If you’re a Euro or otherwise who just has to have a cap and ball for defense, I wouldn’t dream of getting any of the pocket models; they’re all universally considered to be terrible models, the Ubertis are only .31 caliber, and I wouldn’t trust a capped cylinder in my pocket without a holster either way. Uberti is probably the best of the reproducers, if you can’t get a Colt second generation from the 70s. Out of a slew of poor choices, the 1858 Remington is the best choice. It has a back strap, so you physically can’t blow it up even if you cram the cylinder full of powder, you can theoretically load six cylinders using the ‘safety notch’ between them (I only ever use that on a range.), it is a ‘full-size .44’, and you can theoretically reload by swapping cylinders. Again, I wouldn’t trust a capped cylinder in my pocket, but you do you. The sights are also better than an 1860 Army. (Downside: the 1858 is uglier than the 1860.)
I’ve had the best luck with Remington #10 caps on my Italian guns. CCI have always been a looser fit for me and I wouldn’t recommend them. Source actual blackpowder whenever possible; the artificial Pyrodex stuff is a real pain to clean and will rust a revolver out if you aren’t meticulous in how you clean it. (Blackpowder also rusts, but I’ve had worse luck out of artificial.) You will need to shoot a lot, because the sights on any of these old revolvers aren’t the best and every revolver is finicky about how much powder it wants to give you the best results. Finally, don’t gob a bunch of Crisco or similar grease over the cylinder mouths to prevent a chain fire - you will wind up inadvertently causing a chain fire when loose powder is invariably trapped in the grease. Ensure you have a little ring of lead being taken off each round ball you load into each cylinder. Paper cartridges work best, and historically were almost universally carried; I’ve only ever seen a chain fire once and have never heard of a paper cartridge loaded revolver chain firing outside of FUD lore.
Don’t buy brass frame revolvers if you’re new to blackpowder. You can and will overload your revolver at some point and the brass ones are not forgiving of this.
I really love the history and the mechanics behind cap and ball revolvers. They were a strange little intermediary step between percussion/flintlock muzzleloading pistols to the cartridge wheel guns that became prevalent in the 1860s and 1870s in the United States. Even though a .44 Army Colt will still put a hole through your head, and even the .36 caliber Navies killed plenty of bad hombres, everyone and their cousin who could afford to replace or convert their revolvers did so. (Cap and ball revolvers were still the most popular sidearms up until the late 1880s or so; there were tens of thousands of them in surplus with millions of surplus paper cartridges, while the ‘73 Peacemaker was $20.) One of the most prolific gunslingers to carry cap and balls past their prime, Wild Bill Hickok, still died with a Smith & Wesson #2 cartridge revolver on his person and not his beloved Colt Navy .36s.
