cwbyengraver:
Welcome to the Forum.
You might want to think about shooting your Centennial.
These pistols are among the very few reproduction guns that actually have a good collector value.
We have at least one member here that specializes in Centennial pistols.
Anyway, if you don't give a hoot about collectors value and you want to shoot your Colt you will need to buy some .454 or .457 diameter lead round balls.
#10 caps may fit the nipples but are usually hard to find so buy some #11 caps.
They should fit snugly on the nipples seating all the way down so that the priming compound is resting against the end of the nipple.
If the #11 caps are loose when they are seated you can pinch them to make them out of round. That will hold them in place.
If you do have to pinch them, visually inspect the unfired caps on the nipples each time you fire the gun. You want to make sure that none of them came off the nipples due to recoil.
You may have heard of the infamous "chain fire" where more than one chamber fires? That is almost always caused by a cap that fell off of a loaded chambers nipple.
There is a lot of fire around both the front and rear of the cylinder when the gun fires and if a charged chamber doesn't have a cap on it, it too may fire.
About the balls.
They are used without a patch and they are larger than the chamber mouth.
When you use the loading lever to force the ball into the chamber, a small ring of lead will be sheared off of the outside of the ball.
This is good.
It not only seals the front of the chamber to prevent the flames from igniting the powder under the unfired chamber but it holds the ball in place during recoil.
You can use any real black powder but 3Fg will give you the best velocity.
You can also use any of the new synthetic black powders like Pyrodex, 777, or the others.
With a .44, a powder load of 22-25 grains will give a nice healthy boom. You can load a little more for more boom but usually the best accuracy will be with the load I mentioned.
Have fun. :hatsoff: