What are the pros and cons of loose powder vs. pellets?

i JUST got into this stuff but i believe a pellet is much faster and tends to come in a 50gr size so typically you could just drop two down the barrel then your projectile and you're good. seems as though you can get more accurate and precise loads using loose.

Well...With a muzzleloader you are handloading each round...LOOSE...

Loose powder is much cheaper to shoot. You can custom the loads a little easier then with pellets. With the pellets, they can be easier to make your charge, but the cost is why I avoid them. Although I do like them. Pellets are also harder to ignite. Both have advantages and disadvantages.. if you shoot a lot, loose is the way to go, unless you have a special key to the bank.

I like the loose. You can be more precise with the loose powder. Sometimes the pellets can be off by as much as 10 grains, Plus if you crush them at all your accuracy will suffer big time.

Seems to me speed is not a concern with muzzleloading, maybe carry a speedloader of pellets and sabot/bullet but when you have the time, pack loose.

I like loose alot better. my flintlock does great with 110 grains loose powder. That 10 grain adjustment really helps me out. As for speedloaders, they are also ment to be used with loose powder. If you use 100 grains powder and buy a 1lb can of blackpowder, you'll get around 70 shots. Thats quite a bit more than you'd get with pellets and loose powder is a lot cheaper. Why spend $28 for a few pellets when you can buy loose powder and get 70+ shots and beable to fine tune your load? Once you start shooting, you'll see how nice it is to use loose powder and be able to, like i said, Fine tune your loads.

I shoot flinters only so it's loose all the way. When looking for my best accuracy I'll measure out a load then dump it on my powder scale and each load after that will be measured to the same weight. Then each charge gets put into a 35mm film canisters.

i prefer loose also, my reason is that on my 209X50 encore barrel with the shape of the breech plug (concave) i was very uncomfortable with my bullet seating procedure, once i loaded it and the ramrod went 1/8-1/4 past my mark, i took the breech plug out and there was a crushed pellet, my accuracy is better with loose also


i was also worried aboutpowder to bullet and air around the chrage increasing pressure, may or may not have been an issue, i just know my gun shoots much better with loose

Ruddy duck,
That is a great idea! Now if only I had kept just some of those darn containers. Now with all of digital craze, those little containers might be hard to find. Can you buy just the containers at a photo shop possibly?

Mike