My son won a muzzleloader hunt this year at Palmetto SP. I did as well at Trinity River NWR. I know next to nothing about muzzleloaders. Any tips on a lighter recoil muzzleloader? Also any tips on building a muzzleloader? He saw some kits on the internet and he really wants to help me build one.

I assume you mean your son "won" a hunt.

For your son I would expect something in the .45 range and 60 grains of powder. If you can find a T/C Seneca or Cherokee would be about right. They are no longer made and hard to find.

You did not say how old he is, so it makes it hard to make a recommendation on a rifle.

Kits, about the only folks offering kits are Traditions and Lyman. They are really not difficult to put together.

Places to look for rifles are Log Cabin Shop or RMC Ox-Yoke.

I only shoot traditional M/L and cannot help on in-lines.

Good catch. He's 9 an used to shooting a .270. thank you for the info.

You might look for a T/C Renegade in .50, that would be about the right size to grow into.

If he is use to a .270, he could handle a .50 and 70 grains of powder. Moving to a .54 might be pushing the limit with a heavier ball.

I can get a used knight american .50 with a scope for $200. It's in good shape. Would this be a good choice? I would like something decent without spending a ton of money. Just to see if we like shooting muzzleloader. Then commit to what we want when we understand it more.

Traditions makes some light traditional rifles and are priced right. Starting him with a traditional type of muzzleloader would help educate him and start him towards hunting as it should be.

If I had won one of those muzzleloader hunts, I was looking at keeping it cheap as well - until I decided whether hunting muzzleloader was something I could get into.

Could keep it real cheap at $159 - https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1016260265?pid=236609

But I was leaning more towards this one - https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1763128017 or with scope: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1002215494?pid=181270

As I understand it, muzzleloaders can be shipped directly to your home too, so no having to ship to an FFL.

The Traditions Deerhunter Kit is under $300. You could put a scope on it (its drilled and tapped). It is short, lightweight and accurate. The sights are pretty good. With this one you can build a kit and either keep it semi-traditional with the open sights, or use a scope for starters. My son uses one with 70 grains Triple 7 powder with 295 grain Powerbelt bullets and it is very accurate at 100-yards. It also does good with Hornady PA Conical (240 grain) and a .490 ball with .018 pillow ticking over 80 grains FFFg. I think the advantage for a younger person with this one over the Hawken style is the flat buttplate, short length and balance and reasonable weight. My sons starting using it when they were 6 and 7 respectively. The older is 14 now and he has taken a lot of animals with it so he doesn't want a new muzzleloader. His brother has gone with a .54 Hawken style with 28" barrel and needs a leather recoil pad with it. Good luck!

Yesterday we were shooting my son's Traditions Deer Hunter Kit off the bench at 100-yards. We were looking to find the most accurate load. This takes time and our usual range session are 2-3 hours. Well, we buckled down and spent 8 hours there and burned over a pound of powder and a hundred projectiles. A lot of cleaning and starting over transpired. Anyway, the work and experimentation was worth it. This little rifle built over 10-years ago from a kit has a Leupold IER 2.5X scope and a quick release comb riser that we installed. With the fore-end rested on a bag at the wedge pin the 100-yard groups ended up being 5-shots into an inch! The load was 70 grains loose Triple 7, FFFg with a Hornady PA Conical (240 grain lead). One trick was to wipe all the lube off the projectile and from the base, but leave it still feeling slick. This scope tracks perfectly with the boxes on this target so we just shot one and moved accordingly until we got what we wanted. The circled shots were moving the scope turrets. The final group is the 5-shots in the top right white "bullseye" box. Once we got the shots up and right I left it there, I'm afraid to touch it. These bullets were purchased at Bass Pro at a price of $9.99 per 100. What a bargain!

I was out cleaning up my range some yesterday, and just for fun I took along a Traditions Fox River 50 that I have had laying around here for a while. I bought it some time back at the local flea market for 100 bucks just as a cheap toy. It weighs very little and is sure comfortable to hold up and aim. The butt has a recoil pad as well, and it makes it comfortable to shoot from a bench. I thought I'd try it with 70 gr. of 3f and see if it would shoot good enough to be a deer rifle. My first shot was a little to the left and the next four shots were a little low and to the left. I bumped the rear sight over a little and filed a little bit off of the front sight and tried it again at 75 yds. It seemed to shoot close enough on the second target, that I shot some at steel targets on the 100 yd. line and it did okay, but I had to hold about 4 inches high to center up there.
I think one of these would make a nice lightweight starter rifle for a youngster. I think anything beyond the 70 gr. load might get to be a little bit much for a youngster, but 50 grains behind a prb should do in a deer just fine.