I am Working on a New B/P Pistol, Contender 16" 209-50.
I was Wondering what Works Best in a Pistol ?
Xtp's, Maxiball's, Power Belt's, OR ?
I Have Some XTP's, Sofar I Like 240 xtp's Better than 300's
(Less Recoil).
I Have some Powerbelt's But havent tried them Yet.
I see Gregg Has Some Expriance with The Maxi's and PB's
What SEEMS TO WORK BEST ????

With a pistol you do have to watch your bullet selection. I have not had good experiences with the hornady 240 gr XTP MAG they are to tough to expand reliable at pistol volestys. I have had good luck with barnes 240 gr bullets and alpha gold 300 gr. the alpha gold are pure lead and expand well.

Thats What I am Worried About!!!
I Know It HAS to be a Bullet That WORKS At Lower FPS.
I am not finding Much Info for B/P Pistols ANYWHARE !!

And I Cant Just OUTRIGHT Use the Info for a Reguler Pistol.

you won't find much there isn't many ml handguns capable of taking deer or larger game. the ruger old army is very marginable on deer. I tried it didn't work real well.

I feel the best is the t/c encore and contender because the handle a large charge of powder and still be safe.

pure lead bullets will work fine and the barns copper h.p. works.

keep the distance resonable, even though the pistol can shoot over 100 yaRds the speed drops to make expansion unpredictible. I like to keep shots under 50 yards

Mike, I'm using some 240gr cast swc's that I cast for my .44mag and .44spec and 100grs of Pyrodex (loose or pellets). My barrel is a cut-down (16.25") rifle barrel I bought on sale. A local 'smith cut, crowned and even cut the 'easy start' relief in the muzzle. I've got an old red-dot on it and I'm good to 100yds or so. I found that the sabot is probably more important than the bullet. If you shoot the sabots, make sure it's the proper one, ie; .429 for .44's or .452 for .45's. Or, stay with the Power Belts, They shoot well in my pistol, just too expensive for my 'cheap' ways. (I cast for all my 'shooting pistols, even my .22's.)

No need to cry about bullet selection when using the Encore Muzzle Loading pistol.

Here in Colorado, sabots are not legal. You must use a full-caliber projectile.

The Encore 209X50 pistol can be easily loaded to duplicate .454 Casull ballistics; I have done it and the heavier loads in the T/C Manual do the same.

Just consider bullets such as hard cast (like you would in a .454, etc. etc.) or as I noted, the T/C Maxiball worked great with a single shot kill on a bull elk. And if you watch this video:

http://www.handgunhunt.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1722&ppuser=872

...you will see what a Power Belt bullet does to an antelope (by the way that bullet exited in case there was any question.)

There is a fairly new muzzle loader bullet out there from Hornady: the (full caliber) .50 caliber 300 grain FPB. Quoting from Hornady's website:
"Elastomer tip aids in expansion and clean kills at impact velocities from 800 to 2000+ fps."

(http://www.hornady.com/store/50-Cal-300-gr-FPB)

This would easily fill your needs, be it rifle or pistol for the Encore, and because it is of full caliber design (ie. not a saboted bullet) should be legal in any state that allows ML pistols (and rifles of course.)

I have not tried it yet but plan to in the future...

http://www.mmpsabots.com

I use blacks with 250 gr .452 XTP's (non-MAG) over 100 gr of Blackhorn 209. That's for a full sized Encore rifle though and keep in mind that Blackhorn has a bit more energy than 777 or Pyrodex.

According to Hornady, XTP's are designed for :

"Recommended muzzle velocity range: 700 to 1500 fps"

Seems like you should be good to go in the pistol at the appropriate range.

probably won't be much help as the only black powder guns I shoot are my hawkens and I use the Hornady Great Plains bullets and get pretty decent accuracy but not sure how they would work in a pistol. That new bullet Gregg was talking about sounds interesting.