Which muzzleloader bullet will shoot best in my rifle? To address this subject we need to establish a few truths.

• Not every muzzleloading bullet will shoot great in your muzzleloader.
• There exists a powder and charge for each muzzleloader bullet that will work best for your muzzleloader.
• It is up to you to find that accurate combination of powder, charge and muzzleloader bullet.
• Consistency, in every step, of loading and firing our muzzleloader aids accuracy.

Now, let's address these truths. Most of us have already experienced the first truth. Let's take a closer look at why. Matching the rate-of-twist of our muzzleloader's barrel with the proper bullet should be a primary consideration to achieving desired accuracy. Now that we've picked the bullet for our rifle, now we need to give the bullet its best chance to perform. What I mean is, don't just try one load of powder. We might need to try several different powders and loads before we find that magic combination. If we just try one or two charges, because they worked best with the last bullet used, then we are probably giving up too soon. Sometimes as little as 2 grains can make the difference.

This leads us into the second truth: There exists a powder and charge for each muzzleloader bullet that will work best for our muzzleloader. This is true but, it doesn't imply great performance, just the best performance possible with that particular muzzleloader bullet and rifle combination.

It should be obvious by now there is more to discovering which muzzleloader bullet is going to give us the greatest accuracy and performance possible. Trying a few different bullets with one charge and basing our decision on their performance under those limited conditions is inadequate. Determining which muzzleloader bullet will perform best in our particular muzzleloader may require some hard work on our part. If the muzzleloader bullet we are considering is not going to give us the down range performance and trajectory we desire, then why waste time and money on testing. Pick only those bullets that will meet our requirements and then start the process of finding which one will work best. You might have guessed by now, that I do not recommend pellets for testing, since they generally limit your charge variations.

To print within the same area shot after shot, you need to do the same things shot after shot. You can not expect the same results if you vary between-shot routines. Without consistency there is no accuracy.

Black Powder Cleaner #1. Have you ever experienced a problem with your breech plug sticking and being hard to take out? Well, so have I and here is what I do about it. First, block the breech plug by inserting a spent primer in it. Then stand you rifle on some paper against something at a slight angle. Pour a table spoon or two of Black Powder Cleaner #1 down the barrel and let it set about 20 minutes or so. It should eat away that crud ring that causes the plug to stick and make it easy to unscrew. A nice thing about this cleaner is you can salvage what you pour in the barrel for use later; it doesn't quit working even when dirty.

Oh yeah, its one heck of black powder cleaning solution too. Just dampen a clean cotton patch with cleaner and swab the barrel with it. For stubborn fouling, several patches may be required. Follow up with clean dry patches until clean. After cleaning treat you gun with the rust prevention of your choice.

Yesterday after some shooting at the range I popped my .25 ACP Encore breech plug out and as usual it had a lot of crud on it. I normally dislike cleaning the breech plug because it usually get black all over everything it comes into contact with. Well, this time I thought I would try something different. I put my breech plug into a pill container bottle, which was approximately the same diameter as the plug and poured just enough Black Powder Cleaner #1 to cover it, and went about doing other things like cleaning the rest of the rifle, using the Black Powder Cleaner #1. I think I left the breech plug soaking about an hour. I took my .25 ACP Encore breech plug out of the solution, careful to save the solution, and wiped it down with a cloth dampened with Black Powder Cleaner #1, and to my surprise the cloth did not have much fouling on it at all. The breech plug was shining clean after wiping it off a little.

This morning I noticed the vile of cleaning fluid was not dirty, but clear, because the fouling residue had settled to the bottom. My first thought was wow, I need a picture (click here to see picture) of this to show people. I reckon it would be pretty easy to pour the clear part of the liquid into another container for future use, without loosing much. How nice.