Dynamic yield strengths, compression data under uniaxial shock‐wave loading, and sonic velocities at 1 bar are reported for polycrystalline TiB2, SiC, Be4B, Be4B+8 wt% BeO, Be2B, AlB12, TiBe12, and ZrBe13. Hugoniot elastic limits were measured as 86, 80, 74, 77, 65, 87, 53, and 71 kbar, respectively. Evidence of phase transitions was seen for the Be4B materials at 500 kbar and for SiC at 240 and 960 kbar.