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The truth is, there’s a time to slow things down and keep it quiet, which is why subsonic ammo exists. Not only is all that velocity-crazed volume hard on the eardrums, it’s also unfriendly to the pocket book, as anyone who has recently bought a box of ammunition for one of the newest long-range super cartridges can tell you. Just stand next to a muzzlebraked magnum or a straight-piped hot rod to get the picture. The drawback, however, is the noise pollution that accompanies our fixation with speed. From muscle cars to overbore rifle cartridges that burn barrels and launch bullets downrange at well beyond 3,000 feet per second (fps), we operate on the assumption that faster is better. In any case, with subsonic ammo, your rimfire will still be hard on game but easier on the ears.As red-blooded Americans, we’ve long ago come to embrace our ancestral need for speed. 22 LR, which fires a 45-grain bullet at 1090 fps and is designed specifically to work with semis. If you shoot a semiauto, try Winchester’s new M-22 Subsonic. If you shoot a single-shot, pump, or bolt-action rifle, you’re good to go. 22 Short cartridge will accomplish the same thing, if your gun will shoot them.) However, subsonic rounds may have trouble cycling the actions of semi-automatics reliably. CCI’s Subsonic HP, for example, reduces velocity to 1050 fps and therefore lowers the decibel level to around 68, almost half the normal high-velocity. 22 LR ammo and a suppressor are combined, you’ve got a whisper-quiet, deadly accurate small-game firearm.Īll the major ammunition manufacturers offer subsonic. 22s because they exhibit 37 percent less wind deflection due to the disproportional increase of air resistance near the sound barrier. 22 LRs are more accurate than supersonic. And as smallbore competitors know, subsonic.
50 CAL SUBSONIC ROUNDS CRACK
So while the energy to cleanly kill small game remains, the downrange crack vanishes. 22 LR load offers around 1050 and 100, respectively, a negligible difference to any squirrel. 22 LR load delivers around 1200 fps and 140 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. Speaking of which, rimfires are where subsonics really shine. It’s like shooting a rimfire, but with more punch. At the very least, this ammo is a hoot to shoot on the range thanks to its mild recoil and low noise.
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This type of load is ideal for home defense, where shots are measured in feet and taken in tight confines that exacerbate hearing danger. That’s marginal performance for deer and hogs beyond 50 yards, but it’ll do the job on longer-range varmints where noise is an issue. 223 Rem., and nearly triples that of the. 648, at 500 yards it surpasses the energy of a full-power 55-grain. But because of this long bullet’s incredible ballistic coefficient of.
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Hornady’s 300 BLK subsonic 208-grain A-Max load, for example, delivers 480 foot-pounds of energy from a carbine’s muzzle. 22LR ammo reduces velocity to 1050 fps and therefore lowers the decibel level to around 68. (Note that these long bullets are most accurate when fired from barrels with fast 1:7 twist rates to stabilize them. 300 AAC Blackout (which function well in modern sporting arms with a simple upper receiver swap) have become the preferred subsonic centerfire round for sportsmen, as well as for the military and law enforcement. That’s why rounds with long, large-diameter bullets like the. To compensate for less velocity, you need more mass.
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