Accurate Loading Of The Muzzle-loading Rifle:

Loading Sequence:
 The sequence of loading your muzzle-loading rifle after checking to make sure there are no obstructions in the barrel is to do the following:

 Inline: Clear the breech plug and place the hammer at half cock.
 Caplock: Clear the nipple vent and place the hammer at half cock.
 Flintlock: Clear the flash-hole and place the hammer at half cock.

Powder Charging:
 Charge the rifle with gunpowder, either by inserting premeasured pellets, pouring in loose measured powder, or by inserting a pre-measured bag of gunpowder usually called a "cartridge", gunpowder used is typically blackpowder or blackpowder substitutes like Pyrodex.

Powder Safety Rules:
 a. Pour powder from container or flask into powder measure.
 b. Pour powder from powder measure into the rifles bore.
 c. Anyone handling black powder are well advised to wear cotton clothing as this reduces static electricity, which deters accidental discharge of black powder.

Accuracy Enhancement: Always use a fiber wad on top of your powder charge for consistent accuracy as this protects the base of the projectile from extreme heat.

Bullet Loading:
 When bullet loading the rifle, only one at a time is loaded.
 a. Patched round balls, the patch is wrapped around the base of the ball, the purpose of which is to grip the rifling and impart spin to the loose fitting ball.
 b. Pre-Lubed bullets, no wad is used as the projectile has a hollow base or gas rings which expands to grip the rifling and is already lubed, however using a wad at the base of the bullet does in some cases increase accuracy.
 c. Saboted bullets, no patch or lube is used as the projectile has a concaved base which expands to grip the rifling, however using a wad at the base of the sabot does in some cases increase accuracy.

Accuracy Enhancement: Always use a premium grade bullet for top performance when hunting.

Accuracy Enhancement: This is the one thing that can have a serious impact on accuracy and that is always make sure the bullet is fully seated into the sabot as you load the bullet and sabot into the barrel. I normally seat the bullet into the sabot then grab sabot and bullet firmly at the sabot petals then start them together into the barrel.

Charge Seating:
 To seat the charge, a tool called a "ramrod" is used to push the items down the barrel and then seated firmly together against the breech, at this point the muzzle-loading rifle has been charged with powder and bullet and not fully loaded.

Accuracy Enhancement: Always use a slow, steady, even and firm pressure on the ramrod to seat the bullet against the wad and powder charge.

Accuracy Enhancement: Because of the plastic noses on todays bullets, great care must be taken when seating the bullet in the barrel so as not to damage the bullet nose, if damaged you will have loss of accuracy and the bullet will not perform as it was designed to do. You will most likely need to add a proper diameter bullet seater to your ramrod for your imparticular bullet choice.

Priming:
 Priming the rifle completes the loading process.
 a. The inline rifle is now primed with a 209 shotshell primer or a likeness thereof at the rear of the breech.
 b. The sidelock percussion cap rifle is now primed by placing the hammer in half-cock position which exposes the nipple and a cap is placed on the nipple.
 c. The sidelock flintlock rifle is now primed by placing the hammer in half-cock position which exposes the frizzen pan which is now charged with priming powder.

Loading Complete:
 The muzzle-loading rifle has now been muzzle-loaded and ready for firing.

Loading Accuracy:
 Muzzle-loading rifle accuracy can be defined as to how well the rifle can achieve one hole shot groups on target down-range. The muzzle-loading rifle can be classified as accurate if it can place say 3 shots down range in a tight group without anything done other than reload it. Its level of precision can be identified as to just how many shots it will make before acceptable accuracy falls off or is diminished.

 To determine muzzle-loading rifle accuracy you absolutely have to load your rifle with utmost precision, eliminating any possibility that your accuracy issue is simply bad muzzle-loading rifle loading technique.

Accuracy Troubleshooting:
 Fire one shot, completely clean the rifles bore and ignition system, make sure there is no plastic or lead fouling left in the barrel, then you can start to determine accuracy, reload, fire a second shot, it should shoot to the exact same place on target downrange, if not try various loads, powder, primer, bullet until it does, many accuracy issues arise from improper bullet weight for twist rate.

 If you can not find a load combination that will duplicate same point of impact on target downrange from a cold clean barrel then your muzzle-loading rifle has a problem.