After 40 years of hunting and never owning or shooting a muzzleloade I have the itch to start. I really like the Encore so that will be my gun of choice. I will use it for Whitetail only. Should I get a 45 caliber or a 50? My friends are split down the middle so I'm curious what the general thought is on caliber selection. Thanks!

I have both the 45 and 50 cal Encore barrels. I prefer the 50 cal, but not for any specific reason. I shoot 195 gr. sabots in both of them and have taken whitetail's with both. The reason some people like the 45 is, the projectile in sometimes longer and they feel it shoots more accurate. I get the same results in both of my Encore's. I am getting 1 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards. I guess it is personal preference and if you ever decide to shoot anything larger than a whitetail. With the 50 cal you can get heaver bullets. But the Encore is a great platform to have.

Of course the answer is that for whitetails either one works just fine.

There are more bullet choices for a 50, but I'd hazard a guess that it is mostly in sabots. Are you planning on using open sights or a scope, or an inline VS a sidelock for that matter? If you are wanting traditional quality sidelock then I'd probably suggest 45, otherwise 50 caliber is what I and my 10 year old son use.

most dealers in my area say 45cal sales have fizzled out ,they say most are not getting as good accuaratcy as they are with 50cal.

Personally .50 is my choice ,sabots work great and you can use conicals for really large game , go for twist 1in28" or 32" for the best performance .

In Washington State you can't use 209 primers, Sabots or a scope on muzzle loaders for hunting. If you had been trying to make a choice between a 50 and a 54 caliber there would have been more things to consider. But it's 50 hands down.

Another vote for the 50 as the best all around caliber.

There's a greater choice of readily available projectiles for the .50, less recoil with a .45. If you're shooting sabots, then there's really no practical difference. If you are looking at casting, again there are more molds available for the .50, but custom ones are not that much more expensive and you could have literally whatever you might want in either caliber. I think that in 15 or 20 years, given the popularity and marketing blitz for the .50, a .45 Encore barrel might be a collector's item like older Contender barrels in odd chamberings that haven't been made in a dog's age.

.50 cal.
I've not had a problem on whitetails with anything out of my 50, nor anyone I hunt with, but have seen some shots from .45's carried off without being recovered. I shoot a full bore bullet, but even with a sabot a 50 gives you enough ooomph to do the job (though the 240gr .44 bullet has shown some piss poor performance in the group I hunt with.) The 300gr. .45 bullets do very well in a .50 muzzleloader. The bullets a .45 sabot carries are below marginal.