As several of you have said - I've never experienced anything like that before either.

That's not unburnt powder, it's compacted fouling.I was using a 91% alcohol patch,which I've been doing with all of my muzzle loaders for the last six months or so with great success.

If I'm using one patch as I did in this shoot, I wet the patchand squeeze any excess out between my fingers.The wet patch picks up the fouling real well and it usually looks as you see in the picture. By the time you flip the patch over for a second swab it's just about dry. The warm barrel from the previous shot really evaporates 91% alcohol quickly.By the time you pullit out on the "flip side"swab the patch is completely dry. Those flakes of fouling you see in the third picture are notwet at all- they're crusty.

If I'm using two patches, I don't squeeze the first one outmuch and it's pretty wet going in. It remainsslightly moist when I swab with the flip side. Then I barely moisten the second patch. Usually when the flipside of the second patch comes out of the bore there's very little fouling on it and both the patch and the bore arecompletely dry.With two sides of two patchesI'm shooting on a bore that's "almost" clean.

The jag I was using in this shoot (see first picture)is pretty snug in the bore and it may have beenpushing a little of the fouling. But if you look at the center of the patch you see a clean circular area. There was no fouling compressed between the end of the jag and thebreech plug. I wish I had a bore scope to take a look at how the flame channel is configured in the GM barrel. At any rate,point the bore at the ground after swabbing and giving it a little slap solved the misfire problem completely.