Chuck - I would advise against the smokeless powder route. I really don't think they have all the bugs worked out of that system yet. I would expect that, if it was so great, all the major rifle manufacturers would be going down that path. They aren't.

The regular black powder guns really aren't that difficult to clean - and some of the new "black" powders, like BM3, T7 or American Pioneer, are amazingly clean burning. I would also advise against using "magnum" loads right out of the box - like the 150 grain charges represented as maximum by many rifle companies. These push the envelope of the system to redline, and have significant recoil.

These are some the things, in retrospect, I wish I would have done when I first started . . . .

Good luck. Roskoe.