Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders TC Shockwaves?

My son shot a 10pt on Saturday with his .50 cal T/C Omega and a 240gr T/C shockwave bullet. He hit it just behind the right shoulder at about 40 yrds. There was almost no blood trail. We finally found the deer at about 110 yrds from point of impact. There was no exit hole on the other side of the deer. He hit no major bones on the right side of the deer. The T/C impact fell apart on the inside of the deer. This is the 2nd or 3rd deer this has happened to us on. Has anyone else had this problem. I'm thinking of switching to Barnes EZ sabots. Thoughts? He was using 85 grn of FF black powder.........but the same thing has happened to me with 100 grn of FF.

40 yards behind the shoulder and "No" exit hole....HMMM!!! Just curious why you are using black powder in an T/C in-line rifle.

I am glad you found the deer.

Doc

Still use black powder for the flintlock........so just easier to keep one type of power on hand. Same ballistics peformance, just "dirtier" right?

yep just dirtier

Never heard of that happening with the Shockwave. Usually it's the other way around, thru n thru without a lot of expansion.

My dad shoots the 200 gr. Shockwaves and we've yet to recover one.

I've never had an issue with Shockwaves, including performance on this guy at 40 yards. He took only three steps.

I use the bonded Shockwave with the blue tip because I've heard of this happening with the non-bonded yellow tip, besides I'm using a 120 Blackhorn Magnum load and I want that bullet to stay together. They are the same diameter and same weight, at least the 250 grain is, in which I think you have a typo?

Shock Wave Sabots Bonded-Cat. No. 8207-250

Why waste a good load you already set up, instead just use the bonded bullet......Problem solved.

Had the blow-ups with regular SW/SSTs as well. Weird deal as most of the time they were thru & thru with great performance. Switched to the bonded version and problem solved.

Until last year, I averaged 7 deer per year (almost all very large does) for at least a decade with an ML. They were all shot with the TC 250 Shockwave black sabot/yellow tip. I only recovered one bullet in all those years. Most of the bullets easily passed through but the shots were also almost all perfect broadside hits through both lungs. I only lost one deer that I definitely should not have. That is a pretty good track record. Most of the deer made it 75 yards before piling up, some a bit further. The blood trails were minimal in my opinion. The ONLY reason I ever left Barnes was because I switched from Knights to TCs and TC bores are tighter. When Barnes came out with the TEZ I made the switch back. While I think the Shockwaves are good, the bullets I have recovered from Barnes are perfect.

I shot a doe last year broadside, 100yds, 250yellow tip shockwave behind the shoulder. One small exit hole behind opposite shoulder and one larger hole coming out the bottom of the belly. Don't ask me how that happened but it wasn't a quick death. I won't be using them again...ever