I'm not intending to start a caliber war here as I know many people shoot .45 calibers with great results. Thats all fine, if they are happy with the caliber, then more power to them. I just personally can not see why someone would go to a .45 caliber when a .50 caliber will do all the same things and more.

As for a bullet blowing up, a lot of that will depend on the kind of bullet you shoot and what the bullet is made of. Also how fast you are pushing it. I really do not think a bullet ever "blows up." I do think some over expand and fragment, not penetrating as far as you mightwant. Blowing up would indicate that the bullet does not even penetrate. Keep in mind, many of the bullets are designed to expand and not really pass through. They are made to do as much internal damage as possible. The we hear from hunters up set that the animal ran off and left little if no blood trail.

Keep in mind, if down the road you wished to hunt elk out west, some states require a .50 caliber in muzzleloader to do so. My take on caliber size is, most people go to a muzzleloader with the understanding that they are shooting a slower projectile then the modern centerfire rifles. So why then would they want to give up the addiitional size of the bullet they use? A .45 caliber shoots a .357 or .40 caliber sabot projectile I believe. A .50 caliber shoots a .430, .452 & .458 diameter projectile.

Traditional roundball shooter often times will hunt with .45 caliber roundball rifles, but if they were asked to hunt longer distances for large game a lot of them would tell you to get a .54 caliber, even a .58 caliber or bigger. Why, because the larger ball has more killing power at the long distance.

.50 caliber used to have a much better bullet selection then the .45 caliber but that is closing fast. The .45 caliber is getting much more popular for the deer and long range shooting. If all my shots were under 150 yards, I'd take a .50 caliber any day of the week.

As for your choice of a CVA rifle.. good luck with your selection.