SuperKirby

I would kind of go with what everyone else said. With Encores, you're not really building, but you can assemble the parts if you want. In other words, you could probably save a few dollars and buy a frame, a stock set, and barrel all seperately and assemble them on your own. Where this would get expensive is paying the shipping and ffl transfer on the frames if you can't find them locally.
For a barrel I would strongly recommend a Bergara barrel over the stock ones. You can find a blued Bergara barrel with the QRBP for as cheap as $185 if you shop around a little. Here's a .45 cal. The same place has a .50. The breech plug on this barrel will need a little help if you want to reliably shoot BH209 but that's not a big deal.

http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/...productId/2895

Or, if you want to spend a little more, do like GM54-120 suggested and buy this

http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/...productId/2917

then jump on over to Dougs board and contact Slufoot. He will convert that barrel to a muzzleloader barrel. You can then use it to start the muzzleloader learning curve, and if you like it and want to push a little more, you can load smokeless powder and shoot that. The advantage being faster and no cleaning.

****Disclaimer: DO NOT SHOOT SMOKELESS POWDER IN A REGULAR MUZZLELOADER. You may well blow up.*****

There's not really a right or wrong way to do it, it just depends on what you want to spend and what you want in the end. I have an stainless Pro Hunter and this year I ordered a custom SMI barrel. I really like the gun and the options that are available for it, but if you aren't sure you will like muzzleloaders or if you don't plan on changing barrels, there's probably a lot better off the shelf muzzleloaders for the money.

Johnmorris

Try Greybeard outdoors many encore's for sale there frames and complete guns