After shooting the 200g lee conical in my 1858 for the last few weeks I am completely hooked. I put a brand new front sight on the 1858 from Taylors and benched it for a few shots. ground down the sight and then a few more shots until I got a 6 o'clock hold that I am happy with. I have not gone crazy benching the gun or trying to get perfect groups on paper off hand so don't have any pretty pictures for you. I mostly shoot steel and am happy when I can consistently get hits on 5" steel @ 25yrds and 6" steel at 40 yrds. I shoot a little bit of paper 50 and 60 yrds and am happy if I can get on an 8 1/2 x11 letter sheet and ecstatic if I occasionally hit my hand drawn bullseye with a revolver with crappy trigger. . no luck yet hitting the 50yrd 6" steel off hand with the revolver. I do not have the bench set up on that 50 yrd target but perhaps I will do that today.
Pros. I feel I am getting better consistency with conicals than I was with RB.
Once the bullets are waxed the loading process is faster and easier than RB. No looking for and positioning the spru, less pressure on the loading lever, no need to lube after loading.
Better reliability? perhaps its the wax seal? perhaps not using bore butter as a rb lube? but I have not had any slow fires or missfires since switching to conicals. Don't know the exact reason but not complaining.
Historically accurate. Any union soldier would have been issued paper cartridges with conicals. Any western lawman would have bought paper cartridges at the hardware store. This is what the gun was designed to shoot. It feels much more powerful and I am getting good hits.
The conicals are easy to cast and fall out of the mold easier than RB. perhaps I just have a lucky Mold.
Cons. They use a lot more lead to cast.
Applying the wax lube takes extra time and effort.
Summary. I wish I had started shooting conicals 50 years ago. its a hoot.
