I'm probley going to take some heat on this one from the Pellet guy's but,I believe as many do that Pellet's in fact and in theorie do not shoot better then Powder but why?When we think in terms of a brass cartridge load we think of 4components that make up the load. Thecasing,bullet,powder and primer.Inour muzzleloader'swe havethese same components "the bullet,powder,primer and the barrel".The barrel is the casing.In order to acheive better accuracy you need to reduce the aling elements and pressureswith-in the loadis one of them..Pellets cannot give you the consistent pressures you need build up because of thier design,anything that slides down the barrel with holes in it and doe's not fit deep with-in the breach plugwill havepocketsor voids inthe load,not to say they can crush when seating them and how can that be accurate?"If you wanna settle for convenience other then accuracy then buy Pellets"

I am not sticking up for anything, but some rifles have extreme accuracy shooting pellets. The easy load is just a bonus. The projectile you firmly seat actually closes that hole in the pellets, and it creates a pressure release for the pellets to the projectile and also a path for the flame of ignition to travel through the pellet to promote a more consistant burn. Perhaps that is why some rifles can shoot 150 grains of pellets with ease, but only 120 grains of loose powder.

I have shot both. In the rifles I tested pellets with (T/C Black Diamond XR & Knight Disc) the accuracy with pellets was excellent. Better then loose? I'd hate to live on the difference.

Pellets appeal to a lot of shooters for their ease of loading and ease of hunting with. Loose appeals to those of us that shoot a lot and like to tinker. I would not sell pellets short, but I will continue to shoot loose powder because of cost.

Still when pellets come on the end of the year sale, I love to grab a couple boxes of them and play with them.

I can't contribute much on this onebecause I've never shot pellets. But two guys in my hunting club use them. One gets excellent accuracy. The other gets so-so accuracy. Neither one will even consider fooling with loose powder. They are one week-end a year muzzleloaders and are happy with what they have.

Dave, Many of the facts you make I cannot denie truly,but If you just look at the pellet and think about it awhile you'llsee thatsure its easy to load andyes has a flash hole for faster ignition, then lets look at the inconstancy's that makeit all up."I'm not trying to split hairs here at all."If you mic a pellet what do you have 30,40,.050 differents between the barrel and the pellet?"Not sure don't have one in front of me right now."but lets say its .050,(variable #1)when the pellets slide down the barreltheir supose to stack one on top of each other or is it possiblethat they canbe offset changing the flashhole alienment?(Variable #2) in my encore the breach bowl is undersized not allowing the pellet to seat in the hole as much as 1/4" (variable #3) pellets can crush! givena inconsistance ignition.What a waste of a load if this happens.As far as easier loading bull! A quick load filled with pelletsor powder load the same.

You just don't have these variables to concider with powder.

What you say seems to make senseHrly. But the darn things seem to work very verywell for a lot of folks. Kinda` like round balls on deer - they work better than they should based on logical analysis - but work they do.

Thats find for you pellet guy's .If you can get less then 1 MOA at 100yrds or even care too out of theses things then fine "I doubt it" and if your satisfied with being able to hit a 5" pie pan at 100rds then thats greattoo.but,for the sake of the game i'm hunting I believe that I can always do better.not with pellets and I've shot a ton of these things .I believe the pellet company's are just taken your hard earned money!there junk! You just can't the accuracy out of these darn things.

The nice thing about loose powder is you can customize your load up or down untill it is the absolute best for your gun. That and loose powder is about 4 times cheaper than pellets and yo don't need those pesky 209 primer to light it off either.

I am not trying to say that pellets are as accurate as loose powder. All I am saying is some rifles do VERY WELL shooting pellets. I almost think some of the rifles might even be made for pellets. And if people are happy shooting pellets, more power to them.

I shoot loose powder. Normally Goex 90% of the time. With my Whites I shoot Triple Se7en 3f. And I have a couple sidelocks that shoot loose Pyrodex Rs better then anything.

Although with my Black Diamond XR and two Pyrodex RS pellets and a Shockwave, the accuracy was very very good. About as good as I could do shooting loose powder. So if I had pellets I would not hesitate to hunt with them.

I know some guys get excellent accuracy with pellets. I'm not one of them, however.

Neither I, nor any of the other guys I hunt with have gotten acceptable accuracy, at least with 777 pellets. Now we never tried Pyrodex pellets, which some people claim to be more accurate. Both the guys I hunt with shoot Traditions, I use CVA. They load 80 - 90 grains of 777, I've settled on a 95 grain load for deer hunting. All of our rifles will shoot 1.5" at 100 yards, sometimes better on a good day. The best group I ever got with pellets was about 3.5".

But then again, some guys do get really good accuracy with pellets - I think it depends on your particular gun/bullet combo.

i'm with Cayugad on this one. Both my CVAStag Horn and my CVA Mag Hunter shoot just as well with Pyrodex pellets as they do with loose Pyrodex RS. i use two 50 grain Pyrodex pellets interchangeably with 100 grains of Pyrodex RS in the Stag Horn: They shoot to the same point of impact.That cheap old gun will shoot one 1.5" group after the other with Pyrodex RS or Pyrodex pellets, so does the Mag Hunter.

A Pyrodex pellet is neutral burning. Neutral burning=the pellet burns from both the inside and the outside. The burning surface stays roughtly the same size until the pellet is totally consumed.

Have an Encore that shoots very well with loose 777: Never tried pellets in it.