falcon

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.

falcon

Deleted by falcon. New thread.

passthru79

I shot two deer last weekend with a 200 grain shockwave. The first one was approximately 75 yards and the exit hole on that one was half again the size of a quarter. Even with a large exit and in snow the blood trail wasnt great. The second doe was at 180 yards and I made a poor shot on her. It was a low liver hit and the bullet stayed in her. I probably wouldnt have found any blood except for the snow. Ive hunted alot with shotguns and a good blood trail with a shotgun is usualy the exception not the rule. Even though these are my first deer with my muzzle loader, Im sure the same goes for them as well.

Chasam60

I have killed 4 deer with the 250 SST 2 kills were DRT 2 were long tracks with very little blood. All were recovered,but 50% difficult recovery rate is not acceptable for me. There are people I know that would have lost at least one of those animals. I will never shoot another deer with anything but a Nosler Partition. Sure sometimes they will require tracking,but they always leave good blood.This is my experience,yours may differ,but you should shoot with confidence in your ability to make a good shot,and the performance of your bullet. IMO Noslers rule.

Charlie

heinz57

we used to hunt with the 250 gr. shockwave sst ..these bullets are very ACCURATE in most MLrs. we don't shoulder shot our deer [waste of good meat] we shoot behind the shoulder [lung shots] and the HORNADY SST were not the best hunting bullet on the market ...no blood trail .complete pass through = lost game ...we are now shooting the BARNES EXPANDER 250GR. and our loosing deer problem was solved..

mnprohunter

It seems as if there a few types of bullets/sabots that don't produce much blood. I have been fortunate that by muzzleloader season in Mn, there has been snow on the ground every year, otherwise I am not sure that I would found my deer b/c I may have chocked a couple up as misses....but upon long searching in the snow, I would finally find some "minor blood". I always watch the reaction of the deer very intently to see if its hit and that has saved me many a deer b/c I have kept searching even with no blood in the snow for a ways...This fall I will trying a few different sabots on deer to see what works best. I could careless if it shoots good on paper....most every one of them I have tried does, it's what the sabot does on game that is what I care about.

ampelart

I shot two deer in N.Y with barnes Ex. I hit the Doe 80y in the neck shoulder joint, exited far side rib. Great blood trail. 50y run for the 1rst deer, 35y for the 2nd. shot deer ran 30 y no blood. p.s. my gun hang-fired, but the shooting sticks' held it steady, lifted my head off stock to look at hammer, gun finally fired and hit deer behind shoulder, amazed me. N.Y. has tracking dogs, great service.

spaniel

I caution evaluating a bullet on a deer that is not found. No matter how well you felt about the shot, if you don't find it you don't know. I've helped track a lot of deer people swore were hit good, but when you finally find them it was a terrible shot. No deer shot through the lungs is going to travel hundreds of yards.

But as someone else stated, if you've lost faith in any part of your equipment you should replace it. Doubt in the field only increases the odds of something going wrong.

falcon

+1
Same here. Last deer and elk season i tracked and found 7 animals for other hunters. One bow hunter got a good lung hit on a big buck late in the afternoon. We found that deer the next morning after the coyotes got to it. According to the GPS it went just over 130 yards from where it was hit.

All the other guys were hunting with shotguns and slugs, muzzleloader or C/F rifles. Four of those guys claimed it was a good shot when it was not, one readily fessed up to shooting an elk in the guts, and one thought he missed but wanted a second opinion; we found his big doe.

hunter90899

I was able to recover an SST Shockwave blue tip (bonded) bullet from the deer I took over the weekend. The deer was quartering towards me at about 35 yrds. The bullet passed through and ended up in the deers back left leg. I am shooting the 250 gr at 100 gr 777, even at sucha close range you would think there would be some expansion in the bullet, there was none. in fact other than the blood and some hair stuck in the blue tip it looks like it has never been shot. A bullet change may be in my future.