While a suppressor reduces muzzle blast, when a projectile leaves the barrel faster than roughly 1,125 fps—the speed of sound at sea level—it generates a supersonic crack that no amount of baffle engineering can silence. That crack is the gap in suppressed shooting, and it’s this specific problem that Federal’s new Subsonic rifle target loads are designed to close. All three cartridges in the lineup—.308 Winchester, .45-70 Government and .30-30 Winchester—are loaded to a muzzle velocity of 1,000 fps, roughly 125 fps below the threshold where the sonic report disappears entirely.
“Our team selected some of Federal’s most trusted and reliable target bullet designs and loaded them to muzzle velocities of 1,000 fps,” Josh Vickers, Federal’s centerfire ammunition product manager said. “At just below the speed of sound, this eliminates the harsh supersonic crack of standard-velocity ammunition that suppressors can’t silence without sacrificing the precision or performance shooters need.”
The .308 Winchester load is the most technically interesting of the three. It uses a 205-grain target hollow point—considerably heavier than the 147-to-175-grain bullets that many .308 shooters are accustomed to—and that additional mass is how the load achieves its ballistic coefficient of .480 at subsonic velocity. A heavier bullet retains energy and stability better at slower speeds than a lighter one would, which is why subsonic loads tend to push bullet weight upward. The result is a round that stays stable through the transonic zone rather than tumbling as it decelerates, preserving accuracy at distances where lighter subsonic projectiles would begin to wander. The .308 Win. ships in 20-count boxes at $47.99.
The .45-70 Government load fires a 300-grain target soft point at the same 1,000 fps with a .290 ballistic coefficient. The .45-70 is already a relatively slow cartridge in standard-velocity form—most factory loads run between 1,300 and 1,800 fps depending on bullet weight—so the jump to subsonic is a smaller departure from normal than it is for the .308.
As for the .30-30 Winchester load, it uses a 170-grain target soft point at 1,000 fps with a .313 ballistic coefficient. Like the .45-70, the .30-30 is a cartridge that many people already shoot lever-action rifles, and a suppressed lever gun running subsonic ammunition occupies a particular niche. The .45-70 retails for $54.99 per 20-count box and the .30-30 is $36.99.
All three loads are shipping now. For more information, visit federalpremium.com.
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