Elmer Keith said that the "old timers" he talked with claimed that the balls had better killing ability while the bullets were better for penetration. He mentioned shooting wild cattle with a .36 colt as the example.
The current replica moulds by pedersoli are mainly for decoration in the cased revolver displays. They look very much like a lot of the originals but may be a bit lighter. My .36s cast out a 110 grains while the apparenlty identical Thompson center bullets that were made a few year ago, weighed 120. My 31 caliber bullets from the replica mould weigh 60 grains instead of circa 70 as listed in 19th century load recommendations. These .36 bullets produce occasional good groups at 25 and 50 yards but more often than not at least one bullet and often more will diverge several inches from the main cluster. It is hard to get a straight and consistent load when the bullet is sharp and the seating stem is more or less round.
Looking at some pictured 19th century cased revolvers, the bullets included are often sharp pointed but sometimes every bit as rounded as the Lee moulded bullets no available in a couple of diameters for the .44 revolvers. Accuracy with these lee bullets is usually not quite up to what you get with round balls but is often fairly good.
