High purity tungsten shaped charge liners (SCL) were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In order to study the deformation mechanism of pure tungsten under explosion loading condition, the pure tungsten SCL were subjected to static penetration experiments. The microstructure features of retrieved slug were systematically investigated. Results show that the different areas of the retrieved slug show obviously different microstructure features due to different plastic deformation. Through analyzing the microstructure evolution of different areas of the retrieved slug, it can be concluded that the deformation mechanism of pure tungsten subjected to explosion loading is subgrain rotation dynamic recrystallization mechanism (RDR). No twinning deformation was observed. In addition, the original orientation of the CVD columnar grains has no obvious influence on deformation mechanism of pure tungsten under explosion loading conditions