I have a .54 caliber Lyman Plains Pistol. It's a caplock, and I can't say I hunt with it. I've carried it as a back-up once on a special blackpowder hunt. Otherwise the vast-vast majority of my big game hunting is in Wisconsin which can't shake the "commercially available cartridge" wording from their handgun hunting language.
That time I carried it as back-up, I did actually use it. It was my second black powder deer. I shot her in the brisket with a .50 roundball. I couldn't see a thing until the smoke cleared, by then there was nothing in front of me. I walked over to where she was standing to look for hair. When I got there I saw her standing about 20 yards away, broadside, with her head down. Figuring that capping the pistol would be faster than reloading the rifle I drew the handgun, capped, aimed, and fired.
Again, when the smoke cleared I didn't see anything. Again I went to look for blood. All I found was the pistol ball and a tiny piece of meat on the leaves. I found her quickly by simply combing the area.
So, the 225 grain pistol ball sufficiently penetrated the broadside of a whitetail doe at about 20 yards. The .50 ball entered her brisket, penetrated through a lung, liver, gut and lodged in the hind quarter.
And that's the end of my experience with shooting any deer with a muzzle loader pistol.
