My experience has been the opposite with pellets. I know they cost a bit more than the powder, but I've had good luck with them. I had one muzzleloader several years ago that shot very well with pellets, but I never could get any charge of loose powder to shoot nearly as well. It really comes down to what the particular gun likes. I haven't really had any consistency issues with fresh pellets, and I got great accuracy from them. What I have found is that they have an extremely short shelf life. I found myself buying a new box each year, or else I would run into problems with them.
I've been shooting BH209 for the last 10 years or so. While I like it okay, like anything it has its pro's and con's. With the current price increase of 8oz for $80, I won't be buying anymore. Once I run out, I'm going to switch back to Pyrodex. I really feel like their marketing department did a great job creating a lot of internet hype though. It's marketed as cleaner, less corrosive, etc. It might be, but it's definitely still very corrosive. If I shoot my T/C Triumph in the evening and wait until the next day to clean it, it'll already have rust starting in it. Just like Pyrodex. When the powder first became popular people online were talking about not cleaning their muzzleloader until the end of the season with it. I tried going about 3-4 days and it left severe pitting in my barrel. I learned that lesson the hard way. You have to clean it just as fast as you do with Pyrodex or 777. While the cleaning process is different, it's not really any faster imo. I just don't see a benefit there.
What the benefits are to it imo, is that you don't have to swab the barrel every few shots at the range. However, I'm not really sure how much of a benefit that even is, because it takes 30 seconds to swab the barrel with an alcohol patch while you're waiting for your gun to cool down. Another benefit is that it's less smoke when you shoot it, but again, it's still enough that it's hard to see what you shot at for a few seconds. The 3rd and biggest benefit is that it seems to have a much much longer shelf life. This is really the only thing I've found that makes a noticeable difference to me over Pyrodex. It's certainly not worth 8x the price to me.
I do agree 100% on the bullets though. PowerBelts are terrible. Why anyone buys those things is beyond me. When I first got into muzzleloading they were newish and stores were pushing them hard. I and a bunch of buddies in our hunt club all tried them. I shot numerous deer that I had trouble finding. I wouldn't get a pass through and I'd find the deer a couple of hundred yards away with no blood trail. It made it very hard to find each deer. I then shot one that did a bang flop, then it hopped up and ran off. I never did find it, no blood, no nothing. That was the last straw for me. I'm confident he wasn't laying very far off, but I just never could find him. I quickly realized through talking to my buddies that they were all having the exact same issue. We all switched back to a traditional handgun bullet in a sabot. I switched to Speer Deep Curls and the difference is amazing. I almost always get a large exit hole and a large blood trail that leads me right to the deer. I've heard great things about the Barnes as well, but haven't tried them. My gun just shoots the Deep Curls so well, and I've been so impressed by the performance that I bought several boxes a few years ago. I haven't had any desire to try anything else since I still have a bunch of them.
