A drag line around the cylinder is a sign that it was not operated correctly. After being put into half #### to allow shucking and loading the hammer should ALWAYS be cycled to full #### then lowered carefully. Or if loading and shooting at the firing line and the cylinder is loaded with all six leave it on half #### until aiming downrange and then go to full #### and fire off the first round.
Basically any time you move the hammer ALWAYS continue on to full #### then lower the hammer from there. If you're trying to go to half #### for loading and miss and go too far then carry on to full then pull the trigger and lower the hammer and start over.
The drag line occurs when folks lower the hammer from half #### and the stop bolt is not cycled correctly and drags on the cylinder for the next cycle. It's a sign of bad handling and puts needless load on the sprung finger of the stop bolt. It is what it is now. But don't add to the needless wear by doing it incorrectly yourself.
Also if this is a REAL Colt and not a reproduction then wearing the bluing away is going to devalue it. But then the drag line due to mishandling has already done that for you.
But from the wording of your post I'm guessing that this is your first single action and is more than likely one of the Italian clones. I can't see you paying the money a real Colt costs without knowing more about them and knowing the names of the parts. If so then just shoot the darn thing and enjoy it. They are great fun. As mentioned the wear will come from use rather than ABuse.
They tend to shoot to the left if you hold too high. A good way to hold the gun if you have larger hands is to hook your pinky finger under the butt end of the grip stock. That'll set the height to being just right. If you have smaller size hands and take medium size gloves then hold it so your pinky is resting on the corner edge of the butt end. Trying to put all three of your fingers up higher on the stock like you would expect to do on a more modern double action revolver will mean you're holding too high on the gun for a single action.
For holding the gun while shucking and reloading watch a few YouTube vids. Holding in your left hand with the cylinder in your palm and gate upward you can index the cylinder then pull back against the hand then flick the ejector rod to skip the empties out smartly and rapidly. Then do the same again with the muzzle pointed well down and the fresh rounds slide in to the chambers slick as snot. I can shuck and reload 6 each in around 15 to 17 seconds. So they don't need to be slow guns to shoot.
