You could reasonably hit a target within 36 inches at a mile with a lot of different calibers. You don't necessarily need large caliber. .50 cal has a great ba

You could reasonably hit a target within 36 inches at a mile with a lot of different calibers. You don't necessarily need large caliber. .50 cal has a great ballistic coefficient, but bullet design and speed matters a lot too. 6.5 creedmoor and others in the intermediate precision class can all do this as well. That being said 1 mile is really really long shot, and right where a lot of the lighter calibers start getting near transonic. Wind is another beast, if it's steady it can be compensated for, but I don't know what the weather was that day... chaotic gusts will wreck a shot for sure. All that being said, the rocket is a pretty big target, 12 feet across and almost 230 feet high... that's going to compensate for a lot. Agreed that if you found the piece where the bullet punctured it should be pretty evident what happened. But I don't have any experience doing investigations in this area, and I've heard at least from plane crashes that the fuselage can disintegrate pretty readily in high force scenarios. I have operated and owned precision rifles, but not big bore, and have not gone out to extreme distances. More fun to play with the math and ballistics. Would love to hear from someone who knows more than either of us.