wolfie, if you are a modern rifle shooter with average intelligence and common sense, switching over to shoot ANY KIND of muzzleloader shouldn' t take more than a couple of hours at the range, if you have a good coach!

I see that you are a reloader. Well, loading a ML is about like loading a cartridge, if you think of the barrel of your ML as a cartridge case! Starting with a clean, dry bore, you put powder in it, a bullet down on top of the powder, then a cap on the nipple. Place rifle on sandbag, aim, and shoot. Samo samo!

In one day you' ll be ready to go.

If your experienced in Cf than a day should allow you to get the hang of the ML, but please don' t leave until the day before you plan to hunt. I have experienced many who show up the night before opening day, never even firing the ML they purchased some time ago expecting to be shooting 1" groups at 100 yards. While it ain' t hard to learn how to shoot it, finding a load combo can be a drawn out affair and one should expect several trips to the range to get accustom to any gun they plan on using in the field!

One other addition -- make sure you' re careful around the muzzle w/ your cleaning rods and ramrods. The muzzle rifling seems to be critical.

I think you' ll find shooting the muzzleloader to be quite enjoyable. If you have a bit of patience for the art of testing loads and of course, clean up, you' ll find that shooting BP has a romance that catridge guns can' t touch. And you' ve got to love the smell of real black powder.