I am pretty new to muzzleloaders so I figured this forum was a good place to start. I have hunted for years and I used to muzzleloader hunt with my dad who passed away when I was a kid. I have always said one day I would get one of my own and hunt the woods I hunted when I was a kid with my dad, but you know, life just got in the way. I am sort of on hiatus from the working world currently and finishing a degree in aerospace engineering so I am in a position to have a little free time(very little with a toddler, 18 hours a semester, and wife works full time) and just so happen to be living in the town I was born in. Wife just bought me a Thompson/Center .50 cal as sort of a graduation/get well present. Long story short, I finished a degree in mechanical and was out celebrating with some friends when I got in a really bad motorcycle wreck and spent my summer in a wheelchair. So in lieu of getting back on my feet and agreeing to wait a little while and focus on school before I build anymore bikes wife was more than pleased to buy me a new gun and give her blessing to spend my free time in the woods where I hunted as a kid with my dad (motorcycles were the other thing we had in common. He was killed on one and I almost went out the same way this summer). I plan to make my own bullets (wife also got me the Lee R.E.A.L. bullet mold) and probably play around with making my own powder. I know almost nothing about muzzleloaders but I have casting experience and I have made black powder in the past. As an engineer I am always looking to learn new things and find ways to make my hobbies more cost effective (my 1 ton Suburban with 44"s runs on bio-diesel I make for about 47 cents a gallon) so I will be lurking and getting to learn my way around for a while and picking through threads on casting and powders. I look forward to learning from everybody and who knows, maybe even offer my own advice one day.