Cayugad brought up and interesting question regarding powder charges in his Scorpion bullet post.
He had asked "How many actually believe that more powder is better?"

Personally I feel a lot of guys use too much powder.
I am of the opininon that with a .50 cal, anything over 100 gr and with a .45 cal anything over 90 gr. is wasted (assuming a 28" or shorter barrel). I haven't decided on the .54 yet as I've not had enough experience with them. But I think about 120 gr would be the point of diminishing returns with a 32" bbl.
I know I am going to get a lot of flack on this because their rifle is rated to handle a 150 gr "magnum" charge. When I had my Optima Pro I talked to a couple techs at CVA about this and they basically said the same thing as I had thought. Quote: "Yes, your Optima Pro will take a 150 gr charge but you will be wasting powder. Stick to 100 gr or less."
At last count, I have 9 MLs (8 sidelocks and one inline). Of these only one rifle, a 50 cal flinter, likes a stiff charge of 100 gr of FFFg. The other 50s like charges in the 80 - 90 gr range and the 45s in the 70-80 gr range.
Let's hear your opinions on this.