Alas, the search for a accurate, subsonic, hollow-point continues on for us squirrel hunters that want to be quiet, accurate, and lethal in the same combo. My current favorite is the Green Box Eley Subsonic, which has sadly been replaced with the less accurate White Box Eley Subsonic. I picked this CCI Subsonic up at https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/ to test out to see if it was a worthy contender for squirrel in the fall season. Below you’ll find my results.
I do all my testing at 50 yards for groups that pass my standards. My standards for subsonic hollow-point are:
- Must place five shots inside a penny or .75 of an inch
- Must be less than $8.00/50 rounds
- Stays under 1099 feet per second
These are only what I look for, and may not match how you evaluate your ammunition selection.
Knowing this I always want to start with chronograph data so that I have data to plug into iStrelok for holdovers in the woods. I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to squirrel hunting, and I will attempt a shot longer than 50 yards if I have the clearance, and the stability to make such a shot. You’ll see in this list of speeds that the 1099 FPS speed barrier was broken, and the auditory report was such that even with a suppressor I was able to make out the supersonic crack down range. Here are the results for the first 10 shots:
- 1095
- 1073
- 1103
- 1074
- 1098
- 1087
- 1088
- 1093
- 1072
- 1091
I started with cleaning the barrel with a Hoppe’s #9 soaked patch with one pass, and then putting a dry patch in behind it to start with a unseasoned bore. A 10 shot group at 50 yards to start, warms up the barrel and gives me an idea of how this ammo is going to perform.
Sadly, from the results of the 10 shot group, this round doesn’t appear to be a contender for squirrel gettin’ duties…. However I didn’t let the groups stop there. I will say that for larger targets like groundhogs, past 50 yards, you could use this round. It’s not gonna be a contender for the eastern gray squirrel out of any of my rifles….
I certainly had my hopes up for this ammo, as it’s quite cost effective ($6.50/100), and has a great hollow point cavity. Here are the rest of the groups.
And finally all the groups together, just so you know I’m being honest about my results, and not trying to trash CCI Subsonic. I certainly want another round on the market comparable to my coveted Eley Green Box Subsonic, and even Eley screwed that up with the White Box edition. I can’t tell you how much that aggravates me….!
What’s even worse is I attempted two 25 yard groups, expecting the results to be somewhat better. Well that was an unfortunate failure also. I at least expected both groups to stack in a clover leaf fashion, but only one out of the two, five shot groups accomplished that. After this big of a disappointment at such a short range, my testing was complete.
I can’t, in good conscience, recommend this ammo for my squirrel hunting followers. Maybe, just maybe, it works at 25 yards and under, but that’s not how I hunt squirrels. At best, it’s some fun, fruit busting fodder for a range session. I take my squirrel hunting way to serious to let a round like this ruin a good day in the timber.
