Around 1968, Dad brought home a Replica Arms 1861 Colt made by Uberti. I had already fired a .44 Army, and was initially disappointed at the "mere .36 cal". It was fired frequently & became my job to disassemble, clean and maintain. I went on to cast bullets & the RB's from a brass mold. I even wrapped the handles in leather to allow more handling before it became too hot.
It only took one trip to the range & I was hooked on .36 cal. When fired it has more of a crack sound, then the bigger & subsonic .44's. Of course, everyone eventually gets a .44 or 3 or 5 or ... but the .36 is more often the go to for a casual afternoon at the range, especially to show the 'ladies' how it was done in great grand-dad's day. My 'old' family legacy Uberti '61 Navy is still beautiful and solid, needing only a replacement hand & spring to tighten up the cylinder lock-up. Unlike the "modern" CNC & computer - built Uberti & Pietta's, my old '61 -- and also a Colt '60 I got a few years ago, were more hand built. The frame interior has a rough finish that looks like it was gouged out with a coarse burr. When wiping out the interior during a cleaning, the rough surface snags paper towel lint and rag fibers. None of the newer ones have that problem.
While I get the best accuracy from a lightly tuned and honed 5-1/2" 1858 "Sheriff's Model" Pietta .44, another 1858 .36 cal with 6" barrel amazes people with it's accuracy, even for first time C&B shooters. The Old '61 Uberti Colt Navy is equally accurate, once you get accustomed to the rear sight notch in the hammer. After shooting mine for several decades, and only needing a part or 2, I've got to admit I'm gonna have to file out that rear sight notch a little - the old eyes need that simple modification for a wider notch.
For Monday off 'President's Day' the range was open to members only & a lot of them bring their kids. I brought the Old '61 Navy, one of my Remingtons and the Smith & Wesson .38 Combat Masterpiece Dad used to compete with. One of the guys at the range loves to shoot it, so he did. He used the best target loads I'm able to make, and made one big hole in the target. Meanwhile I was loading the Colt Navy. I was able to make a much bigger, but still all touching hole in my target. Dave fired the Colt and was kinda upset, since his group equalled that of the Smith. Proof that advances in technology don't always give you a 50' target scoring advantage.
He later shot the 1858 Remington, and told me since, that he had one on the way from Cabela's. The Deal was that if his daughter could break 5 consecutive grapefruit at 100 yards with my .54 cal flint Deerstalker (she knows how to load prime and is fearless without any flinch) that I'd cast him up a couple hundred .44 RB's. 12 year old little girls are annoying these days. She broke 5, then 4 of 5 more, and I just handed over a large vitamin jar of RB's that took her 2 hands to lug out to the car.
In the past I got a .500 Mag. shooter to admit that my 2nd Model Dragoon was "MUCH" more fun to shoot.