Let us all remember that the original .45-70 cartridge load for the Springfield Trapdoor military rifle was 70 grains of coarse black powder. The powder, by today's standards, was not anywhere near to the quality of our current black powder offerings.
I sometimes think that we modern muzzleloading shooters get too obsessed with maximum velocity, which equates to maximum muzzle energy. We also seem to forget, that except for target shooting, most loads with different powder brands, or powder granulations, will kill whatever big game animal that we wish to hunt.
Unless a rifle's group size is over 6" at a ranged 50 yards, it will reliably put a ball/bullet into the kill zone of a whitetail deer, a mule deer, an axis deer, an elk, a moose, a black bear, an antelope, a caribou, a bison, or a feral hog.
And, before everyone starts crying about how, "their rifle" has to be capable of shooting one hole groups before they are satisfied with its hunting accuracy, just remember this fact.
In the 400 plus years since the first firearms were used to hunt wild game with, more animals have been killed with smoothbore weapons, than with rifles, by a factor of at least 5:1. It's possible that the ratio is even greater than 5:1.
And, the average 5-shot group accuracy level for a smoothbore, regardless of whether it is a military musket, or a civilian fowler, ranges somewhere in the neighborhood of 4"-5".
So, don't get too upset when your favorite rifle won't split a playing card with every powder/ball/bullet/wad/patch/lube combination.
