Really interesting time in firearm development. The revolvers have only been out a few years but have likely moved west. Metallic cartridges are still not in use but paper cartridges would be (not nearly as popular yet as they were in Civil War).

So if you entered a trading company in St. Louis, about to head for what will be Denver in a few years, to purchase ammo for your various firearms what would have been appropriate terminology for the times.

Would you have asked for 500 rounds for your .44 cal and 300 rounds for your .52 Sharps.
Or would you have asked for 4 lbs of powder and 3 lbs of lead.
How was the lead provided, a brick, ingots?
Would the term ammunition have been used and what would it have implied.
How would the terms have been different when they were just coming out of the muzzleloader era and not quite to metallic cartridges?

Just curious if anyone had researched this area or had thoughts.