It warmed up today and I had about 20 minutes with nothing planned for me, so I went out back and shot a cylinder full.
Let'see...
Ted Cash inline cappers that "fit all revolvers" don't fit 1858's. After I got back I messed with one of my cylinders with a dremel tool. I'll try it again tomorrow to see if I need to take more off. As a side note, once I figure out how much to take off I'll bring other cylinders to work and try the milling machine we have in our lab, as a dremel tool can make a cosmetic mess or two if (when) it slips.
I had installed Treso nipples in it as soon as I got it. I have quite a collection of caps from when I was more into black powder many moons ago so I tried them all. CCI #11's seemed to fit best so I tried them today. I had problems with some of them falling off. I don't think I had them pushed down as far as I should have. I'll bring a wooden dowl with me next time to seat them better. If that doesn't work I'll have to mess a bit with other brands of caps.
I used home made wads... 1/8 " felt punched with a 12 mm (.480) punch and saturated with Parafin/Tallow/Beeswax . The .480 size seemed perfect for this caliber. It was a tight fit, but still went in with thumb pressure. I was loading with a "Powder, Inc" cylinder loader so it was easy to press the wads in after the powder with my thumb.
I shot it at 25 feet. I was more focused on getting the caps to stay on and such than actually aiming, so grouping suffered a bit due to lack of concentration. Still, it grouped close to dead on and all holes in the cardboard were in a 5 inch circle. Oddly enough there were 9 holes in the thick corrogated cardboard. They all were clean circles. I don't know which ones were balls and which ones were wads, so the actual group may have been alot better than 5 inches. This is something to think about if you think that a wad with no bullet is a blank load.
My wife had apparently forgotten about the smell of cleaning a BP gun from 15 years or so ago, cuz I got the "smeels like rotten eggs" and "who farted" remarks while fighting for kitchen sink space. The first few times is always the worst
Tomorrow I'll go out there and try it again.