doetrain

I shot a nice 8 pointer Thursday at 30 yards,put the crosshairs on the lung area. I had proof I hit the liver also based upon some very dark blood found pooled up on the ground. I have heard some say that the shockwave sabots have a history of not doing much damage when making contact and just blowing through leaving a small hole. Is this true or not based on past threads about them. I could not find the Buck,I'm convinced he made it across a guys yard then road onto private property or further. He went some 350 yards to get to the road after I hit him,any thoughts about these bullets based on past expierence?

MountainDevil54

Like Powerbelt Bullets - Some love them, others hate them. I personally would prefer to spend a little more for hunting bullets and go with a Barnes.

Sorry to hear about the lost deer, better luck to you next time out.

Big Z

Ahh, the ol' "Bullet Failure" one

Shockwaves are a stupid simple design...can't say, aside from jacket separation, I've had any "problems."

doetrain

I'm not blaming the bullet, I simply did not get it done. I had heard negative comments about the brand and wondered if there was a flaw in it as regards not spreading out like a hollow point type round. I know they are very accurate in my TC out to at least 150 yards. I fired it twice after the shot taken at 100 yards and both shots were dead on. The gun did it's job,the round hit what I aimed at but the deer simply did not go down but managed to run quite a distance or is tuck up under a thicket I just can't see. I'm going out today and see if I can smell him or spot buzzards circling.

falcon

My only problem with the 250 grain SST/Shockwave bullets came when i didn't put the bullet in the right place. i did track those animals down and recover them.

Bullet placement is critical when the place you hunt is close to property you are not allowed to enter.

nysmoker

I am goint to go out ona limb here and say its not the bullet . If you hit lung / liver short of hitting a rib , this is soft tissue hit . Not many muzzloader rounds shot into a deer size target will expand in soft tissue and they arnt going to upset tissue by velocity.A single lung /liver hit deer will live 6-12 hours.Had you wated 8 hrs and not pushed the buck it would have been where you jumped him off the bed .I am not condeming you .. or the bullets as thats what im currently using .But i spend alot of time tracking deer... and see alot of worst case senario recoverys .

lemoyne

Pictures of what a 250 Shock Wave does with a lung heart hit.
This was a 250gr bonded Shock Wave it actually blew the top of the heart out of the animal it was laying on the ground in a swath of blood about 4inches wide and about 14 inches long the deer ran about 25 yds and left spots of blood 6inches in diameter.
I have used Shock Waves for years off and on. I like to try different ones,I have used Deep Curl 250gr and the Lehigh 200 and 250 gr and placed tight against the foreleg they all put deer down in 30 or 40 yds or less. I am afraid you might have hit to far back, it would have to have been on a fair amount of angle to hit both liver and lungs and normally a good square liver hit will put a deer down in 150 yds or less.

762nato

I don't use any of these fancy muzzloader bullets.

ShockWaves may shoot well, but are too expensive.

Powerbelts are crap. Occasionally the plastic skirt seperates from the bullet in the barrel. The result is the bullet tumbles instead of spinniing missing the target. I have been told this doesn't happen if you use loose powder, but I use 777 pellets.

I buy Hornady 240 grain .44 cal hollowpoints that would normally be used for pistol cartrage reloading. I box of 100 cost about $20. Then I buy a bag of 50 of the green Hornady sabots. With this combination I get cloverleafs at 100 yds. Every deer I shot with this dropped in his tracks.The only problem is the sabots dry out after a long time making them hard and difficult to get down the barrell. I am going to try boiling some of them to see if that softens them up.

mountaineer magic

deleted : no longer want to be on the forum

Chasam60

I have taken 4 deer with Shockwave bullets.2 hit bone on entry,and the animals were recovered quickly.2 did not hit bone on entry and penciled through,requiring long tracking jobs.Dead is dead,but even with a good chest shot,you sometimes hit between the ribs.50% is not good enough for me.I switched to Nosler,they open quickly every time.