I have about two decades of mostly failures stories with the 45 patched ball. Most of the failures were due to me leaving the scene after not finding blood, and assuming that where there was no blood there was life. After years of “Guess I didn’t miss that deer after all” I started to piece together how the 45 works, how the prb works, in the place I hunt most. One of the challenges we’ve had here for a long time is a lack of late season snow.
In 2012 I switched to a 54 prb and immediately saw the benefits of greatly increased horsepower. When I hunt, I’m after a critter, and the “extra cost” of an extra fifteen grains of powder and a hundred grains of lead per shot are not factors I think about. Probably most hunters don’t think about it. We want our critters dead as quick as possible. Bigger calibers do that better. And again, a lot of how people hunt is shaped by their hunting terrain, topography, plants etc. So a 45 might work best in one area and not as well as bigger bores elsewhere. I did kill a huge deer last week, with a 45 prb, but only because he was about 30-35 yards broadside. Absolutely perfect conditions for that caliber.