TRowe wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2022 at 9:08pm:


Amen!

I have read that muzzle seating is superior to breech seating as the process of seating the bullet removes the fouling from the previous shot, plus the obvious advantage of pre-engraving the bullet.
Thoughts?

29aholic
Muzzle loading cartridge target rifles was popular during the golden age of Schuetzen (1890-about 1917) for several reasons. One of the primary reasons was the game had a leisurely pace which allowed time between shots for cleaning, loading, or whatever the shooter wanted to do. One could breech seat and get equal accuracy to ML but duplex or black powder loads required cleaning between shots. When ML the lubed bullet pushed fouling down the barrel and out the breech, making the bore essentially clean and lubed for the next shot. ML allowed shooters to shoot dirty (not cleaning between shots) which was a big deal back in the era when black powder and duplex were more accurate than smokeless.
ML really only effective with duplex (used by most) or black. Now days, ML using smokeless loads does not really gain anything and breech seating is almost always more accurate. 
One cautionary note: if you have an original target rifle set up for muzzle loading DON'T shoot ML. Sooner or later you WILL short-start a bullet and shoot it with that bullet about 4 inches from the muzzle. That will ring the barrel at that spot and ruin your once nice 120 year old barrel. It was not a uncommon occurrence back in the day so we are just as susceptible to it as our forefathers.

What is painful is I sold a Pope .32 mold,duplex measure and 32-40 re-de thinking I'd never find a Pope( or Stevens Pope)rifle!

Well I took it out for a session today
First it seems to need a bullet with a base over .324.The gun like any light barreled thin forend 44 is very hard to handle on the bags.ill be making a wider fore end.

With that the better 5 shot groups were just under at or just one inch at 100 yards.
There is hope!