Thanks for all the input so far. Reason I'm asking here is there isn't a strong muzzleloader hunting culture in MT, probably because we've never had a ML season until now (that I'm aware of). I know exactly one person who's ever hunted with one. There may be black powder shoots, I'd have to look into that.
My budget is <$1000, and <$500 if I can help it. I'm hearing I should be looking for a Hawken-type rifle by Traditions or TC? From my cursory googling, it looks like TC stopped making a Hawken a while ago, but they come up for sale used. Any major quality difference between Traditions and TC?
So you can shoot either bullets or patched round balls out of these things? Should I be looking for a particular caliber if I want to shoot bullets? I'm assuming they have an accuracy and terminal performance edge over the balls?
