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[nkbj]

Yeah, they were originally used with round ball as far as I know. But that said, the 1847 Walker design was stated to be for elongated bullets so it sure didn't take very long for somebody to think it up.
For the 1860-65 war, I don't think anybody would argue against those elongated pointy nosed bullets being fielded to poke through uniforms and coats.
Uh, but hey well, then again somebody pro'bly will!

 

[M. De Land]

I remember reading a lot of Elmer Keith books and now have several of his most famous tombs. He said that the bullets of that era were very poorly shaped and that the people he had known who had been in the Civil war always used ball over bullet, when given the choice, as they killed better and were more accurate.
The .44 caliber was developed over the .36 for the Civil war so as to be better suited for dropping a horse in a cavalry engagement and this they did with great regularity. My guess is that this was probably the reason for the evolution of the more load efficient conical cartridge over loose powder and ball.

 

[Zonie]

We know the Army was using pointed bullet, paper cartridges in the Walker because of the trouble the pistol had.

There were a number of Walker cylinders that blew up and some of the Military blamed the bullets.

They said the reason for the problem was the men were loading the bullets into the chambers, pointed end first.
(Yes, I have seen quotes of the original written documents in several of my books.)

Later, the reason was thought to be that the Whitney Company which made the Walkers for Colt had cut corners and used inferior steel to make the cylinders. (Whitney was known for using poor materials and selling cheap guns.)

Any way, had the Army not been using pointed bullets in the Walker, they wouldn't have come up with those bullets as the source of the problem.

 

[M. De Land]

What I read about the Walker bursting cylinder problem Jim was that they were not really steel but more like wrought iron not having near the hoop strength of actual steel made possible by the invention of the Beysimer sp. process employed with later generations of revolver.
I did not know they were used with conical paper cartridges. I had only read of them used with loose powder and ball.