Mixtures of Zr+B and Hf+B were shock compacted into bulk samples possessing relative densities above 95.5% and were subsequently converted to ZrB2 and HfB2 ceramic components by a heat treatment. The conversion temperature was varied between 1600° and 2000°C. The conversion temperature was found to have no effect on the final density of the ceramics. Theoretical densities of 72% and 62% were obtained for the converted ZrB2 and HfB2 ceramics, respectively. Increasing the heat-treatment temperature promoted grain growth rather than densification for the ZrB2 samples. The grain size increased from 1.8±0.6 to 5.6±1.3 to 8.5±3.3 μm, for heat treatments at 1600°, 1800°, and 2000°C, respectively. No grain growth was observed for the HfB2 system, which exhibited a grain structure of 5.0±1.6, 3.3±1.5, and 4.4±2.2 μm for the same temperature range studied. Microhardness values for the ZrB2 decreased from 19.4±0.4 to 17.2±0.6 down to 13.7±0.6 GPa, while similar hardness results of 19.1±0.8, 17.1±1.0, and 17.8±0.5 GPa were observed for the HfB2 samples.