I think the litiney for 400 years went 'Powder patch and ball, or it will not shoot at all".
As an aside, the patch used to be kept wet in the mouth and hence the term "spit wad" . And when under attack, when you had shot up all your ball ammo and the enemy way closing to melee range you just rammed the cotton patch down the barrel and shot that at close range. This was known as
'shooting your wad"
For me, there is no better hunting then closing to black powder range to make the kill.