Powder charge. How much powder do you use.

[Mad L]

My 42 inch .50cal likes 60gr 2F GOEX (10% less if Swiss) and she will hit the target from 100 to 200 yard. Any more and she'll just thump my shoulder and burp up crud.
No formula, just started feeding her from 45gr up to 70gr and settled back on 60gr.

I bought her a pretty little deer tine measure for 60gr, marked inside for 50gr, and she's been happy ever since.

 

[SwampBilly]

I saw a video of a guy purposely overloading a muzzleloader and firing it remotely to see what sort of load would actually damage it.

First he double charged the gun which could be a common mistake if someone isn't paying attention. There was no damage.

It was something like a hawken rifle and eventually he poured the entire barrel full of black powder. I think it caused a crack in the wood.

Then he moved on to smokeless powder. Eventually the gun was severely damaged with around 200 grains of smokeless IIRC.

Of course no one should ever use smokeless in any amount. Unless you just like holding grenades as they go off