roundball-Glad you dropped the conversion idea. A Colt hammer double in good shape is not some sort of throwaway project gun. The reason there is no "half cock" is that your gun has rebounding locks. Invented by John Stanton in England about 1867. The hammer rebounds off the firing pin to the equivalent of a flintlocks half cock. The gun is probably well made and if memory serves me right Colt may have imported those doubles from England. Others more knowledgeable about Colt's may chime in and let us know for sure or you could check the proofmarks. Good luck and just clean the gun. Don't try and make it look like new. And don't forget to check the chamber length. It is almost certainly shorter than 2 3/4" and just because the gun can be closed on modern 2 3/4" shells that doesn't mean they are appropriate. Lots of us buy once fired Federal paper shells, trim the crimp folds off, giving us a 2 1/2" shell. I then use a roll crimper and there you have a shell very much like the chambers were probably made for. Don't be afraid to ask follow up questions. Lots of us are shooting hammer doubles with roll crimped blackpowder shells.
