Muzzle loaders can be a lot of fun. One safety precaution I didn't pay much attention to years ago but I do now is double loading it. Meaning powder then bullet rammed down the barrel then forget you loaded it and put another load of powder and bullet in the barrel is recipe for disaster. After loading it, mark your ram rod and always check before loading it how far your ram rod will go into your barrel to see if you have a charge in it already.