I shoot a 45 hawken most of the time. But I also have a 54 hawken. The only difference I see between each are their measure of recoil. The recoil from my 45 feels like a gentle push felt in a 410 shotgun. On the other hand the recoil off a 54 feels more like a bruising 12 gauge. As far as bullet weight. Many times I can get by using my 45 on deer size animals. After all its ball does weigh in at whole 127 grs. But<~~> now and then a big enough deer comes along that requires something special with a little more wallop and a substantially larger ball than that 45 of mine. A 54s ball is near 230 grs. and can (near) achieve the speed of a 30-30.
A 50 cal I consider is the happy medium between the 45 and its much larger brother the 54 (the way I see it.) So anyone who has the 50-cal can harvest most North American large game animals with a well placed shot. The one item the 50 cal has over the others. Is ammo availability. Much better section for the 50-cal over the other calibers hands down. So chose wisely. After all you have to shoot it._
P. Script: Welcome to the TFLF chickenmcnasty.