...hunt in Muzzleloader season using black powder and a round ball, if both are separately loaded from the breech without the use of a "container" for the powder and/or ball?

Nope. It's doubtfull that any state would allow it during th muzzleloader season. Here in Illinois for example, it has to load from the muzzle and be incapable of being loaded from the breech to be legal for use.

I met a guy once that had a Sharps percussion rifle (breech loading, paper cartridge gun). He said he had worked out permission with the IDNR to use it as a muzzleloader if he loaded it from the muzzle and fixed the gun so that it could not be loaded from the breech w/o disassembling the gun.

I don't know how he worked this deal and I wonder if it was just an agreement with his local game warden. Something that might not be honored by a warden in a different area. Anyway, that is the only instance I know of - he still had to load from the front like the rest of us.

Brent

How about if said rifle was patented & built in 1776?

..and it's a flintlock to boot!

Just goes to show you the ignorance of people when they write or suggest the regulations. I can use a fully rifled barrel on my 870 - thus making it a Rifle - in the shotgun season. Smokeless powder in a rifle shooting modern jacketed bullets with a brand new Nightforce sniper scope in the Muzzleloading season in many states, just because it loads from the front end! Or what about a contraption of wheels & pulleys that propels a long, space age projectile tipped with razor blades, in the Archery season. But I can't use a 225+ year old firearm or (in most states) a wood bow/sinew string propelling a handmade wooden shaft with a stone head. Hell, in some places you can't even use a smoothbore muzzlelaoder, because someone put rifle in the regs. Kinda makes me want to puke!

If it is a Fergison I say go for it. The DNR will look at the flintlock ignition and the wiping stick under the barrel and ask no questions. He will not even know the trigger guard turn to open the breach for loading.

A Hall rifle would be another consideration.

Otherwise I would not chance it.

Maybe you can get those in-line shooters all wound up again, maybe not. If you seriously want to use a Ferguson (one of the reproductions I hope) you would not be able to do so legally (although you might get away with it) here in VA.

• Muzzleloading guns must be single shot flintlock or percussion ignition, excluding muzzleloading pistols.
• Must be .45 caliber or larger.
• Must be able to fire only a single bullet or saboted bullet (.38 caliber or larger projectile).
• Must be loaded from the muzzle of the gun.
• Must use at least 50 grains of black powder or black powder equivalent.
• For the purposes of transportation in a vehicle, muzzleloading firearms are considered "unloaded" when all powder has been removed from the flashpan, or the percussion cap has been removed from the nipple. For complete safety, a muzzleloader should be emptied by shooting into soft ground.

You can see these regs at the VDGIF site.

You'll please note that I also can not use a Brown Bess musket, it's a smoothbore!