When breech seating a bullet and using a case full of black powder with a wad flush with the case mouth how far ahead of the case can you seat the bullet before you risk ringing the barrel?  The reason I ask is because seating the bullet 1/16" ahead of the case the rifling marks do not reach to the base of the bullet.  Charlie

Randy which powder and granulation

Rick

burntwater
63.2 gr (weight) Olde Ensford 1.5, dropped into cases through 24" drop tube with top wad punched from milk carton cardboard.
Below is a picture of me shooting that load at the black powder match last week during the ISSA Schuetzenfest ,

If your bullet, is not engraving the groove of the rifling, you need a bigger base band.

That said, BP can be very forgiving, because it peens the hell out of the back of the base band, bumping it up.

I always have used 1/16 LDPE for BP wads, using F grade BP. If you can, recover a wad or two and you'll see what I mean.

beltfed
I've never worked up a target quality smokeless load for that rifle. Back when I first acquired it, I shot it with smokeless just to get used to shooting it but never considered it for serious target work. I used 19.0gr of 4759 and 18.5gr 4227. Both shot well but not match-winning accuracy. The bullet I was shooting was one I custom designed for muzzle-loading. The mold was made by Steve Brooks of Tru-Bore. That bullet also works well breech seated.
The rifle was purchased with my intent to shoot it both muzzle loaded or breech seated with straight black and duplex loads. It's quite accurate at 200 yds under good range conditions.