Hi all:
I have a Hopkins and Allen falling block marked 44 SHOT.  Would anyone know how  to reload this little jewel?
 
Since it is a smooth bore, would it be possible to load it with a 44-40 brass case with a round lead ball or as a shot cartridge with number 12 shot? 

Would it be possible to "SAFELY" rebarrel this one  to 38-40? That way, I wouldn't have to change the extractor. The action looks like an extended 922.

This would be a great switch barrel center fire rook rifle/shotgun. I am open to any and all suggestions.
I picked it up at a gun show several years ago for $120, so the price was right. Everyone who looked at it walked away when they found out it was a smoothbore.
I bought it on the last day of the show at closing time. The vendor didn't want to take it back home.

This is not a rush project, but I would like to start planning another fun project.

  Thank you,

       Bill.

You should be able to duplicate the Marble “Game Getter” roundball load with your H&A.  A round ball large enough to stay in the case by friction, with a lubed wad underneath, with the shell crimped over the round ball, should work.  Black powder would give you more latitude with the ball size as it would support the round ball as it is crimped.  But a light smokeless charge of the same pressure level should work also.

For shot capsules, you will need to revive your kindergarten papier mache skills.  You would need to make a former from a drilled hole of the proper size and a dowel or rod turned to fit and rounded at the end.  The paper tubes thus formed should look like elongated bullets. Filled with shot from the rear and plugged with a wad.  The same black powder or smokeless at black pressures would apply, and ditto with your .38 WCF barrel.

My H&A is a .38 Shot, and easier to load for.  .30-30 shells blown out straight, Unique, a lubed wad cut from the felt used for door sealing, the shot charge almost to the end of the case and a card wad crimped over the end.

Didn’t work at the 16-yard line, but standing on the roof of the trap house, I could usually chip a clay pigeon with one pellet out of the little thing.  I haven’t tried round balls in mine, but it is on my “to do someday” list.