Mike, the ability to be able to consistently deliver hydrostatic shock decreases with the size of the animal, it can be done, but not many of us can tote a gun that big or want to. I believe as the size of the animal increases we have to trade shock for penetration to be sure of doing the job right. But when the animal is under 400 pounds I believe shock can eliminate some problems. I also believe that a lot of bullets that are complained about are a problem to some people because they did not do enough home work to be using them at the right velocity. I have never had a bullet pencil on me, and to be honest I don't expect I ever will. There are some that are designed for use at levels that are not available to a muzzle loader and some that are designed to be use at the lower velocity we can reach and some at the upper velocity we can reach. BH really opened some doors for me there as I go by pressure levels for my loads. Lee