What gun and powder load and bullet weight are you using? I do swear by them and that's all I use and always get a bang flop.

Iv'e had 4 good kills (and hopfully a 5th & even a 6th on sunday) so mabye Im bais, but for now Im gonna chalk the SW failures to "somtimes bullets do wierd things". Muzzleloader are not CF rifle, (which have their problems w/ bullet performance too), they're are many different variables, such as powders& charges, sabots, barrel cleaning ,seating pressure and the shooter themselves, to put blame on the bullet alone.

In my expierience SW ,bonded and std, expand good from ranges of 20 yds to 90 yds, and Im sure much farther , at MV of 2000fps in my savage. Most were pass throughs, somtimes as much as 30" of penetration,w/ big holes and destroyed vital organs. The one recoverd bullet I found(bonded 250) was completely flat and weighed 237grs.

I use the 300 gr. SST and have never had a problem. Theyhave the hard tips. This year I had a good kill on a spike with good expansion at a distance of about 60 yds. However, I had a problem with a six point buck and a 300 gr. STP. This bullet didn't open up; no expansion at all. The shot was at about 75 to 80 yds.

Interesting report.

Its all I shoot out of my Encore anymore. From 20-120 yards its been deadly for me. Everyone has there favorites, but for me I don't like to complicate things too much. I have had good luck with others but the Shockwave seems more accurate in my muzzy and it puts them DOWN. I am pretty sure there is something better out there, but I try to live life content and these do it for me when it comes to this.

Sorry for taking so long to respond. I have a T/C omega and i used a yellow tipped 250g. shockwave with 150g. of triple seven powder.

From what I've read on this site and others most guys with Omegas are having a hard time with this bullet and the 150 gr powder charges. It ranges in having bullets fragment and having not very good penetration. I personally think that if you use 100 gr charges the bullet will hold up just fine. All my deer have been with this charge and have been bang flops. If you must shoot 150 gr charges then you might try the Barnes bullets as many swear by these bullets and from what I've seen they hold up like no other. The Schockwaves work for me so no need to switch as my guns love em.

I am shooting a Savage at 2350 fps and I am using a Barnes Origonal 300g (458 diameter) rifle bullet for 45/70 with a .452 Crushed Rib sabot. I have shot 4 deer this year with this bullet, and all have given great penetration, great expansion and good blood trails, if ya need one for 20 yards. I like the bullet, but it is too much recoil for me,so next year I plan on going back to 5744, no need to shoot the more powerful powder since I am not shooting long fields in the mid west or big open spaces out west. Most of my shots under 100, one spot between 100 and150 at absolute max, so 3" high at 100 on this bullet will give me MPBR of about 180, which is plenty.I may shoot a 300g Barnes TSX 45/70 bullet again with CR sabot, this is a great bullet, very similar to a Barnes MZ, but .458so an Orange MMP is good for it and a CR works great in my Savage with 5744.

I also use the300 Barnes MZ in my Omega with 100g of Blackhorn. Very accurate, very reliable killer bullet, shoot thru, great penetration. I don't use the Barnes Origonal in my Omega,because I wanted to shoot anotherBarnes bullet and because I like to experiment with good bullets; got4 packages on sale on theTraditions site in about May for about$9 for 15 Barnes bullets, which is a great deal.

Bottom line, Barnes bullets have all 4 of the "MLer Court":
King is accuracy
Queen is penetration
Prince is expansion without fragmentation
and Princess is shoot thru with over 90% weight retention.

Gotta have all 4 present for the court of MLers to perform, Barnes does this perfect so far in my mind. Noslers do it also. Gold Dots do it also. There are others that do the court and do it well.
Chap

same here! Either the 200gr or the 250gr. Sometimes the SG's with 2 - 50gr 777 pellets in the Omega and pistol primers and I almost always get 1/2" - 1 1/2" groups at 100yrds..... the shots outside of the bullseye are PowerBelts..Don't care for them at that price...

i call BS on the deer walking around a couple days later w/ no issues. i bet he never touched the second deer. i have had good luck w/ SW bullets

I have killed 7 deer with 250gr shockwaves backed up by 100gr of powder and all I can say is WOW, every deer I have shot has been dead within 35 yds and left a good blood trail. I will never use anything else in a muzzleloader. I suspect you did not hit the deer in the vitals to start with IMO. I might add I can shoot pretty good at 160yds with this load.