A good classic Colt revolver is always a good choice as a starter gun. Buying it in the starter kit is also an excellant idea, you are getting very good value for your money, for something, you may, or may not develope into a serious interest. Dixie, and several other outfitters offer similar starter kits for similar prices, however I think Dixie's kit is a bit more money.
As far as loading various types of loads into the gun is concerned, as long as you are using pure lead projectiles, not hardened lead ones, you will not harm the barrel of the pistol at all with widely different loads of round ball, conical, or various types of the larger beads of bird shot. When loading with shot, do remember that a cork pad, between the shot and the powder is necessary, and, that a top thin cardboard pad is needed to cap the shot off on top. Most persons use two thin cardboard pads, one directly on top of the powder, then the thick cork pad, then the shot, then a thin cardboard pad on top of that to cap it all off. Alot of persons, slice the cork wad in half, seperating it into two thinner round cork wads, then layer in some sort of thick lubricant, such as a home made lube made of 60% beeswax, 20% lanoline, and 20% olive or vegitable oil, forming a little cork and lube sandwich. In prior times, our ancestors, used ingrediants which were common then, but rather exotic now, like, bear grease, rattlesnake grease, whale oil, what have you. Cost concious persons generally opt for just using plain, ordinary, crisco vegitable grease as their bore/bullet/wad lubricant, they all swear, it's as good as anything else, and ALOT less expensive. For more exotic calibers/bore gauges, you can purchase, from several online outfitters, such as Dixie Gun Works, or Lee Precision, hand punches that do not need to be mounted in a press, just tapped with a hammer, sized exactly to the size you need. For the thin cardboard pads, milk cartons make an excellant carbboard pad, you can generally purchase large cork sheets from most major home suppliers like home depot, what-have-you's. For a small pistol bore, I think I would just fore-go splitting the cork wad in half, and generously lube the top of the load over the cardboard top cap, something that would be pretty messy to do in a long barrel muzzel loader.
For a really fun larger bore smooth bore pistol, that can be loaded with either a patched solid ball, or a shotgun load, take a gander at this lil puppy, it's available from "Middlesex Village Trading Company" for $375.00, which is alot less than a Howdah Pistol, and nearly the same pistol. It measures out at 6-12" barrels, and 62 Caliber, which works out to a 20 Ga Shotgun size. Being a double barreled gun, it's twice the gun of a single shot.
http://www.middlesexvillagetrading.com/PDBC.SHTML
Sincerely,
ElvinWarrior... aka... David, "EW"
