are these musket balls?

[fatkook626]

i know the last one is a musket ball because of the ramrod mark on it but are the other ones musket balls or are the just buckshot or something?

 

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[confederate83]

Best you can tell what are they made of stone,iron,or lead?

 

[vpnavy]

If they aren't musket balls - maybe marbles fatkook626.

 

[fatkook626]

they are all lead or else i wouldnt post them

 

[l.cutler]

They are all too small to be musketballs. Most likely muzzleloading rifle balls.

 

[Bryanhashemi]

They are all too small to be musketballs. Most likely muzzleloading

they don't seem to small to me.

 

[fatkook626]

what is the smallest variety of musket ball then?

 

[Bryanhashemi]

I've found several hundred musket balls. They vary in caliber sizes. There are people on this site who will be able to tell you the sizes. They will probably ask you for exact size using a caliper. Where did you find them?

 

[fatkook626]

most of them in my neighbors yard which was a civil war site

 

[mustangpalmer1911]

Muskets/ Rifled Muskets came in various sized from .32 cal all the way up to .75 and if you count in punt guns..... 3" or bigger.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The ones which are a teeny bit smaller than a half-inch are probably .50-caliber Colonial-era to early-1800s Hawken or Kentucky rifle musketballs. As Bryanhashemi said, we need precise diameter measurements, in hundredths-of-an-inch, made with a Digital Caliper, as shown in the photo below. (Thanks, Fyrffyttr1.)

 

[l.cutler]

The smallest caliber musket would be the .69, they were in use up into the Civil war and even beyond in civilian hands. The French Charleville, and then the various model US muskets were all in this caliber. While the musket was a .69 the ball would be a bit smaller, I believe in the .65 area. Anything smaller would not be a musketball. As stated an accurate measurement would be needed to help identify.

 

[fatkook626]

how would i measure it without a caliper

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

For measuring balls bigger than 1" we use a Diameter-Tape (a "Pi-Tape"). But that type won't work on balls smaller than 1". So I advise relic-diggers to spend $15 on a Digital Caliper, which is available online at Harbor Freight Tools, or Ebay, and at stores like Home Depot. Trust me, you'll use the Digital Caliper for more than just measuring bullets. Buttons, buckles, and coins also need to be precisely measured for correct identification. You'll be glad you spent the $15.

The photo below shows a Diameter-Tape (which looks like a smaller version of Carpentry tape-measure), and a Digital Caliper, and an old-style "clamping" Caliper.

 

[gunsil]

For some reason one thing most posters on "musket ball" threads seem to omit is that as today shotguns were also used with solid shot, balls in the old days. Shotguns also came in sizes not used today such as 14 gauge. For those that don't know, the "gauge" size of a shotgun is the amount of lead balls that fit that bore that could be made from one pound of lead. Hence you could only make 12 lead balls from a pound of lead for a 12 gauge shotgun. 10 balls from a 10 gauge and so on. The exception is 410 gauge which is really a .41 caliber firearm. There were also a plethora of foreign smoothbore and rifled guns from countries such as Germany, France, Italy, etc. which were brought to this country by immigrants, and some of these used calibers not used in England or the U.S.. And forget those from Africa or the Orient, they used very odd calibers although these are not often found here in the U.S.. Besides all these variables, let's not exclude the many often very large caliber pistols used right up to the Civil War which also left many "musket balls" in the ground for us to find. Therefore it is not really possible to say if a found ball came from a musket or pistol in many cases, or a shotgun in some, or a foreign musket or hunting gun in others. By the way, I used to shoot an antique 14 gauge side by side percussion shotgun and .69 caliber balls fit it pretty well with a medium patch. There are probably fifty or so of these in the woods where I grew up from my target practice and deer hunting. (I never got one with my 14 gauge, I was never really very good with a shotgun with balls). If I find an old ball, I am happy with "well I found an old ball, who knows where it came from or what it was fired from" and don't bother with conjecture. Minnie balls and some conical bullets are very identifiable but the round balls are not.

 

[Bryanhashemi]

That is true but location history can tell a lot especially if there was skirmishes or battles in the area. Patina has a big part in it also. But true, round balls are def a little harder to identify without exact measurments

 

[gunsil]

That is true but location history can tell a lot especially if there was skirmishes or battles in the area. Patina has a big part in it also. But true, round balls are def a little harder to identify without exact measurments

Even location isn't a positive help. All battlefields were once just woods or fields and hunted and/or target shot in before and after there was military presence there. Patina isn't much help either since there is NO way to tell the difference in a 100 year old ball and a 150 year old ball from the same area by patina. And patina from one soil will grow faster than that in another soil. The oxide of lead that many refer to as patina actually forms a protective coating on the lead and after a certain point it no longer grows since the lead oxide has formed a protective layer which seals the lead against further reaction with it's surrounding environment. I am talking about POSITIVE identification here, not possible or probable or could have been. Also military arms always became "army surplus" with every advancement in technology and were sold to the public and used as hunting arms. For instance more Cold model 1851 and 1861 Navies and 1860 Armies were used in the old west for many years after the civil war than the Peacemakers which came later. The .54 Mississippi Rifles and .58 rifled muskets became favored buffalo guns. Flintlock arms lasted long after the advent of the percussion cap. Folks in rural ares (which were larger than the urban areas) were often poor and surplus arms were cheaper than those with newer technology and effective in practiced hands. You could buy enough powder and percussion caps for hundreds of rounds and cast your own projectiles for the price of a box of metallic cartridges in the 1870s. Are old lead balls cool to find? YES!! Can they be positively identified as to their actual origin? Not really.

 

[BosnMate]

Even location isn't a positive help. All battlefields were once just woods or fields and hunted and/or target shot in before and after there was military presence there. Patina isn't much help either since there is NO way to tell the difference in a 100 year old ball and a 150 year old ball from the same area by patina. And patina from one soil will grow faster than that in another soil. The oxide of lead that many refer to as patina actually forms a protective coating on the lead and after a certain point it no longer grows since the lead oxide has formed a protective layer which seals the lead against further reaction with it's surrounding environment. I am talking about POSITIVE identification here, not possible or probable or could have been. Also military arms always became "army surplus" with every advancement in technology and were sold to the public and used as hunting arms. For instance more Cold model 1851 and 1861 Navies and 1860 Armies were used in the old west for many years after the civil war than the Peacemakers which came later. The .54 Mississippi Rifles and .58 rifled muskets became favored buffalo guns. Flintlock arms lasted long after the advent of the percussion cap. Folks in rural ares (which were larger than the urban areas) were often poor and surplus arms were cheaper than those with newer technology and effective in practiced hands. You could buy enough powder and percussion caps for hundreds of rounds and cast your own projectiles for the price of a box of metallic cartridges in the 1870s. Are old lead balls cool to find? YES!! Can they be positively identified as to their actual origin? Not really.

I'd like to ad that I've read that the government provided arms to people heading west also, and that's how a lot of 1841 Mississippi rifles ended up out west. I don't know if they were sold cheap or issued though.

 

[Bryanhashemi]

I hear what your saying but when your in an area em where a battle took place and your pulling out round balls and mini balls, most likely it's civil war. I've already said round balls are harder it id. And patina does take effect. It does change from soil to soil. Some balls are black, white, or dark brown. The age of the bullet will have a different petina depending on lead content. It's easy to say "it could be from this or that" but when you are searching a known skirmish/battle site, you have to take the most obvious origin of the bullet. Yeah, it could have been this/that but most likely with "precise" caliber measurment it would be civil war era. Anyone who has metal detected battle sites would agree. You feel it right when you dig it out. And I've been digging them for 15 years now.