Originally Posted by
ronlaughlin
Right or wrong, it seems to me the fact i found a piece of the jacket from the bullet shows the bullet was traveling fast enough to 'open up'. Notice the photo of the jug showing how it is split on the back wall. Wasn't it the 'hydrostatic' shock that caused this split?
Ron, I saw that and agree that hydrostatic shock caused that split. Where I would be concerned with shooting a big game animal at that distance with a muzzleloader is, is it enough? I agree too that the bullet open up or you wouldn't have found a piece of jacket. The point to my earlier post is you can't go by energy alone. The bullet has to have enough penetration as well as do enough damage. I'm not knocking you or anyone else for wanting to shoot an animal at that distance. I just think there are some considerations that were not mentioned.
There is an episode of Long Range Pursuit where they shot an animal at 500 yards with a muzzleloader. I don't remember what animal. It was impressive but risky. After seeing your post with the video, you oviously can put the bullet where it needs to go. I know I couldn't do that at 320 yards with my muzzleloader.