OBrien
The max powder load for your pistol would be whatever it takes to fill the chamber to a height that is about 3/8 of an inch below the mouth of the chamber.
Generally speaking you cannot overload one of these revolvers even using 777 which is the more powerful of the synthetic powders.
That said, it is usually a poor idea to load the gun to the max. They usually get their best accuracy loaded with a smaller powder load.
Because your pistol is a Percussion gun it will shoot black powder, Pyrodex, 777 or the other synthetic powders but it will usually have the best accuracy with real black powder.
Under NO circumstances should you use ANY smokeless powder it your gun. Not even a tiny bit of it.
Smokeless powder will blow your gun up.
You didn't say what model of pistol you have.
To answer your second question this needs to be known but generally speaking, a round ball works best in all of these guns.
If you really want to load a conical we need to know if your pistol is a Colt 1851, Colt 1860, Remington New Army, Rogers & Spencer or other styles.
I'm betting it is a Colt 1851 that is offered in the non-historic caliber of .44.
The way to tell is this gun is an "open top" style without a topstrap on the frame. The cylinder is not covered at the top.
An 1851 Colt also has a link style of loading lever. That is, it is retained by a single screw thru the frame and when it is pulled down it revolves around that screw.
If it is a Colt 1851 model you may be out of luck when it comes to conicals.
The frame will have a rather small clearance cut in the right side to allow a ball to be placed into the cylinder and the cylinder to be rotated under the loading ram.
These cuts were designed for round balls and most conicals are too long to rotate easily under the loading ram.
The Colt 1860 is a much more streamlined gun and was originally made in .44 caliber.
It uses a toothed loading lever that engages holes in the bottom of the barrel to create its ramming force.
This gun has a much larger cut to allow for short conicals to be loaded but a word of caution about using conicals in it.
All of these pistols rely on the ball or bullet being larger than the chamber. This design will shear a small amount of lead off of the outside of the projectile when it is forced into the cylinder. This is good. The shearing makes the ball or bullet fit tightly in the chamber which keeps it from moving during recoil and also seals the front of the chamber from the flames of the firing chamber. That helps prevent a "chain fire" where multiple chambers fire at the same time.
Now, because of the need to shear off some lead, and the design of the loading levers (especially on the 1851) loading roundballs is no problem but loading conicals is a major job of shearing off all of the lead on the outside of the bullet.
It takes a lot of force and the 1851 wasn't designed for it.
The newly made reproduction 1860 Colts do not have hardened holes in the barrel for the loading levers teeth and they have been known to strip or tear out when used to seat elongated bullets.
Another thing to consider.
Some of these guns have a brass frame.
All of them have brass trigger guards and backstraps but that's not what I'm speaking of.
I'm talking about the actual frame being made of brass.
If your gun is a brass framed gun, shooting conicals in it will rapidly ruin it.
Even shooting round balls in a brass framed gun can loosen things up if powerful powder loads are used. That is why most of us recommend using medium or light powder loads with roundballs only in these brass framed guns.
Because these guns are most accurate if the ball or bullet is loaded only until the top of the ball is below the face of the chamber, and the powder load needs to be compressed by the ball/bullet before firing most folks pour in the smaller powder charges and then top it with some dry Cream of Wheat or cornmeal to bring the load up to about 3/8 below the chamber mouth.
Then the ball or bullet is seated so that it compresses the filler/powder load.
Others have found that using the lubricated felt wads made for these revolvers does a good job of lubricating the bore and filling the chamber.
I hope this helps answer your questions.
