T/C Shockwave terminal performance

Dutch · Oct 5, 2009

Anybody using the T/C Shockwave experience problems with bullet expansion with them on a deer? I read some mixed reviews on them...good accuracy, so-so terminal performance on deer.

Just wondering, I have some 250gr to try with my new .50 M/L, I have been using 225gr P/B in my .45 M/L with no issues, even though I have read mixed reviews on them as well.

I think alot of the bad reviews have to do with shot placement not the bullet.

Jim Thompson · Oct 5, 2009

dutch I use 250gr bonded shocks without issue. some pass through and some dont. never really paid much attention to the actual expansion since the deer are always laying dead real close by

wtailchaser · Oct 6, 2009

I use the 250 gr. also. I have not had one that I could check out after a successful hunt. Like Jim said, there has been a dead deer close by.

FERAL ONE · Oct 6, 2009

dutch, i am new to the shockwaves but i was very pleased with the blood trail left by the one deer i shot with them.

HandgunHTR · Oct 6, 2009

I have been using the Shockwaves for about 5 years now. I have yet to lose a deer that was hit by them and it turns the insides to jelly.
I was thinking about going to the bonded bullets for my bear hunt but decided against it. I will make sure to update this if I shoot one this weekend.

mr4shootin · Oct 6, 2009

With a .50 caliber hole, who needs expansion? ::ke:

captainhook · Oct 9, 2009

Shockwaves are the best muzzleloader projectile I have ever used. They always seem to expand and leave an exit wound about twice the entrance. Great blood trail and always a dead deer. Powerbelts are the worst, I have had point blank kills and shots to 100 yds with the powerbelt with no exit. The first ones that came out are the ones I used. No exit, little blood. The pbs overexpanded and underpenetrated. The pbs and shockwaves are both very accurate and I can easily hit my target at 200 yds easily with my 209 x 50 Encore (first years production). I only shoot 100 gr of 777 with either projectile as this is the most accurate. Even with this load I achieve pass throughs at over 100 yds on broadside targets consistently. The only shockwave I ever recovered struck the buck in the front shoulder and lodged on the skin of the opposite ham after traversing the entire animal. Upon recovery It looked just like a projectile fired from a high powered rifle. I was sitting on the ground and grunted the buck in to 60 yds hence the shot angle. For best accuracy I use 777 patches to clean between shots which enables consistent bullet seating.

Good luck and best wishes!

ultramag · Oct 9, 2009

captainhook said:
Shockwaves are the best muzzleloader projectile I have ever used. They always seem to expand and leave an exit wound about twice the entrance. Great blood trail and always a dead deer. Powerbelts are the worst, I have had point blank kills and shots to 100 yds with the powerbelt with no exit. The first ones that came out are the ones I used. No exit, little blood. The pbs overexpanded and underpenetrated. The pbs and shockwaves are both very accurate and I can easily hit my target at 200 yds easily with my 209 x 50 Encore (first years production). I only shoot 100 gr of 777 with either projectile as this is the most accurate. Even with this load I achieve pass throughs at over 100 yds on broadside targets consistently. The only shockwave I ever recovered struck the buck in the front shoulder and lodged on the skin of the opposite ham after traversing the entire animal. Upon recovery It looked just like a projectile fired from a high powered rifle. I was sitting on the ground and grunted the buck in to 60 yds hence the shot angle. For best accuracy I use 777 patches to clean between shots which enables consistent bullet seating.

Good luck and best wishes!

Just what Captain Hook said...That is exactly what i experienced also

Jay Hughes · Oct 10, 2009

I just switch from the regular super slicks to the bonded super slicks. The bonded has the blue tip. It should get better penetration as far as a shoulder shot is concerned!

LanceColeman · Oct 10, 2009

never had an issue out of TC shockwaves. It's basically a hornady XTP with a different color tip and packaged in a TC package. outstanding round for 50 cals.

jdrawdy · Oct 12, 2009

Shiockwaves worked great this weekend, two of the guys i was hunting with killed something this weekend using them. One was using the same load i shoot (200 grain shockwave with 120 grn 777) shot a doe at 30 yards. Clean pass through with an exit hole about the size of a 50 cent piece. The other shot a hog at 90 yards right behind the ears using a 250 grn with 100 grn of 777. Both were recovered within minutes, the doe went about 20-yards and the hog dropped in her tracks. Great performance imo.

devolve · Oct 12, 2009

killed one deer with the shockwave, bullet went through WITHOUT EXPANSION!! broadside, 90 yards in the shoulder, 180+lb buck. Had to shoot him again while he layed there flopping around trying to get up. The farthest I could get away from him and still see him while he was on the ground was 15 yards. I had to shoot him the 2nd time in the spine at 15 yards with a 50 cal!!!! I will NEVER shoot that bullet again.

since then, 7 deer with the XTP and ALL of them went down for the count. Ridiculous expansion and dug every single bullet out of all 7 deer.

HandgunHTR · Oct 12, 2009

devolve said:
killed one deer with the shockwave, bullet went through WITHOUT EXPANSION!! broadside, 90 yards in the shoulder, 180+lb buck. Had to shoot him again while he layed there flopping around trying to get up. The farthest I could get away from him and still see him while he was on the ground was 15 yards. I had to shoot him the 2nd time in the spine at 15 yards with a 50 cal!!!! I will NEVER shoot that bullet again.

since then, 7 deer with the XTP and ALL of them went down for the count. Ridiculous expansion and dug every single bullet out of all 7 deer.

So, the deer dropped where it stood and because it didn't die immediately, it was the bullet's fault?

If you hit it in the shoulder and it didn't expire in 30 seconds, but it dropped, you must have hit it high shoulder. The fact that the deer didn't die immediately was a shot placement issue, not a bullet issue.

And BTW, the Shockwave is made by Hornady and is the same construction as the XTP with a plastic tip put in the hollow-point.

devolve · Oct 12, 2009

HandgunHTR said:
So, the deer dropped where it stood and because it didn't die immediately, it was the bullet's fault?

If you hit it in the shoulder and it didn't expire in 30 seconds, but it dropped, you must have hit it high shoulder. The fact that the deer didn't die immediately was a shot placement issue, not a bullet issue.

And BTW, the Shockwave is made by Hornady and is the same construction as the XTP with a plastic tip put in the hollow-point.

wrong there bud, You missed everything I said and read what you wanted to. THE BULLET NEVER EXPANDED. SAME SIZE ENTRY AND EXIT HOLE. And after a lengthy conversation with greg ritz about it at the shot show that year he agreed something was wrong with the particular run of bullets. all were sent back and they sent me the xtp's to try out because in t/c's own words "the xtp bullet design has been more effective in ballistic gel tests than the shockwave".

have a nice day.

--c--

devolve · Oct 12, 2009

HandgunHTR said:
And BTW, the Shockwave is made by Hornady and is the same construction as the XTP with a plastic tip put in the hollow-point.

O' forgot to mention,

According to t/c and hornady the shockwave and sst are the same. there are differences between both aforementioned bullets and the xtp, including down range ballistics and kenetic energy retention.

HandgunHTR · Oct 13, 2009

devolve said:
wrong there bud, You missed everything I said and read what you wanted to. THE BULLET NEVER EXPANDED. SAME SIZE ENTRY AND EXIT HOLE. And after a lengthy conversation with greg ritz about it at the shot show that year he agreed something was wrong with the particular run of bullets. all were sent back and they sent me the xtp's to try out because in t/c's own words "the xtp bullet design has been more effective in ballistic gel tests than the shockwave".

have a nice day.

--c--

No I didn't read it wrong.

I made an inferrence based on what you wrote that you hit the deer high shoulder. Was this correct or incorrect?

As for the "no expansion" part, how can you be certain of this without recovering the bullet? I highly doubt that the exit and entry wounds were the same size, and even if they were, it could be explained by the petals of the bullet being sheared off by bone, leaving only the base to exit. It is very difficult to tell the difference between .45" and .65" on a hide that is flexible and movable, let alone one that is covered in hair, blood and meat.

I refuse to pass judgment on anything with only one data point as "proof".

LanceColeman · Oct 13, 2009

Warning graphic pictures

My wife made it possible for me to do a little illustration for TC shockwaves this morning.

This is the entrance wound side of a doe shot with 100grs of shockeys gold and a 250gr TC shockwave from a distance of about 60-70yds. It centered a rib and put a fairly large wound opening in the ribcage.

Now here's a deceptive picture of the exit wound, doesn't seem like much damage or wound from the outside. Notice she pretty much centered the shoulder on exit.

But a look underneath shows not only the actual size of the exit wound but also the internal damage done. Notice all the blood thats flown from beneath the shoulder muscles and down in to the fat (yes she was an extremely fat doe as well, lots of that clear bubbly fat all down her sides.)

Although her shot was a little high and the angle not perfect (I sure aint gonna tell my wife that!) the deer only went 40yds and piled up dead.

devolve · Oct 13, 2009

HandgunHTR said:
No I didn't read it wrong.

I made an inferrence based on what you wrote that you hit the deer high shoulder. Was this correct or incorrect?

As for the "no expansion" part, how can you be certain of this without recovering the bullet? I highly doubt that the exit and entry wounds were the same size, and even if they were, it could be explained by the petals of the bullet being sheared off by bone, leaving only the base to exit. It is very difficult to tell the difference between .45" and .65" on a hide that is flexible and movable, let alone one that is covered in hair, blood and meat.

I refuse to pass judgment on anything with only one data point as "proof".

not high shoulder, in the shoulder.

I knew I shouldn't have even posted anything on here. To many people know more than everyone else. I guess your one of those people. You weren't there when it happened but I guess you know better than I would huh?

I merely posted my results and findings which is what the original poster wanted.

Have fun arguing with yourself on the internet you win im done on this one...

mi.sabot · Nov 3, 2009

I have a bit of mixed emotions regarding the shockwaves.

I was shooting the 250 gr easy glides over 85 gr of loose 777 using the 25ACp ignition.
Accuracy was outstanding!

Now within our hunting group over the last 2 years, 7 deer have been taken with 7 shots all using the 250 gr. easy glides.
Can't complain with the success ratio. 6 of the 7 have been bang flops. Again not a bad ratio.

But the 2 kills that I have personally been involved with didn't convinve me that this is the bullet I will stick with.

Case 1: I was in the blind with my son 2 yrs ago and he decided to take a relatively small doe at a relatively close range. I was ok with this as it was going to be the first deer he was attempting to harvest. A perfectly placed shot behind the shoulder resulted in a relatively long tracking job. Fortunately there was snow on the ground to follow what I would considered to be a very very light blood trail.

Case 2: Last year I bang flopped a nice doe standing broadside at 130 yds. Entrance wound in the front shoulder, exit wound near the rear on the opposite side. Bullet ran right thru the tenderloins. Hmmmm? Could she have started to turn as I squeezed the trigger, possibly, but I really don't think that was the case.

I really can't argue with the end results but nonetheless I'll be taking some Barnes T-EZs into the woods this season.

Two hit with Shockwaves, the other by a Ford F-150!

Public Land Prowler · Jan 30, 2010

Have not lost a single hog or deer since using t/c 250gr shockwaves,and 150 gr pyrodex pellets..In my old T/C Omega,and currently in my t/c triumph...proofs in the pictures..

Even for the wife..lol

T/C Shockwave terminal performance

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