popularity by offering consumers top-notch ammunition, loaded with premium third-party bullets, including the following new loads: 110-grain Barnes TAC-TX; 115-grain Dual Performance; 125-grain Open Tip Match; 125-grain Sierra Tipped MatchKing; and two subsonic loads, the 198-grain Dual Performance and the 220-grain Open Tipped Match load.
I’ve tried them all, and here’s what I can say in general terms: For hunting hogs, the supersonic Barnes TAC-TX or the 115-grain Dual Performance loads are the way to go. Choose one depending on what your rifle shoots best. Mature pigs and especially big boars are tough animals, and I’ve learned the hard way that shooting them with a subsonic round often results in mere wounding and unrecovered hogs. (In fact, during plenty of bullet-on-dead-hog tests, I’ve found that common 9mm pistol rounds, much like subsonic Blackout rounds, often do not even penetrate enough to reach the thoracic cavity of boars that are shot in the chest.) While some sickos seem to be fine with this outcome, I am not.
For fun and practice the 125-grain OTM load is great, while the more expensive Sierra TMK is usually a top performer in terms of sheer accuracy. For plinking covertly around the house and sniping yard varmints at close range, the subsonics shot in conjunction with a suppressor are the ultimate choice.
I recently tested Black Hills’ 220-grain OTM load with a Silencerco Harvester Evo can, and I found that emptying mags of it rapidly at beer cans made me feel a bit like Terry Houin, except without the beard or the years of actual SEAL training.
Cost: 220-grain OTM: around $35 per box of 20
Pros: whisper-quiet, just as J.D. Jones intended.
Cons: very overrated for actually killing hogs (as all subsonic ammo is).
