It is a Colt 1860 44 cal. copy which is not only a beautiful piece of art but also fires .454 cal. 140 gr. round lead balls at about 900 fps
I think you made a fine choice. A 44 blackpowder pistol is accurate and powerful. The wounds they can cause are much worse than what modern people expect. I have seen a number of material, mostly ballistic tests, where the round ball causes a larger wound channel than many FMJ's. This page has a few tests in ballistic gelatin.
Gun Review: Classic cap and ball revolver calibers get the ballistic gel test
http://www.guns.com/review/gun-revi...revolver-calibers-get-the-ballistic-gel-test/
Blackpowder service rifles did in fact cause worse wounds than the "modern" service cartridges of WW1. I have Captain Louis A. LaGarde's book on Wound Ballistics, and he claims that the small arms of the American Civil War caused worse wounds than the rifles of his period, which was around 1914. This is more or less confirmed in this paper:
Wound Ballistics: Minié Ball vs. Full MetalJacketed Bullets—A Comparison of Civil War and
Spanish-American War Firearms http://militarymedicine.amsus.org/doi/pdf/10.7205/MILMED-D-02-2307
The velocity you get will depend on a number of things, the powder, the cap, and other things I don't understand.
These are the velocities I got out of a Colt 3rd Model Dragoon, which were not that impressive. The only "good" velocity was with Pydrodex and it was only one shot. Blackpowder guns blow so much residue out the barrel that my chronograph was unable to register, I did not have the time to move the chronograph out, so one shot velocity is all I got.
Code:
Colt 3rd Model Dragoon
142 gr .454 Round Ball 40 grain Volumic Measured GOEX FFG RWS cap
24 July 1999 T= 99 -100 ° F
90 ° F at 930 !
Ave Vel = 785
Std Dev = 30
ES = 73
Low = 741
High = 814
N = 4
142 gr .454 Round Ball 40 grain Volumic Measured GOEX FFG CCI#11 cap
24 July 1999 T= 99 -100 ° F
Ave Vel = 837
Std Dev = 18
ES = 56
Low = 814
High = 870
N = 8
142 gr .454 Round Ball 40 grain Volumic Measured Pyrodex Rem #1 cap
24 July 1999 T= 99 - 100 ° F
Ave Vel = 920
Std Dev = 0
ES = 0
Low = 920
High = 920
N = 1
too many solids in air caused chronograph to malfunction.
Some things to consider. You must take the pistol out and shoot it, shoot it on paper and see where it is sighted. I have found that most blackpowder guns are indifferently sighted. I do not think the average black powder shooter is interested in hitting anything, or guns from the factory would not have the front sight offset to the one o'clock position. These old pistols have short front sights and shoot feet high at 25 yards. Often they shoot feet to the left or right. My Uberti M1858, the front sight was made tall, and I filed it down so it shot to point of aim, and it was drift adjustable. My Uberti M1858 Remington shoots to point of aim. Pictures attached of six shots at 8 yards, and a 25 yard group that I made with my Remington. these are offhand groups, and that makes a huge difference in point of impact. Pistols shot off a sand bag rest will often print to a different location. Adjust the sights as you will shoot. Now, this pistol is acceptable for a self defense weapon. My Colt, while I was able to have a tall brass front sight put into the barrel notch, it shoots about a foot or two left at 25 yards. I consider that unacceptable.
Something else about shooting a Colt is that you must learn to flip the pistol as you cock it to clear the cap. With the Colt design, fired caps have the nasty habit of falling between the hammer and the frame. Flipping the pistol as you cock will often toss the cap clear. I have not had this problem with the 1858 Remington.
I used OxYoke wads between the ball and the powder.
http://www.rmcoxyoke.com/wads These have worked better, and are cleaner, than any other technique I used to keep the powder fouling moist and clean. Years ago I melted candle wax around the caps/nipples and the front of the balls of a loaded blackpowder revolver. That kept the moisture out for years, as all cylinders fired.
