As for your other needs, the following may be helpful:
The ball diameter is the size that will shave a very small ring of lead from the ball as it is seated. In my 3rd generation, (or second-half 2nd generation, depending on how one wants to categorize them) I use 0.375" round balls.
You could use anywhere from about 14 grains of FFFg up to about 29 grains of FFFg, perhaps with a filler on the lower end. In practice, I like an 18 grain load of FFFg Goex, with 1000+ lube over the ball. It would be difficult to get too much real black powder in one of these, with the modern steels, but why? The lighter the charges, the longer the thing will stay tight and last.
The Colt guns, of which I have 7, were virtually hand assembled with workmanship, parts hardness, and bluing done to Colt's strict standards. Colt did in-house work and in-house QA on the guns. They may very well be better, in many respects, than the original 19th century guns. They bear no foreign proofs or dates because they were made, essentially, in the U.S. and are considered genuine Colt guns.
It arrived today! I bought a Colt Navy 1851, it has the box,outer cardboard sleeve over the box,all the papers,the gun is emaculate.I could not be any happier with it,I just had to tell you guys about it.The box is marked as model #C1121.Serial #97xx. Even the box and papers look great. Can someone tell me what year this Colt was made? I bought it to shoot, what is the normal load, powder charge, ball size, cap size, 10 or 11? The barrel wedge is colored like the frame,I have not seen this before. The silver is tarnished some, will brasso clean it up, or do I need something else?
