Stan, I see a .410 sneaking into your picture. They do seem to give a lot of guns a run for their money. That is a beautiful gun. I think a lot of the later made muzzle loaders got little or no use. If taken care of they are just like new.
I like your rod and box. I ordered a Derlin rod which will get a fairly similar treatment. No need to risk damage to the rod in the gun, when a suitable substitute can be found which will be stronger and cheaper to replace. I have a MTM box which will hold all my stuff once I get it together. At first it seems like it takes a lot of stuff to load a muzzle loader but truth is it does not compared to shotgun shells. I have 15 different types of wads and 12 different powders on hand for shells while I need one powder, three types of wad/cards, one basic percussion cap. Gadgets and accessories will follow just because I like gadgets, junk and clutter.
I have not fooled with black powder since before they had special season for black powder hunting. A long time ago. But to me it was all about attention to detail, common sense and learning tricks long forgotten. Once I had a system in place it was a lot of fun. I am sure that I will have too many curious people wanting to see what all the smoke is about the first few hunts.
