A fifty will definitely put the hurt on something.
Those early round ball .32's and .36's were really squirrel rifles. They'd do the job on something larger if you put the bullet in exactly the right place and they made lead go a long way if you had to carry it for months, but you had to be awful careful about placement.
A favorite story about a fifty is a man who planned to stay on Banks Island in the Canadian archipelago for a year. He got iced in and they couldn't pick him up in the first year. His rifle, a Sharps .50. Near the end of the second year, he was so short of lead that he waited until two caribou lined up, shot them both, cut the slug out of the second caribou, and re-melted it. That wouldn't work with my 45-70, even with the light 325 grain cast. It'd go through both. I've had that happen twice on deer, and I don't think a caribou is that much bigger.