avengerboy

I have had a horrible time with these bullets. First i shot a doe right behind the shoulder and half of the bullet broke off and went into the guts. Second i shot a doe right in the shoulder and it riped a chunk of flesh off but it never penitrated and the deer was seen walking arouond fine about two days later so i threw them in the box. But i am possitive it is'nt due to the powder because i haven't had any problems before and we went up to our closest dealer and they have gotten tons of complants about this same bullet wich is made by hornady.

loadbreak

Are these the blue tipped bonded bullets or the non bonded yellow tips?

cayugad

While there are lots of complaints about the bullet.. there are others that swear by them. It seems strange that some people have such great luck with a bullet hunting the same kind of animal while someone else has terrible luck. I always wonder why they work in one situation and not another.

DeerandbearhoG

Sorry to hear that, however that has not been my experience w/ SWs . I used them on 3 deer last year using the bonded 250 ,and the farthest one went 35 yds and wound channels were impressive!. I just posted pics of the grousome holes and deep penetration in the buck I shot this year ,using the std 250 SW. IMO for the price, you cant beat em.

As to why they didnt work for you, I wish I had an answer for you.

Curious though ,on the 2nd doe, how do you know what the bullet actually did, if the deer was still walking around , are you sure you didnt miss, are you even sure it was the same doe if it was "walking around fine two days later"? I would imagine if the deer was hit in the shoulder w/ a large cal. bullet it would at least have a limp, even if the bullet didnt penetrate much.

cayugad

I think he recovered the first one, and not the second?? So he has one doe that the bullet fragmented on and the second he is claiming he shot it in the shoulder and it splattered without penetration. He must have been real close on that second deer.

I honestly think if all my shots were close, I would he using a 300 grain XTP and let that thing splatter inside and do the deed.

sabotloader

avengerboy

Think Cayugad probably said it best.... Good and Bad...

I have often heard and do continue to hear stories about the lack of SST/SW performance @ closer ranges - that seems to be the common denomiator. I am not a pointy bullet fan - at the ranges I hunt in and shoot in a 200+ yard is not even thought of. and anything inside that 200 yard range is easily covered by a variety of non-pointy bullets...

This was written by a well respected (at least by me) poster...

Might take a look at thr whole thread if you want to...

http://www.modernmuzzleloader.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10479

falcon

i've shot deer and hogsat ranges of 20 yards to 192 yards with the 250 grain SST/Shockwave: The vast majority of those kills were bang flops. Never had an animal get away. Never had to trail a deer or hogshot with an SST/Shockwave either. A couple of animals were down but needed a coup de grace so they did not suffer any more than necessary.

About half of myshots on deer and the vast majority of my shotson hogs with the SST/Shockwave do not exit. That tells me that they are expanding. I know that at least somethat exited expanded on90-120pound deer that were hit behind the shoulderbecause of the size of the exit hole.

One guy says they blow up on a very thin shoulder bone and another says they fully penetrate the animal without expanding. The search for the elusive bullet that will turn a gut shot into a bang flop 100 percent of the time continues. When you find it let me know so i can buy some. My record of gut shots this year is unenviable. But then i did recover them all.

MagnumMan308

IMO you've got to treat Shockwaves in a ML just like you would treat a Ballistic Tip in a centerfire. They are not made for up close hunting, and they will not always exit. What they will do is shoot very accurately, make a great load for a hunter who reaches out a ways, and work up close if you are careful with your shot placement.

I had one this year that didn't exit, and because of that, it left a lousy bloodtrail on an otherwise fantastic shot. I don't consider that to be the bullets fault, or even a failure. It did what it was supposed to do, it hit exactly where I aimed, and it opened quickly, and itshredded the vitals. I was just too close, and velocity was too high, it pulled apart instead staying together and exiting. Thats about what I expected given what I've seen with Ballistic Tips at close range. I would not hesitate to load my ML with Shockwaves again.

That said, with the stand placement I've settled on for now, 75yards is as far as I can see. Next yearI will be using something more suited for close range woods hunting, like Barnes Expanders, not a SST/Shockwave.

gregrn43

I cant say to much about sw. I just started using them this year and took a 8pt at fifty yards. The bullet performed perfectly. Exit hole was about twice as big as the entrance hole. The buck ran 40 yards maybe. I must add that I was shooting the bonded sw.

lemoyne

This is getting a bit confusing, for one person they fragment like a Power Belt for the next they go through the shoulder bones with out opening up. And for me they have worked just fine. I did hear that both the plastic tip and the bullet were changed and I hope that's not where the problem is as I bought a large batch of them on sale two years a go and they have have preformed well.
I personally like to load with 250gr Gold Dot when hunting on my own property which is very thick but I usually get a permit to hunt the National Wildlife Refuge and the is a WMA about 12 miles away that is very good hunting and in those places I have a couple spots where I might get a shot as far as I am willing to shoot, there I want SW's.
Lee