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Old 12-05-2009, 04:11 PM
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Rikky Lee Rikky Lee is offline
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Within reason - yes. But subsonics have a rainbow like trajectory and you need to do your homework at all the ranges from 50 to 200 to make sure you have the correct zero.

A 338 Matchking will dump a lot of energy on the way through, but subsonic hunting is more like bow hunting with its effect. Many people get a reaction like an arrow - slow bleed out and collapse - unless you go through the head or spine. A 350/300 grain 338 at 1050 will penetrate a deer and hopefully tumble on the way through. Check out the 338 Whisper footage on U Tube on the hogs.

44 mag factory barrels do not do well at subsonic velocities due to their twist rate. But with a faster barrel twist there is a lot of potential - but you do not get the longer range potential available from the heavy rifle bullets like Matchkings.

So, subsonic one shot kill every time with minimal meat damage out to 200? Either head shots with a 300 Whisper or 338 Whisper or go to bigger with the 458 Socom.

EDIT: just picked up this eyewitness story of shooting deer with the SOCOM

Quote

I used the TTSX on my Buck. The load was 31.5gr H110 and oal was 2.255in. I didn't have time to really get the load working or chrony it but it was shooting into 6" at 100 yards. I am using a RRA upper/RRA carbine lower and a Nikon Prostaff 2x-7x scope with the RRA high mount. I saw the deer coming thru the woods and stood up in my tree stand. I took him @ about 80 yards right behind the left shoulder. The ball angled thru him and out in front of the right rear leg. He jumped his rear end into the air and took off. He made it thru an old river bed about 70 yards from where I hit him. I don't understand how he ran off as when we field dressed him his whole insides looked like scrambled eggs from the heart down. The entrance hole was big enough to get "four" fingers into and the exit was about "three fingers".
We blood tracked him from about five yards from where I hit him right up to where we found him. The blood trail was getting bigger the closer we got to him. We could not recover the ball as it went clean thru. I really like this ball for all the damage it caused. I killed my first Deer when I was 12 years and am now 66 and have hunted all over the US. I like this weapon and load best of any I have used. I might also add he was a "BIG BOY" we couldn't get him up on the four wheeler and had to rig a pully/strap/winch to lift him off of the ground to get him on the rack. I got 68 lbs of Jerky and three rolls of summer sausage from him and his est. field dressed wt. was 240 lbs.

Unquote

FWIW

Last edited by Rikky Lee; 12-05-2009 at 07:30 PM. Reason: add detail
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