not much...if they are both muzzle loaders. Muskets tend to be smooth bore muzzle loaders for military use ... that being said, Muskets versions of a few breech loaders were marketed to the military users during the transistion years (late 1800-early 1900) for those who dont know... Winchester offered a musket version of the Models 66, 73, 76 1892 and 1894 and 1895... all were rifled barrels, longer than the Sporting rifles, full stocked with handguards and fitted for bayonets. The Savage company offered a musket version of the 1899 rifle also.
All muskets are muzzle loaders, not all muzzle loaders are muskets. A musket is a weapon where gunpowder and a bullet are loaded from the 'business end' of the barrel. The barrel is not 'rifled.' A rifled barrel has groves cut into it in a spiral pattern that spin the bullet to stabilize it better. Its just like how when you throw a football, one that spins is much more stable. A muzzle loader is any weapon that loads from the front of the barrel. This can include 'rifled muskets' which is a musket with a rifled barrel, a mortar, or even naval cannons (think of the cannons that pirates have.) Modern small arms (rifles, handguns, machineguns, etc) and modern naval guns are almost all 'breech loading, where the cartridge (commonly incorrectly called a bullet) are loaded from the rear. The first weapons were muzzle loaded because it is much more difficult to design a weapon with a removable breech that can withstand the pressure of gunpowder exploding, but breech loaded weapons can generally be reloaded much more quickly. Edit: Webster's definition of a musket is as follows: a heavy large-caliber muzzle-loading usually smoothbore shoulder firearm Thus I maintain my original assertion that all muskets are muzzle loaders but not all muzzle loaders are muskets. It doesn't matter what a certain company marketed their products as, it matters what the accepted definition of the object is.
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Muzzle Loader simply means that the gun is loaded from the end of the barrel (the muzzle) rather than from the breech. Therefore, a musket IS a muzzle loader in most applications. Smooth bored black powder long guns are muskets. The first production model that was NOT a smooth bore was the 1803 Harper's Ferry from the Virginia arsenal of the same name and which Louis and Clark carried on the Corp of Discovery in 1804. Those were the first production model muzzle loaders with rifled barrels and from then on were accurately referred to as black powder rifles.
For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/avKSR musket doesnt mean smooth bore. its a type of firearm that is single shot and is beyond a certain length. a rifled musket is a musket that has rifling in the barrel. meaning grooves that are in a twisted pattern to make the bullet spin. edit to your additional details: a kentucky long rifle had a barrel over 4 feet in length. it was actually a musket though, not technically a rifle since it was smooth bore. however because of the length of the barrel it was as accurate as a rifled musket, hence the name. MOST muskets are muzzle loaders, however towards the end of the civil war Springfield developed a breach loading musket that increased the rounds per minute a soldier could shoot. a conventional musket was 3 rounds a minute for a VERY well trained soldier. the breach loaders were double that. the minnie ball replaced the then conventional round ball (which really was just a small ball). the south used primarily muskets for all of the war. the north had the option to use repeating rifles produced in europe, however they felt that it was an american issue that should be resolved with american weapons. also they had a huge stockpile of .58 caliber rounds that were used in the springfield muskets. the south used mainly enfields which fired a .577 round. anyway my above answer is still the same: muskets are single shot firearms with a long barrel, and although for the majority of their existance they were smooth bore, that does not mean there are variations that werent. rifles are multi shot weapons (bolt,semi, or automatic) with a rifled barrel. a rifled musket is a musket with a rifled barrel
