Observations: All these years I always dreaded cleaning the rifles. Although water and some scrubbing is all it really takes it is a messy process and tough to keep rust off all the parts of the rifle. There was an occassional failure of primer, musket cap or percussion cap. I've had hangfires in moist environments and with dirty guns. Typically the more you shoot the harder it is to load between cleanings. Accuracy can degrade from shot to shot. Powder has a poor shelf life and gives different results at the beginning of the can than it does a year later from the bottom of the can. Lubed bullets were messy, sabots were inconsistent, hard to load and expensive with the bullets. A sidelock loaded for 3 days failed to fire when the deer finally showed up. Another time I was about to squeeze the trigger and the animal did not keep coming in range. Good thing, the gun wouldn't fire when I tried to empty it later that same day.
Problem: I still love to hunt deer with a muzzleloader. I like muzzleloaders as much as anything else for hunting other animals. I lose interest in my muzzleloaders when the above observations keep happening over and over!
Solution: I finally found it! 25 + shots without loss of accuracy, difficulty to load or mis/hangfires. No problem with moisture - keep the gun loaded all season if you want. Easy to load. Consistent power - velocity does not change from loading to loading or with the age of powder. Much less expensive to shoot. Cleans up with plain ole Hoppes #9 with one wet patch, two dry and one oil patch if storing. Also, no heavy smoke upon firing so I can see what's happening! These 3 things did it:
Blackhorn 209 Powder
This is no hydroscopic (does not attract moisture). 80 grains by volume will yield the same or more power as 100 grains by volume of Triple 7, Pyrodex, etc. Does not produce smoke upon firing (very little). Cleans up easy and without putting water in your rifle. Priced about the same per serving (container) as the other stuff and you get about the same # of shots because you use less of it and waste less of it.
Mag-Spark Ignition System
Screw one in to your nipple threads and use regular 209 shotshell primers. Very reliable ignition with less blowback and instantaneous discharge. Another plus, you need a 209 shotshell primer to ignite Blackhorn 209 (not the 209 Muzzleloader primers). The 209 shotshell primers are cheaper anyway and with this device I can now use Blackhorn 209 in my sidelock muzzleloader!
Harvester Crushed Rib Sabots
If your gonna use a sabot these are the best I've found. Every sabot is lying on the ground in the same spot with the petal perfectly opened every time. The consistency blows away 7 other kinds of sabots I've used. Insert your favorite .430 bullet (green) or .451-452 bullet (black) or .458 bullet (orange) and it will load easily shot after shot with consistent accuracy. I recently shot 25 blue sabots from another company with the same load. The blue cups were from 20 to 80 yards spread out on the 100 yds range and every one was different ( 1 petal left, 2 left, 3 left, 4 left, 1 open one closed, etc). There are times I don't use a sabot (illegal in CO for instance) but when I do these are fantastic.
I'm shooting 240 grain XTP's (paid $19.89 for 100) with green Harvester CR sabot ($14.00 for 100) and getting 1988 fps from the inline with a 95 grain charge. The 24" barrel sidelock is now shooting the same exact load but getting 1864 fps. I save on not having two sets of components too. 300 grain .452's (Hornady, Swift, Cast Performance) go 1840 fps from the in-line and 1730 fps in the sidelock.
I still appreciate the powder puff, etc of traditional black but this is the best for me! Try it, you'll like it!
) 5744 in my muzzleloader.
or should that be sacrilidge? I dunno. 
Don't fuss fer' spirrels cut in the tube too!
