Previous experiments have suggested that tungsten undergoes a significant loss of shear strength when shock loaded to stresses greater than 7 GPa. In order to investigate this effect in more detail, a series of experiments was conducted in which polycrystalline tungsten was first shock loaded to approximately 10 GPa and then either unloaded or reloaded from the shocked state. Analysis of measured time‐resolved wave profiles indicates that during initial compression to 9.7 GPa, the shear stress in polycrystalline tungsten increases to a maximum value of 1.1 GPA near a longitudinal stress of 5 GPa, but decreases to a final value of 0.8 GPa for stresses approaching 10 GPa. During reloading from a longitudinal stress of 9.7 GPa to a final value of ∼14 GPa, the shear stress increases to a peak value of 1.2 GPa and softens to 1.0 GPa in the final state. During unloading from the shocked state, the initial response is elastic with a strong Baushinger effect. Examination of a recovered sample shows evidence for both deformation slipping and twinning, which may be responsible for the observed softening.