This paper presents designs and performance investigations of two bypass-type MR (magneto-rheological) shock dampers for high impulsive force systems, one of which is with single rod and the other with double rod. First of all, on the basis of the Bingham properties of the MR fluid and the magnetic field analysis of the magnetic circuit, the MR shock dampers are designed and manufactured. After experimental investigations on their magnetic field-dependent damping forces and responses characteristics, dynamic models of the proposed dampers are formulated and compared. Then, a simple 1 degree-of-freedom mass-drop system is constructed, and the effective and practical control algorithm is designed by considering dynamic characteristics of the shock control system. The shock control performances of the proposed MR shock dampers are verified through the comparison study of experiment results with simulation ones.