I can not say I am not a smokeless fan because I reload and shoot all kinds of smokeless guns.
But I do believe that someday prehaps not to far in the future that the law makers will get their heads out of that spot where the sun dont shine and establish some sort of national referance of guide lines for the people who have to make laws like they have in some other areas so the state people have some sort of referance thats not pushed in one direction or another by some silly sort of fanitic or an other. If this comes about or any other sort of standarsization does its likely that one of the things that wont be considered any true form of muzzleloading will be smokeless. Not remember this is what I expect might happened not my opinion, if it were not for this I would build my own using a Remington 700 action for a base and a blank for a 50 X110 Dougles barrel with a shortened 44 mag case to hold a large rifle mag primer with a 200gr SW and the right powder I think you could get 2800 fps. Lee
PS If you are going to be a seasonal hunter Take a close look at these two guns if they are in your price range either one is a life timer if you keep on shooting. First is the Triumph Best points in my opinion very easy to clean and take care of properly, light enough that I would not want it any lighter, is very accurate and well built with lifetime service that means something. The KRB7 If you like some weight this might be the one I love the way they shoot but it felt just a bit heavy and a little of on the handling to me but they fit some people quite well they shoot just as well as the Triumph and the Omega and are not bad at all on the cleaning. they are also good conical shooters if you like conicals [I dont have any problem getting 2 inch groups with my Omega or my Triumph which I consider plenty good for conicals as they have a sharp trajectory anyhow but I have to us a wad and some cornmeal which you dont usually have to do with the Knights.
If your budget is a little tight take a look at the Z5 Omega at a lot of the Walmart stores, it is a high quality gun for a decent price ; it is a real shooter very accurate, much like the Triumph with out the break open action and the very neat breach plug which has no blowback and can be removed with fingers.
What ever you chose expect to spend a lot more time at the range than you would getting a cartridge gun ready to hunt with, and the real trick to getting a sabot gun to shoot right is in getting the right fit between the sabot with your bullet of choice in it and the barrel. Lee