[steven gordon]

Sooner or later you'll put the bullet down without putting int he powder. IT's happened to all of us.

When that happens, take out the primer, trickle a little powder infront of where it seats, and replace the primer. That should be enough oomph to get the bullet out.

Cleaning is going to be a pain. Start the process with four times more patches than you need.

I think you're better off with power belt bullets than with sabots; they are much easier to load, but that brings us into a whole different set of posts.

(As long as I'm disagreeing, I think that if you're using triple 7 you don't have to clean all that often. When I do, I use a patch saturated with alcohol based gel hand cleaner like Purell and it cleans in one swipe. Occasionally I've just used a patch saturated with my saliva and it did a good enough job of cutting the crud. But remember that there are a lot of intelligent, experienced muzzleloaders out there who would disagree with me).

Be darned sure you seat the bullet all the way, otherwise what you have is a pipe bomb, not a rifle.

YOu will acquire a lot of accoutrement now that youwon't have any use for in three years. There's no telling what those things are going to be. Get used to the idea that you're going to get rid of a lot of things you haven't used much.

We're all on a learning curve. Enjoy yours.