47 CW Era Bullets in One Hunt

[bigfootokie]

Sounds too good to be true, but I love it when a plan comes together. I decided to use my CTX with the 17” coil Relic hunting for the first time in an area that we had pretty well cleaned out down to about 9” deep with other machines. Have had good luck lately recovering deep coins in town with the 17” coil so I figured deep or iron masked Relics should be recoverable.


25-30 mph winds all day made swinging a big coil rough in an open field, but thankfully the driving rain stopped after about the first hour, just like Steve (my favorite Meteorologist hunting buddy) said it would. We give him a hard time about the weather sometimes, but I think he knows you gotta take some crap to be one of the gang. Lord knows I have.


Anyway, by our lunch break I only had 4 bullets, but I knew the more productive area for bullets would be there when we came back. Brad and I bailed out and hunted one spot while Dave and Steve drove off to hunt another. In the next four hours, I dug, and dug, and dug, bullet after bullet mostly from 9”-12” deep. Also found a nice Eagle Button with good detail remaining. Can’t see the backmark yet, but maybe after more cleaning. A pair of nice Knapsack Hooks made the day even better.


In the afternoon, my average time between good finds was about 5 minutes apart...that’s a lot of work in 4 hours my friends, but it was amazing to find that much lead so deep in a well hunted area.





Cleaned up.











>>>>>>>>>>>The "Infamous" Tailgate Shot.<<<<<<<<<<<<





I had a GREAT day and enjoyed hunting with my friends. I'm sore all over today, but it was worth it. Hmmmm...wheres that Horse Liniment

 

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[bigfootokie]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...a really nice variety of bullets that I know little about. Only been relic hunting about a year and would appreciate some input on my finds.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Bigfootokie, I did not see your post until today, because I rarely look at the Civil War Artifacts forum (where your post was originally located) here at Treasurenet. I spend most of my time here helping people ID their finds in the What-Is-It forum. You say you would "appreciate some input" on your civil war bullet finds... so I'll do what I can to give specific IDs for them.

For identifying bullets, precise measurement of their body-diameter (made with a Digital Caliper, in hundredths-of-an-inch) is crucially needed, because even a .02-inch difference in diameter can change a bullet's ID. In my opinion, every civil war relic-hunter should own a Digital Caliper, for precisely ID-measuring the diameter of bullets, buttons, coins, etc. You can order a good-quality Digital Caliper for about $15 on Ebay or at: http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=caliper

Lacking precise diameter measurements for your bullets, I'll have to do the best I can at guessing their caliber by comparing them with the size of ones that I already recognize in your photos.

A short side-note first:
A bullet's caliber is different from its diameter. Caliber is the diameter of the firearm's bore. Nearly all bullets are slightly larger or smaller than the firearm's bore-diameter... depending on whether the firearm is a breechloader or a muzzleloader. For example, a typical muzzleloader .58-caliber rifle's Minie-ball is about .56 to .57 in diameter, and a .52-caliber Sharps Rifle's bullet is about .54 to .56-inch in diameter.

Also, we need to know whether a bullet has a flat solid base, or a cavity of some kind in the base. But your photos don't show a base-view of the bullets, so I am unable to give you a for-certain ID of some of them.

In your first photo (I'll exclude the roundballs):
Top row: All of them appear to be .58-caliber yankee-made "generic" 3-groove Minie-balls.
2nd row bullet #1: Can't ID for sure, SEEMS to be a slightly-postwar .50-70 Springfield Rifle bullet, used by yankee Occupation troops -- need precise diameter-measurement and a baseview photo.
2nd row bullets #2 & 3: very rare Gomez-&-Mills 1858 Patent bullet for .52 Sharps Rifle/Carbine.
2nd row bullet #4: Model-1861 "Ringtail" bullet for .52 Sharps Rifle/Carbine.
3rd row bullet #1 and 2: Johnson-&-Dow bullet for .44 Revolver -- yours have the uncut moldcasting-sprue projecting from the bullet's base.
3rd rwo bullet #3: US St. Louis Arsenal bullet for .36 Revolver.
3rd row bullets #4, 5, & 6: Can't ID for sure, need precise diameter-measurement and baseview photos.

A good way for you to learn to ID civil war bullets on your own is the very inexpensive ($10) book titled "A Handbook Of Civil War Bullets & Cartridges." You can order it directly from the authors (Jim Thomas and Dean Thomas) at: Thomas Publications Online
If you ask, they will probably autograph it for you.

Congratulations on your finds... especially the very-rare .52 Gomez-&-Mills 1858 Patent bullets.

 

[Tnmountains]

Bigfoot nice bunch of lead. When you do a hunt as good as this post it first in the Todays finds. This post slipped thru the cracks and I am going to move it over to the section where it should have started so the fellow hunters will see it. Great finds and a lot of them. Thank you Cannonballguy once again for your help in sharing your knowledge.
TnMtns

 

[parsonwalker]

Dude - you were solid DIGGING to retrieve that many DEEP bullets in that amount of time. Wow. Congrats, and can you say "Blisters?" What state were these dug in? Very unusual VARIETY, which is way cool.

 

[Steve in PA]

Nice lead. Love those Gomez-&-Mills 1858 Patent bullets (or as we like to call them, multi ring Sharps)

 

[bigfootokie]

Bigfootokie, I did not see your post until today, because I rarely look at the Civil War Artifacts forum (where your post was originally located) here at Treasurenet. I spend most of my time here helping people ID their finds in the What-Is-It forum. You say you would "appreciate some input" on your civil war bullet finds... so I'll do what I can to give specific IDs for them.

For identifying bullets, precise measurement of their body-diameter (made with a Digital Caliper, in hundredths-of-an-inch) is crucially needed, because even a .02-inch difference in diameter can change a bullet's ID. In my opinion, every civil war relic-hunter should own a Digital Caliper, for precisely ID-measuring the diameter of bullets, buttons, coins, etc. You can order a good-quality Digital Caliper for about $15 on Ebay or at: Search results for: 'caliper'

Lacking precise diameter measurements for your bullets, I'll have to do the best I can at guessing their caliber by comparing them with the size of ones that I already recognize in your photos.

A short side-note first:
A bullet's caliber is different from its diameter. Caliber is the diameter of the firearm's bore. Nearly all bullets are slightly larger or smaller than the firearm's bore-diameter... depending on whether the firearm is a breechloader or a muzzleloader. For example, a typical muzzleloader .58-caliber rifle's Minie-ball is about .56 to .57 in diameter, and a .52-caliber Sharps Rifle's bullet is about .54 to .56-inch in diameter.

Also, we need to know whether a bullet has a flat solid base, or a cavity of some kind in the base. But your photos don't show a base-view of the bullets, so I am unable to give you a for-certain ID of some of them.

In your first photo (I'll exclude the roundballs):
Top row: All of them appear to be .58-caliber yankee-made "generic" 3-groove Minie-balls.
2nd row bullet #1: Can't ID for sure, SEEMS to be a slightly-postwar .50-70 Springfield Rifle bullet, used by yankee Occupation troops -- need precise diameter-measurement and a baseview photo.
2nd row bullets #2 & 3: very rare Gomez-&-Mills 1858 Patent bullet for .52 Sharps Rifle/Carbine.
2nd row bullet #4: Model-1861 "Ringtail" bullet for .52 Sharps Rifle/Carbine.
3rd row bullet #1 and 2: Johnson-&-Dow bullet for .44 Revolver -- yours have the uncut moldcasting-sprue projecting from the bullet's base.
3rd rwo bullet #3: US St. Louis Arsenal bullet for .36 Revolver.
3rd row bullets #4, 5, & 6: Can't ID for sure, need precise diameter-measurement and baseview photos.

A good way for you to learn to ID civil war bullets on your own is the very inexpensive ($10) book titled "A Handbook Of Civil War Bullets & Cartridges." You can order it directly from the authors (Jim Thomas and Dean Thomas) at: Thomas Publications Online
If you ask, they will probably autograph it for you.

Congratulations on your finds... especially the very-rare .52 Gomez-&-Mills 1858 Patent bullets.

Thanks a lot CannonballGuy! That is a lot of good info and I appreciate your time and efforts to educate us.

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