200 Rounds of 45-70 Ammo by Hornady Subsonic - 410gr Sub-X

Suppressed lever-action rifles are all the rage right now! And if there’s one thing Hornady likes, it’s a rage that necessitates the production of specialty ammunition. If your beautiful suppressor is eagerly perched on the muzzle of a 45-70 Government rifle, then you couldn’t be more on the money if you choose Subsonic series ammo for hunting!

This cartridge is kind of like the opposite of +P. It is “45-70 -P,” if you will. Its negligibly heavier bullet and seriously undercharged powder add up to a squeaking-quiet 1,075 fps muzzle velocity out of a 24” test barrel. A barrel much shorter than that can easily throw the bullet’s MV into triple-digit territory! Such power reduction is perfectly welcome if you want subsonic report and/or softer recoil.

Obviously, that kind of performance isn’t the most authoritative you could enlist during deer season. But the Sub-X is designed to make great use of what limited energy it has! When the flexible polymer plug in its nose cavity compresses, it splits open the surrounding notched rim in a display of lethal expansion. Hornady says the Sub-X expands after impact as sleepy as 900 fps. That’s around 250 yards out, if your barrel’s also 24”.