I always use loose powder and the reason is because it is a lot cheaper than the pellets. I normally use a 90 grain charge of Pyrodex by volume. I weighed the charge on my powder scale and it is 68.5 grains by weight. 1 lb. of Pyrodex will yield 102 shots with this charge. Just imagine how much money you would have to spend on pellets for that many shots. Cheapness always gets the best of me.