I will guess that the #11 were not able to produce enough fire through the nipple and breech design to ignite the pellets. The person at the store should have know better then to recommend pellets to a #11 cap shooter. Had you prepared the breech properly by swabbing the barrel with some alcohol first, then popped three caps through the nipple, run a dry patch through it to make sure it was nice and dry down there, then loaded 100 grains of loose powder, the projectile and then a #11 cap I think your outcome would have been much different.

Go get a pound of the loose Triple Se7en powder and I think if the 4 pointer returns, he could be in serious trouble. Also a word of advise, if you have not shot this load for accuracy, you might want to take a few pot shots to see where they are hitting. Just simply dumping some powder down the barrel and seating a sabot on it is no guarantee that the rifle will hit right where it is aimed. Granted if the distance was close enough, you might be close, but you really need to shoot and see where the rifle is hitting... To shoot loose powder you will need a powder measure and remember, loose Triple Se7en is 15% stronger then Triple Se7en in pellet form.