diff --git a/src/main/java/picard/analysis/directed/TargetMetricsCollector.java b/src/main/java/picard/analysis/directed/TargetMetricsCollector.java
index f31d6231c2..39341fad0c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/picard/analysis/directed/TargetMetricsCollector.java
+++ b/src/main/java/picard/analysis/directed/TargetMetricsCollector.java
@@ -131,6 +131,7 @@ public abstract class TargetMetricsCollector<METRIC_TYPE extends MultilevelMetri
 
     // histogram of base qualities. includes all but quality 2 bases. we use this histogram to calculate theoretical het sensitivity.
     private final Histogram<Integer> unfilteredBaseQHistogram = new Histogram<>("baseq", "unfiltered_baseq_count");
+    private final Histogram<Integer> unCappedUnfilteredBaseQHistogram = new Histogram<>("baseq", "unfiltered_baseq_count");
 
     private static final double LOG_ODDS_THRESHOLD = 3.0;
 
@@ -367,6 +368,8 @@ public class PerUnitTargetMetricCollector implements PerUnitMetricCollector<METR
         private File perBaseOutput;
 
         final long[] baseQHistogramArray = new long[Byte.MAX_VALUE];
+        final long[] unCappedBaseQHistogramArray = new long[Byte.MAX_VALUE];
+
         // A Map to accumulate per-bait-region (i.e. merge of overlapping targets) coverage
         // excludes bases with qualities lower than minimumBaseQuality (default 20)
         private final Map<Interval, Coverage> highQualityCoverageByTarget;
@@ -374,6 +377,8 @@ public class PerUnitTargetMetricCollector implements PerUnitMetricCollector<METR
         // only excludes bases with quality 2. collected for theoretical set sensitivity
         private final Map<Interval, Coverage> unfilteredCoverageByTarget;
 
+        private long hqMaxDepth = 0;
+
         private final TargetMetrics metrics = new TargetMetrics();
         private final int minimumBaseQuality;
         private final CountingAdapterFilter adapterFilter;
@@ -631,11 +636,13 @@ public void acceptRecord(final SAMRecord record) {
                                     if (ufCoverage.getDepths()[targetOffset] <= coverageCap) {
                                         baseQHistogramArray[qual]++;
                                     }
+                                    unCappedBaseQHistogramArray[qual]++;
 
                                     // Then filtered
                                     if (highQual) {
                                         final Coverage hqCoverage = highQualityCoverageByTarget.get(target);
                                         hqCoverage.addBase(targetOffset);
+                                        hqMaxDepth = Math.max(hqMaxDepth, hqCoverage.getDepths()[targetOffset]);
 
                                         if (coveredTargets.add(target)) {
                                             hqCoverage.incrementReadCount();
@@ -699,16 +706,14 @@ public void finish() {
 
         /** Calculates how much additional sequencing is needed to raise 80% of bases to the mean for the lane. */
         private void calculateTargetCoverageMetrics() {
-            final long[] highQualityCoverageHistogramArray = new long[coverageCap+1];
+
+            LongStream.range(0, hqMaxDepth).forEach(i -> highQualityDepthHistogram.increment((int) i, 0));
+
             int zeroCoverageTargets = 0;
 
             // the number of bases we counted towards the depth histogram plus those that got thrown out by the coverage cap
             long totalCoverage = 0;
 
-            // the maximum depth at any target base
-            long maxDepth = 0;
-
-            // the minimum depth at any target base
             long minDepth = Long.MAX_VALUE;
 
             // The "how many target bases at at-least X" calculations.
@@ -723,7 +728,7 @@ private void calculateTargetCoverageMetrics() {
             for (final Coverage c : this.highQualityCoverageByTarget.values()) {
                 if (!c.hasCoverage()) {
                     zeroCoverageTargets++;
-                    highQualityCoverageHistogramArray[0] += c.interval.length();
+                    highQualityDepthHistogram.increment(0, c.interval.length());
                     targetBases[0] += c.interval.length();
                     minDepth = 0;
                     continue;
@@ -731,8 +736,7 @@ private void calculateTargetCoverageMetrics() {
 
                 for (final int depth : c.getDepths()) {
                     totalCoverage += depth;
-                    highQualityCoverageHistogramArray[Math.min(depth, coverageCap)]++;
-                    maxDepth = Math.max(maxDepth, depth);
+                    highQualityDepthHistogram.increment(depth, 1);
                     minDepth = Math.min(minDepth, depth);
 
                     // Add to the "how many target bases at at-least X" calculations.
@@ -747,16 +751,11 @@ private void calculateTargetCoverageMetrics() {
                 throw new PicardException("the number of target bases with at least 0x coverage does not equal the number of target bases");
             }
 
-            for (int i = 0; i < highQualityCoverageHistogramArray.length; ++i) {
-                highQualityDepthHistogram.increment(i, highQualityCoverageHistogramArray[i]);
-            }
-
-            // we do this instead of highQualityDepthHistogram.getMean() because the histogram imposes a coverage cap
             metrics.MEAN_TARGET_COVERAGE = (double) totalCoverage / metrics.TARGET_TERRITORY;
             metrics.MEDIAN_TARGET_COVERAGE = highQualityDepthHistogram.getMedian();
-            metrics.MAX_TARGET_COVERAGE = maxDepth;
+            metrics.MAX_TARGET_COVERAGE = hqMaxDepth;
             // Use Math.min() to account for edge case where highQualityCoverageByTarget is empty (minDepth=Long.MAX_VALUE)
-            metrics.MIN_TARGET_COVERAGE = Math.min(minDepth, maxDepth);
+            metrics.MIN_TARGET_COVERAGE = Math.min(minDepth, hqMaxDepth);
 
             // compute the coverage value such that 80% of target bases have better coverage than it i.e. 20th percentile
             // this roughly measures how much we must sequence extra such that 80% of target bases have coverage at least as deep as the current mean coverage
@@ -783,32 +782,33 @@ private void calculateTargetCoverageMetrics() {
             metrics.PCT_TARGET_BASES_100000X = (double) targetBases[17] / (double) targetBases[0];
         }
 
+
         private void calculateTheoreticalHetSensitivity(){
-            final long[] unfilteredDepthHistogramArray = new long[coverageCap + 1];
+            LongStream.range(0, coverageCap).forEach(i -> unfilteredDepthHistogram.increment((int) i, 0));
 
             // collect the unfiltered coverages (i.e. only quality 2 bases excluded) for all targets into a histogram array
             for (final Coverage c : this.unfilteredCoverageByTarget.values()) {
                 if (!c.hasCoverage()) {
-                    unfilteredDepthHistogramArray[0] += c.interval.length();
+                    unfilteredDepthHistogram.increment(0, c.interval.length());
                     continue;
                 }
 
                 for (final int depth : c.getDepths()) {
-                    unfilteredDepthHistogramArray[Math.min(depth, coverageCap)]++;
+                    unfilteredDepthHistogram.increment(Math.min(depth, coverageCap), 1);
                 }
             }
 
-            if (LongStream.of(baseQHistogramArray).sum() != LongStream.rangeClosed(0, coverageCap).map(i -> i * unfilteredDepthHistogramArray[(int)i]).sum()) {
+            if (LongStream.of(baseQHistogramArray).sum() != unfilteredDepthHistogram.getSum()) {
                 throw new PicardException("numbers of bases in the base quality histogram and the coverage histogram are not equal");
             }
 
-            // TODO: normalize the arrays directly. then we don't have to convert to Histograms
+            //TODO this is used elsewhere, so can't remove from here just yet - consider moving to accessor.
             for (int i=0; i<baseQHistogramArray.length; ++i) {
                 unfilteredBaseQHistogram.increment(i, baseQHistogramArray[i]);
             }
 
-            for (int i = 0; i < unfilteredDepthHistogramArray.length; i++){
-                unfilteredDepthHistogram.increment(i, unfilteredDepthHistogramArray[i]);
+            for (int i=0; i<unCappedBaseQHistogramArray.length; ++i) {
+                unCappedUnfilteredBaseQHistogram.increment(i, unCappedBaseQHistogramArray[i]);
             }
 
             final double [] depthDoubleArray = TheoreticalSensitivity.normalizeHistogram(unfilteredDepthHistogram);
@@ -942,7 +942,7 @@ private void calculateGcMetrics() {
         public void addMetricsToFile(final MetricsFile<METRIC_TYPE, Integer> hsMetricsComparableMetricsFile) {
             hsMetricsComparableMetricsFile.addMetric(convertMetric(this.metrics));
             hsMetricsComparableMetricsFile.addHistogram(highQualityDepthHistogram);
-            hsMetricsComparableMetricsFile.addHistogram(unfilteredBaseQHistogram);
+            hsMetricsComparableMetricsFile.addHistogram(unCappedUnfilteredBaseQHistogram);
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/picard/analysis/directed/CollectHsMetricsTest.java b/src/test/java/picard/analysis/directed/CollectHsMetricsTest.java
index 363eab1aa8..90ce6eb274 100644
--- a/src/test/java/picard/analysis/directed/CollectHsMetricsTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/picard/analysis/directed/CollectHsMetricsTest.java
@@ -217,6 +217,41 @@ public void testHsMetricsHandlesIndelsAppropriately() throws IOException {
         Assert.assertEquals(insWithIndelHandling.PCT_USABLE_BASES_ON_TARGET,   1.0d);      // inserted bases are counted as on target
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testHsMetricsF80DoesNotUseCovCap() throws IOException {
+        final SAMRecordSetBuilder highCoverage = new SAMRecordSetBuilder(true, SortOrder.coordinate);
+        final IntervalList targets = new IntervalList(highCoverage.getHeader());
+        final IntervalList baits   = new IntervalList(highCoverage.getHeader());
+        targets.add(new Interval("chr1", 1000, 1199, false, "t1"));
+        baits.add(new Interval("chr1", 950,  1049, false, "b1"));
+        baits.add(new Interval("chr1", 1050, 1149, false, "b2"));
+        baits.add(new Interval("chr1", 1150, 1249, false, "b3"));
+
+        // Generate 100000 reads that fully cover the target in each BAM
+        for (int i=0; i<100000; ++i) {
+            highCoverage.addFrag( "r" + i, 0, 1000, false, false, "100M100M", null, 30);
+        }
+
+        // Write things out to file
+        final File dir = IOUtil.createTempDir("hsmetrics.test").toFile();
+        final File bs = new File(dir, "baits.interval_list").getAbsoluteFile();
+        final File ts = new File(dir, "targets.interval_list").getAbsoluteFile();
+        baits.write(bs);
+        targets.write(ts);
+        final File withHighCovBam = writeBam(highCoverage, new File(dir, "fold_80.bam"));
+
+        // Now run CollectHsMetrics
+        final File out = Files.createTempFile("hsmetrics_high_coverage.", ".txt").toFile();
+        runPicardCommandLine(Arrays.asList("COVERAGE_CAP=10", "SAMPLE_SIZE=0", "TI="+ts.getPath(), "BI="+bs.getPath(), "O="+out.getPath(), "I="+withHighCovBam.getAbsolutePath()));
+        final HsMetrics highCoverageMetrics = readMetrics(out);
+
+        IOUtil.deleteDirectoryTree(dir);
+        // actual coverage should not be impacted by coverage_cap
+        Assert.assertEquals(highCoverageMetrics.MEAN_TARGET_COVERAGE, 100000);
+        Assert.assertEquals(highCoverageMetrics.MEDIAN_TARGET_COVERAGE, 100000);
+        Assert.assertEquals(highCoverageMetrics.FOLD_80_BASE_PENALTY, 1);
+    }
+
 
     @Test
     public void testHsMetricsHighTargetCoverage() throws IOException {