Hi Mike
I earn about 85% of my living making muzzleloaders and I have been making them for 48 years now. I have my own way of doing things in the field from a hunting bag, but I know others that do things differently. Any way that is efficient for the shooter is right, and anything that causes wasted motion is wrong.
I am right handed and I wear my bag on my right side as well as my horn. I know many shooters that are right handed who wear the bag on the left.
I keep a measure for powder and shot which hangs on a thong from the strap on my bag. I keep a shot bag inside my hunting bag for bird shot, and the balls are kept in a compartment inside the main bag, so I can use ball or shot depending on what I want to shoot. Inside a double ended metal box I keep over powder and over-shot wads.
For standard ball I can use the same bag because my rifle and the smooth bore both use the same balls. I simply remover the wads and shot bag when I carry the rifle.
I am told I move very fast when i load, but I don't think so. The real trick is no wasted movements. I never hurry. I simply move my hands at the same speed as i move them if I were working on my bench, picking up a coffee cup, of brushing my teeth.
I fire my shot and reach up to draw the cock to half-cock. I don't go to competitive shoot any more, so I don't care about "PC rules", so I then blow down the bore to see smoke come out my vent and soften the fouling. In doing this I dampen the fouling and I also know my vent is clear. As I blow I am reaching for my horn and measure. As I remove the stopper with my left hand i at the bottom of my left fist my left hand is holding the measure at the top of my left fist. So I pull out the stopper, fill the measure and replace the stopper all in about 2 seconds. I dump the powder in the bore and drop the measure. I can't get lost because it's on a thong.
Next my R hand goes into the bag and get out the box with wads. I take both over powder and over shot wads out at the same time. I insert the over-powder wad into the muzzle and place the over-shot wad in my teeth as I return the box into the bag, and when my hand goes back into the bad I drop the box and take the shot bag out. It hangs on a finger as I draw out my rod and run the wad down. I draw out my rod and hold it in my right fist with the measure and fill it with shot. Down into the bore goes the shot and I drop the shot bag, which can't fall because the thong is on my finger.
I place the over-shot wad into the muzzle and run it down with the rod. Replace the rod into the gun and replace the shot bag into the hunting bag.
Last, I prime and I am ready for another bird.
If I am not going to fire immoderately I follow the thong down with my hand to my hanging measure and place it back in the bag.
With my rifle I do it all pretty much the same, except I need no wads and so it's faster and easier. I do use a starter for rifle balls, but my starter is small and short, only starting the ball about 1.5" into the muzzle.
That's just how I do things. Some do it differently, but as I said, if it's fast and smooth it's good, and if you fumble and have to fool around trying to get to the next thing, it's bad.
