pamtnman,
Like the others here, I have an opinion, and here it is. You are more or less whistling in the dark, worrying so much about precise bullet diameter in antique ammo that may or may not shoot in your rifle. My own experience shows that old lead bullets, including paper patched, are very often( usually) undersized and depend on obturation to fit the barrel. The wads are there to fill the space between the powder and the base of the bullet. Since you (or anyone else) are very unlikely to "match" the powder, you will likely need different wads and powder. On the other hand, bullet weight may be important. If you listen to it, your rifle will tell you which bullet it wants, the old factory bullet notwithstanding. Likewise, the target(s) will tell you the powder load your rifle wants, using the best powder you can find, which will be different( not better or worse-different) than the old powder. You will have to decide your own trade off between close bullet fit and the residue left by the powder you use. Since you seem to be planning to use black powder, my advice would not be nearly as helpful as advice from BPCR shooters, coupled with information the targets give you. However, as an academic exercise, the information you glean from breaking down the old cartridges will be very interesting. Just as a matter of interest, I once broke down a thousand 43 Spanish black powder cartridges to salvage the cases. I used a pair of linemans pliers with a "caliber size" hole drilled through the "cutter" part. By gripping the bullet above the press, I could pull the case off it. It was difficult to get the compressed powder out and it didn't seem like weighing one charge would result in good data( maybe an average of 10 or 100 would).
Mike
