Smokeless is not allowed in Arizona in a muzzleloader either. I did not look at the Savage for that reason as it is the only available production muzzleloader that allows the use of smokeless powder and that comes with some additional problems anyway. Bottom line for a beginner is be real sure you have a muzzleloading powder and it says so on the can. Some think any powder that is black is black powder which cannot be more far from the truth. If you can find it another very good black powder synthetic substitute is Black Mag3. If you are mostly planning on hunting you might look at this one as it is a lot cleaner than most of the rest and performs very well in my T/C Omega. Good luck and welcome to a really great variation in the shooting sports.