ORIGINAL: Bloodstayn
Ok, Im in NC and I dont know exactly what the rules are on "Muzzle Loaders". My dad has some pretty fancy black powder guns like old Maynards and some rolling block style rifles. Regardles, these types of guns take pre loaded cartriges (bullets and brass casing loaded with black powder) and they fire with caps and hammer. What Im wondering is if they really need to be "Muzzle Loaders" or if you can use these cartridge style rifles.
To me, it would be any arm than MUST beloaded by pouring powder in from the muzzle, followed by ball and/oor shot from the muzzle, and which has a fixed, immoveable breech and cannot be loaded thru the breech in any manner in the field. This would include all inlines as well as sidelock types.
Any arm which loads from the breech with a fixed cartridge is obviously NOT a muzzleloader, regardless of the type of propellant it uses...... nor is the caplock Sharps, Smith or Burnside, which use "semi-fixed" ammunition, but is loaded via a dropping breechblock or swinging barrel, then capped at the nipple on the breechblock....