The 250 grain SST/Shockwave bullets have worked well for me even when i made a few bad shots. On 2008 i made bad shots on two deer: Both were hit in the guts. There was a lot of blood both times. One animal was found dead about 300 yards from where it was hit. i jumped the other wounded deer, went after it and killed the animal. That same year i made a gut shot on a 200 pound sow. That animal was also located.

i make bad shots once in awhile just like a lot of other folks make bad shots but i've not lost an animal since 2004. Wish that i had used a 250 grain SST/Shockwave on that cow elk rather than the 300 grain TC PTX which did not expand.

i have used the SST/Shockwaves with the hard yellow plastic tip, and the hard red plastic tip. Have also used the SSTs with the soft red tip. SST/Shockwave bullets have killed over 15 deer and dozens of hogs for me. I have never lost an animal that was shot with one of these bullets.

If you think deer are hard to kill you should try hogs. Hogs are much harder to cleanly kill than deer. Shot a 300 pound boar hog last fall with my .35 Whelen Improved. Range was 80-100 yards. The bullet was the 250 grain Partition. The muzzle velocity of that load is just over 2,500 fps. The hog was hit a little high behind the shoulder and the bullet exited. That hog took off like it was not hit and ran several hundred yards into a plum thicket where i killed it.

There are two different Shockwave bullets, the regular Shockwave and the bonded Shockwave. I have never seen a case where the regular SST/Shockwave bullet failed to expand. Sometimes they do not exit but i could care less because the animal is not going very far if it is properly hit.

The Bonded Shockwave is a much harder bullet. IMO: The Bonded Shockwave is overkill for whitetail deer.