A Few More Bullets

deershed

Silver Member
Apr 25, 2013
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Maryland
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A couple hours out this evening and added some more lead to the collection.

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Upvote 6
The bullet on the right, which has what looks like a small nozzle in its base, appears to be a very rare civil war US Gardiner Explosive bullet. I'm pointing that out in case you don't already know. If you do, seems like you'd have mentioned finding such a rare and valuable ($100+) civil war bullet in the subject-line of your post, or at least mentioned it in the post.
 

I didn't know that!!Somebody else mentioned I had a valuable 2 ringer in the pic,thought maybe they were talking about the smaller bullet on the left?
The bullet your talking about we thought was some sort of cleaner.

Thanks for the heads up!! That's Awesome....
 

Those are some great old examples, and apparently a rare one to boot! I hope you find time soon to liberate their brothers!
 

awesome finds, congrats on your digs
 

Wow,now I'm excited!! I finally found something special.Not that I'd trade in any of the other neat stuff or bullets I found.
I did a little research and found where RiverRat3 here at T-Net found a Gardiner Explosive bullet too back in 09.Pretty cool club to be a part of.
Had to take a few more pics,hope you all enjoy.And a BIG THANKS to TheCannonballGuy for pointing out just what I found!!

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Thanks for the extra pics. They help those of us who haven't found one to recognize them if ever we have the great fortune to recover one!
 

Additional info about the civil war Gardiner Explosive bullet you dug:
It was invented by Samuel Gardiner of New York, and he received US Patent #40,468 for his invention on November 23, 1863. (Strangely, the Patent wasn't issued until nearly a year after the US Army began issuing his explosive bullets to troops.) Unlike the typical lead civil war bullets we dig, the Gardiner Explosive bullets we dig always have a darker color, because they were made of pewter or a "hardened-lead" alloy, which doesn't form the white-ish oxide/patina that lead does.

You can view Samuel Gardiner's US Patent (with diagram and explanation) here:
http://www.pat2pdf.org/patents/pat40468.pdf
If that link doesn't work, go here and type the patent-number (40468) into the search-box:
PAT2PDF - Free PDF copies of patents: Download and print!

In my previous reply-post, I told you its value was $100+. I did some websearching for you, and found a dug Gardiner Explosive bullet listed on several civil war bullet dealers' website. Their ASKING-prices range from $145 to $190.

Lastly... I should mention, be sure to notice that Samuel Gardiner's name has an "i" in it. That is important because there is a Confederate NON-EXPLOSIVE bullet whose name is very similar... a Gardner bullet, which doesn't have an "i" in the name. So, if you do a websearch for other examples of your bullet, be sure to include the "i" in its name.
 

Great variety of bullet finds, not even counting the Gardiner. That's a first-rate find all on it's own.
 

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