RE: Muzzleloader or shotgun?
ML for me. Here it gives you a full an additional month to hunt over a shotgun and it is a helluva a lot fun making smoke.
If your looking to be used in a reg. firearm season I would look at the Savage ML10II. It can shoot smokeless powder, as well as the subs others use. However when smokeless is used the cleaning issues are not nearly as daunting. It is a versatile package that delivers excellent results with very little tinkering. It is a reasonable to shoot and you can obtain magnum results with less recoil and no smoke.