I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to add something concerning the use of a 110gr Vmax in a 300 blackout. I'll apologize in advance for the length but I want to share all the information so that people can draw their own conclusions.
Where I'm at, a mature buck will field dress at 200 lbs or more, and a nice doe will field dress at 120 to 130 lbs. In 35 years, I've only seen 3 does that field dressed measurably more than 130 lbs. I'm blessed to hunt a +200 acre farm where 90% of the time I have at least 1 opportunity (per trip) to take a deer home with me. I have a 10.5" and a 16" 300BO upper and for the past few years I've been "fur testing" projectiles to see what works well and what doesn't. Early on I noticed that cheap factory 110gr Vmax ammo shot decent (1 to 1-1/2 moa) from both of my uppers. Normally, I'm looking for 1/2 MOA, but for a 300BO and shots inside 150 yds, I'm fine with 1-1/2 moa. I had been trying to find an accurate load with H110 and Maker 110gr REX bullets, but I couldn't get them to shoot consistently enough for my liking. Sometimes I'd get 1-1/2 moa, but most of the time the groups were 2 moa or bigger. Anyway, I wasn't sure if the 110gr Vmax would be tough enough for deer in my area but figured I'd give try them since I had a bunch of it on hand. I don't shoot these uppers much, so if the cheap factory stuff worked well, I probably would not have continued to look for a better option. I opted to test the 110vmax in my 10.5" upper mainly because it would leave me enough physical room to also take my 24" Grendel (I wasn't willing to use an iffy bullet on a nice buck). Late one morning I had a nice doe walk by me at 12 yards. There was a light snow on the ground so tracking should be easy if needed. As she stopped to eat a few briars as she passed by me. She was just past perpendicular and her head was turned away which gave me a nice quartering away shot. I put the red chevron right behind her leg to avoid damaging any of the meat there. I was basically aiming right at her heart and squeezed the trigger. I could see where the bullet hit because it hit the center of a rib and took it out leaving a big (1-1/2") depression visible under her fur. She only ran about 30 yds which is one of the shorter retrieves I've seen over the course of 300+ deer that we've shot over the years. I put her on the tail gate and drove her out into the middle of the field to field dress her (easier to work on than doing it on the ground). When I dressed her, I was shocked to find a +3" star shaped hole through her liver. My initial thought was that maybe I hit her a lot farther back than I thought I had. I'd also caught the near lung. I got her home and hosed her out, then skinned her. After getting the hide off, I could see that my shot was dead on the money, but upon hitting the rib, the 110gr vmax made a sharp turn (I want to say over 45 degress, but it was AT LEAST 30 degrees) towards the rear and slightly downwards. The remains of the bullet were imbedded in the wall of her chest cavity (did not penetrate out to the hide) about 2" beyond her sternum. I shot her from a tree stand, but that stand is only about 12' off the ground. The flight path should have had the bullet exiting about 4" higher. I took pics of her hanging so I could note the entrance and exit points. Total penetration was only about 8". I immediately decided not to continue using the 110gr Vmax for whitetail. I had a load worked up for 125gr SST so I went out that evening and re-zeroed the upper for that load.
I've only had this happen on 2 other deer in my life, and those two were shot consecutively with the same weapon and projectile. It was in 2002 with a 50 cal Encore Muzzleloader pushing a 140gr pure lead (no alloy, soft) projectile made by PR bullet at 2200 fps. I took a nice doe at 125 yds, and a nice wall hanger at about 10 yds the following weekend. On both deer, the bullet's trajectory altered noticeably on impact, and that was the last time I ever used a pure lead bullet for hunting.
As a side note, last year I used the same 10.5" upper to take a decent doe at 75 yds using Sig 125gr HST. I had 4 boxes that I had picked up at the beginning of Covid (last 4 boxes of 300 blackout in the store at the time). It was a double lung shot and she ran about 100 yds which is normal. The shot was a pass through, and based on the wounding, I'd say the expansion was minimal. Might be an okay choice from a 16" tube, but I'm not sure I'll try to use it again. I bought 2 boxes of 125gr MKZ bullets and found an H110 load that consistently groups around 1" from both of my uppers with good velocity. I'll try that this year
If they perform anything like the 105gr MKZ I use in my Grendel, I'll probably be tickled with it.
www.bluecollarreloading.com
www.midsouthshooterssupply.com
www.lehighdefense.com
