Shockwave 250 gr. Bonded

[lonewolf5348]

I like to ask will the shockwave blue tip perform with a starter load 80 gr. Volume BH 209??
My impact rifle shoot outstanding with
Hornady 44 cal xtp
Hornady 45 cal 240 gr. Mag
Thompson center cheap shots
I find it will shoot excellent with the above.
My shoulder will handle 80 gr. But upping the powder charge the shoulder start feeling the recoil.

 

[dbowling]

Take your T/C recoil pad off and get you a Sims slip on or fitted recoil pad, turns heavy loads into a push..they really reduce recoil for heavy loads.. I would say it will perform as long as you keep distances at or under a 100 yds...if it shoots the others excellent you have listed I would shoot the .44 XTP with that load or the cheap shots.

 

[ENCORE50A]

https://www.amazon.com/Caldwell-Sup...&s=gateway&sprefix=past+recoil,aps,162&sr=8-3

 

[sabinajiles]

Take your T/C recoil pad off and get you a Sims slip on or fitted recoil pad, turns heavy loads into a push..they really reduce recoil for heavy loads..

This. The Limbsaver pads are great and really worth it.

 

[ronlaughlin]

onewolf5348,

My opinion........the shockwave is definitely not a good choice for a reduced recoil load. The TC Cheap Shot would be a much better choice for you. Of the bullets you listed, the Cheap Shot is the only one i would take hunting with the 80 grain load. A bullet you didn't mention, that worked great this year for the boy, and myself is the 250g Deep Curl. Our load was only 90 grain Blackhorn, and the three deer we killed, fell right on the spot.

Use the Cheap Shot; enjoy the taste of the deer it provides.

 

[LarryBud]

If reduced recoil is the goal, the .40, 200 grain Hornady XTP with the Harvester 40/50 Crushed Rib Sabots would be a fine choice. Pair it with 80-90 grains of your powder of choice and it will be an effective, soft shooting load which will get the job done.

 

[dbowling]

Ive killed a bunch of deer with the 240 gr XTP and 80-90 gr of Pyrodex RS, out to a bit over 100 yds( a bunch closer in the 35-75 yd range), a couple out to about 140 yds. They all had their lungs turned to jelly and all had a exit hole.
I shot one doe at about 130 yds quartering slightly away on snow covered ground and bullet entered mid chest and exited low on opposite shoulder, there was blood spray 10 ft in the snow and she dropped where she was standing.. her lungs were mush also..
The regular xtp may not do great in the test with lower powder loads but they perform exceptionally well on deer and this is from shooting a bunch of them.

 

[GM54-120]

I would have to go with Ron on this one. The 250gr DeepCurl is a great choice for 80gr loads of BH209. CheapShot should be fine too. Western claims around 1700-1800fps with 80grV and a 250gr.

You probably could drop down to a 200gr bullet if you wanted to reduce recoil further. Even with a 200gr you are probably still gunna make more FPE than a 44mag can.

 

[Dougs136Schwartz]

With reduced loads I love .40 cal bullets

 

[Confederate rifleman]

TC Cheap Shot with 40 grains of 3f T7. 1350 fps. My daughter and me have taken a pile of deer with this load, from 15 ft to 125 yards. Zero complaints.
The 40 cal. 180 and 200 grain XTP's are excellent when driven by 3f Swiss black
180 and 50 grains gives 1550 fps and 60 grains 1750 from my .45 caliber Black Diamond XR. The 200s do 1700 with 60 grains and 1800 with 70 grains.
My hands down favorite deer load is a 250 grain 45 cal XTP in a crush rib sabot over 70 grains of 3f Swiss for 1570 fps.
The most important thing with lighter loads is matching bullet construction to the desired velocity. Hornady provides velocity charts for the XTP line.

 

[Lee 9]

The short answer to the bonded bullet with 80 grains is that while accurate it won't open I push them at over 2200 fps to get them to work properly on deer.
For 80 grains the Bloodline would be best the XTP next. My opinion after some live experiments on deer and hogs.

 

[CatamountRob]

My daughters and I use 80 grains of BH209 with the 250 grain bonded Shockwaves. No ones ever missed one and I’ve never had to track one because none of them got out of sight. There are probably a half dozen more.
The furthest shot was 90 yards, the closest probably 20 or so.

 

[ENCORE50A]

There is no such thing as a "failure" bullet. However, there is such a thing as "failure of proper shot placement".

 

[ronlaughlin]

Twice deer ended up in our freezer when the bullet, in my opinion, failed. In both situation, the powder charge was 90 grain Blackhorn. In one case, the range was 155 yard. The bullet was a Deep Curl. This deer was shot through both lungs, and the deer leaped just the same as lung shot do on TV. Then it ran up hill, and ran, and ran, and ran some more. The snow barely showed a fine red mist, which allowed me to trail the correct deer. Opening the chest showed both lungs with perfect nice round 44 caliber holes through. The second bullet was a Partition, and the result was the same. Both lungs had perfect 44 caliber holes through.

 

[Dougs136Schwartz]

I had the same thing happen twice Ron with .44 cal XTP bullets with 70 grains FFF true Black inside of 100 yards. Double lung holes same size of bullet. Also had a buddy shoot a doe length wise we found the XTP bullet same load 70 grains FFF black. We could of put that bullet back in a sabot and shot the bullet again. Maybe they were mag XTPs I really don’t know but I doubt it because they were 250 grain if I remember correctly. I still have some of the bullets laying in my box.

I am not bashing anyone’s favorite bullet just telling my experience.

 

[ENCORE50A]

Its been discussed about shot placement before and a lack of a heavy blood trail. Place that bullet, or a marble, through the pump station and problems with poor blood trails are almost always completely resolved. A deer size animal is just not a hard animal to kill.

There's an awful lot of body cavity to fill with blood when shooting through the lungs, especially high in the lungs, and there's not always a blood trail, even up to the point that the animal expires. It happens.
However, punch a complete pass through an animal and if the bullet passes through the heart, there's very little body cavity to fill before blood starts gushing out. Bullet, conical, round ball or marble, its meat on the ground and into the freezer.

 

[Chick]

If you want a good blood trail, you must hit low. If you hit high through the lungs, the blood will fill the body cavity first, before it can get to the exit wound. I have used the Hornady SST without a problem, and is basically the same bullet.

 

[Dougs136Schwartz]

I think that was Encore50s point . Which I completely agree but if a poor shot is made with bad bullet placement that is when a good bullet operating properly may make the difference from recovering the animal or loosing the animal.

I personally want every advantage I can get.

 

[SuperKirby]

My experience this last year was a mid entrance and low exit. The only problem was a baseball sized ball of fat that popped out and plugged the exit hole. The chest cavity still had to fill up before the blood trail was good but there was enough internal trauma that it didn't matter much anyway. Point is, a lack of blood trail isn't always from poor bullet performance. Almost all bullets will perform with in their intended parameters. The problem is that so many times we push bullets to perform outside of these and then blame the bullet.

 

[ENCORE50A]

......... if a poor shot is made with bad bullet placement that is when a good bullet operating properly may make the difference from recovering the animal or loosing the animal...……...I personally want every advantage I can get.

That is why we shoot so many bullets each year, learning to "place the shot" properly

Not even the best bullet made, if there is one, will make up for a poorly placed shot. Every year without fail, we read where some hunter states, "I put it right in the boiler room", yet they had little to no blood to trail and then never recovered the animal. Yeah, right in the boiler room
Then you add in the archers, who loose many animals to high shots and complain that their specific broadhead is junk, because of no blood trail and a lost animal.

People seem to have the opinion that everything has to be completely perfect with bullets, create categories to label them and attempt convince others that they are failures or passed, when for a couple hundred years +, projectiles that worked for harvesting millions of animals, would be considered complete junk today.