200 Grain Shockwave

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The bullet now weighs 164g. At 25 yard, pushed by 80g Blackhorn, it went through carpet, plywood, 3 jugs, and into the fourth jug where it was found. The fifth jug can be used another day. The first jug was destroyed, flattened, and flew 15-20 feet off to the left, and away. The second jug was split top to bottom on the front face. The third jug had a hole in and out; the fourth jug had a hole in, and held the bullet.
 
That is the bullet I am currently shooting. I have strongly considered it a deer hunting bullet, pushed by 90 grains of Black Horn. Great Video!! It kind of boosted my confidence in the bullet. And they are really accurate to shoot.
 
Ive seen no reason not to use the 200gr SST. It even held up very well in Doohans ballistic gel test years ago. It shoots very flat and will make 2 holes in a deer more often than not. Ive seen it plow through a deer on a high shoulder shot at sub speeds. The bullet ruined a lot of meat. You only need to be a little careful of shot placement at non smoker speeds.
 
This one is a 200gr Shockwave recovered from ballistics gelatin.

200 SW over 115gr T-7 ffg - 150gr retained - 21.5"penetration
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For a comparison in the same media.
250 SW over 95gr. T-7ffg - 190gr retained - 18.5" penetration
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Looks like it held up better than a 250gr .452 to me.
 
Most of these bullets tested through the carpet, plywood, and water jugs, i have never hunted with. Reason is i have mostly hunted with Deep Curl bullets. Most of the Deep Curl bullets i had, i sold, because it seemed they were too valuable to shoot at anything but animals.

However, this particular bullet i have hunted with, and do have some first hand knowledge of how it performs on animals. What i did seasons ago, was spot a herd of antelope in the evening , and sneak on them the next morning. My sneak went well for hundreds of yards, but finally the terrain exposed me, and it was about all i could do to crawl on my belly and get as close as i dared. It was very difficult to range them, because of the grass, and the range finder kept reading 30 yard. Finally it read 340 yard on the hill behind them, so i figured i had a 325 yard shot. I was in full view of the antelope herd, so i decided to shoot while i had a chance. My tag was good only for antlerless, so i carefully glassed the herd, and found a doe that was sleeping kinda broad side to me. After breathing, and practicing, i took the shot. The bullet hit high through one lung, and clipped the backbone. She, never got up; she died in her bed.



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The rifle used that day was the same rifle used this day. However the powder charge that day was 115g Blackhorn.




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The gps fell out of my pocket whilst crawling like a snake, but it was easy to back trail, because of the furrow i left in the grass.




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That picture of my crawl trail, always makes me laugh. Another good happen, was i never crawled into a cactus. After being able to stand, i ranged the dead antelope at 314 yard from where i shot. Two deer also fell to this bullet. One was at about 110 yard, and the other was out at 173 yard per the range finder.

There was no evidence on these 3 animals that the bullet failed to expand.
 
Found another photo taken that day.




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Those are the antelope. They were bedded there in the dry lake bed. The photo seems to show 3 nice bucks...maybe. They ran off at the shot. Now they are around 500, maybe 600 yard away. Up in the right hand corner are some more antelope, that spooked out of the next coulee at the shot; i didn't know they were there. The dead one is in the lake bed closer than shown in the photo.

At any rate, the bullet seemed to work well that day, on a real live breathing animal.




Those photo of the unexpanded bullet... they were recovered from inside a white tail deer? It seems to me that if a bullet doesn't expand it penetrates deep. All the tests done using the carpet, plywood, and water jugs have shown that to be true. Expanded bullets usually don't penetrate as deeply as the unexpanded bullets. To me this seems to be common knowledge is it not? Those unexpanded bullets should have penetrated through and through any whitetail in the world, and only been found out beyond the deer... It is kinda like they were shot with a sling shot or some such.
 
Yes, they were found inside whitetails, using the propellants as indicated. You can actually see the hair stuck between the tip and the jacket on one bullet.

There's a lot of controversy over SW bullets from different shooters around the country but, never about accuracy. They can be very accurate. Problem is, no one ever knows what a pass through bullet looks like.

How about a couple photos of its brother..........



 
ENCORE50A wrote, The SW is controversial with some hunters.

I agree but also add the SST to that.

I had a bad experience too with them. It was the 250 gn SST and had 3 pencil through the same deer. The deer just kept getting up and moving off. This was my first experience with it too. Did not use it in the field again. Yup was Very accurate, maybe the most accurate I have shot. But the experience left me with no confidence in it. A couple years later my nephew called me before deer season and wanted to shoot "Something else". When I asked why he said that the last few deer he shot with both the 300 and 250gn did the same for him. He was using them because they were real easy to get. He is now shooting the 300 XTP and could not be happier.

I was one that initially bashed this bullet. But after reading so many positive results with them, as well as others with similar experiences to mine, I started wondering why they had a good result and we did not. :huh?: That is why I asked the question above. So far most that responded to my questions about failures (250 and 300gn) were shooting loads of Pellets (Pyrodex and 777) and most with good results were shooting loose. :think: So far I seem to read about more reliable expansion with the 200 grain over the heavier 250 and 300 (Non- bonded). I am still on the fence about the bullet and still wonder what the reasons are. Pellet loads seem to be one reason, both me and my Nephew were shooting pellets loads at the time, so I am thinking that Velocity is a big reason for the issues some have had.

I myself now shoot the Deep Curls in my 50cals and am Very happy with its reliability. But am still very curious about why the SST/Shockwave works for some and not others.
 
Thanks for the test Ron. Barring any major changes, this will be the bullet I'm taking to the woods this fall. The last deer I took was with a 300 gr. SST. That was the first year I hunted with smokeless. The deer was shot with a moderate load of Re7 at about 40 yards. As I was about to shoot, I instantly started running through all the things I had read about the bullet failing in these situations. I took the shot anyway, and at the shot the deer dropped his head, started a death run and made it about 5 yards before going head first into a tree and doing a back flip, and that was that. I had read about a bullet turning an animals insides into jelly. We opened up the chest cavity and literally poured the lungs and heart out. I still remember my Dad's amazement and saying he had never seen a bullet work that well before.

Point of this is that my experience with the 300 gr. was good. I hope it goes as well with the 200 gr.
 
Kirby, have no fear. The 200gr SST or 200gr Shockwave perform fine on deer. High shoulder shots will damage a lot of meat especially if pushed fast. Countless people on Dougs have shot deer with the 200gr SST at much faster speeds. The bullet does very well when used for "boiler room" shots.
 
After shooting 20 or more deer with the 200 grn shockwave out of my 45 knight I have had 1 failure. That was due to poor placement, shot hit the elbow and came apart, The others have all been a copy of the test, good expansion, although recovery hasn't been possible. Out of the Knight velocity is 2270. It is a lot to ask of any bullet to expand quickly yet stay together. In my type of hunting non-expansion is as bed as over expansion. Deer hit high thru the lungs with a pencil wound run like they weren't touched and leave very little blood till they go down. I'll take the expansion. Great test It verifys what I seen first hand
 

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