My wife has expressed some interest in trying my new muzzle loader, and I want her to be able to enjoy shooting it. She is a total no n shooter, so it is important to keep recoil low. I am a relative novice muzzleloader(have hunted with one a few times, but know very little about it) and hope some of the expets on here can suggest a good starting load.

Knowing what rifle you have, caliber, projectile, etc would help...

I would say for deer and a .250 gr .451 caliber saboted bullet out of a .50 caliber around 65-70 grains of Pyrodex or Goex, although I have heard of guys using 50 grains and a patched ball for deer within 50 yards...

In my Knight disc, I use 90grs of FFF Goex or Pyrodex R-S and frankly, it's more than enough...Remember the 45/70 used 70grs of real black powder...

I don't know what kind of muzzle loader you have but my young son at the timestarted out shooting 30 grains at 25 yards and 40 grains at 40 yardswith a .50 caliberpatched round ball. This was just for punching paper and becoming accustomed to learning how to shoot a muzzle loading rifle.
A friend's wife tried one of my .50 calibersidelocks for her first time and sheenjoyed shootingpatched round balls with 50 grains at 50 yards.
From there the load can be increased in 5-10 grain increments to suit her recoil sensitivity, and depending on the distance to the target, the weight of the projectile firedand accuracy results.
Remember, more powder means more fouling residue.

Its a Knight Disc Extreme...it wont be for hunting, just getting her started shooting with me...I just dont want to go too light and risk damaging anything.

You would run little risk of doing damage going too light. The Disk Extreme is a well made rifle. Have her shoot 50 grains of a 2f powder and a 240 grain XTP. With that light of a projectile and that light of a powder charge there should be no recoil and then you can work her up from there.

Ditto what Cayugad said, except I would suggest using an MMP .50/.40 sabot and trying some .40 cal. 200 grain XTP's with a 50 grain charge of 777. The 200 grain bullet will reduce the recoil even further. You can start her out on that and see how she likes it. You could move up to 60 - 70 grains when she gets comfortable with the 50 grains - should be very deadly out to 100 yards if the accuracy is there.

pick up a Limbsaver recoil pad 75 to 80 gr loads will not even bother with a 200 to 240 gr bullet or roundball.

Charlie

I started my 12 year olds off at 50 gr 3F Goex w/ a .490 ball.

I just had a 5yr old kid shooting 40grs of FFg Goex and a 250gr PB.........oh yeah, from a FLINTLOCK too!
The kid hung tough too you guys would have been proud.

After the first shot he had a look on his face like you just handed him his favorite ice cream cone.

Amen. Very cool, 5 years old. Chap