🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Brown Bess Musket Balls?

[JPetersen]

I received what was said to be two Brown Bess musket balls. The one on the right fits the description at .70”. The one on the left is .60”. These come from an arsenal in Nepal according to the supplier, and I do not doubt the authenticity of the balls. However, the description doesn’t fit the one that is .60”. What firearm would be in a British arsenal in Nepal that would fire a .60” ball? I like to label these and display for students. Any help is appreciated.

 

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[releventchair]

No that smaller ball doesn't scream Brown Bess.
Compared to something like a 1861 Springfield around .58.

Bess bores varied.
More so their use could.
Tearing a paper cartridge's end off and priming with it before dumping powder down the barrel ; then chase the paper and ball down the barrel isn't the same as a bare ball.
Rumors of smacking the butt on the ground after dropping a ball on a powder charge do not hint of using any patching. An expedient near panic type reloading sure.
Yet for better performance ; a patch ups the efficiency. Often accuracy as well. Much patch thickness though and a nearer bore diameter ball is going to be not fun trying to get it home atop a powder charge. Then consider the bore being fowled after a shot and how often it is going to get swabbed before reloading....
And an undersized ball might not be a bad thing.

 

[pepperj]

Seems that there's many for sale from Nepal
There was one thing that SE Asians are great at is making new look old.
Bury, let it sit, dig up and sell as an antique.

Original Napoleonic Era British Brown Bess Lead Musket Balls- Set of Five (5)

Original Item: Discovered under a brick floor in the old palace of Lagan Silekhana in Kathmandu, Nepal in February 2003, these original lead musket balls were issued with the .75 caliber third model Brown Bess muskets and used during the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic Wars. Originally given as...

www.ima-usa.com

 

[JPetersen]

No that smaller ball doesn't scream Brown Bess.
Compared to something like a 1861 Springfield around .58.

Bess bores varied.
More so their use could.
Tearing a paper cartridge's end off and priming with it before dumping powder down the barrel ; then chase the paper and ball down the barrel isn't the same as a bare ball.
Rumors of smacking the butt on the ground after dropping a ball on a powder charge do not hint of using any patching. An expedient near panic type reloading sure.
Yet for better performance ; a patch ups the efficiency. Often accuracy as well. Much patch thickness though and a nearer bore diameter ball is going to be not fun trying to get it home atop a powder charge. Then consider the bore being fowled after a shot and how often it is going to get swabbed before reloading....
And an undersized ball might not be a bad thing.

Really, who knows? It could be undersized to account for fouling, or some guy tossed it in the wrong pile of thousands of balls. The mystery!

Seems that there's many for sale from Nepal
There was one thing that SE Asians are great at is making new look old.
Bury, let it sit, dig up and sell as an antique.

Original Napoleonic Era British Brown Bess Lead Musket Balls- Set of Five (5)

Original Item: Discovered under a brick floor in the old palace of Lagan Silekhana in Kathmandu, Nepal in February 2003, these original lead musket balls were issued with the .75 caliber third model Brown Bess muskets and used during the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic Wars. Originally given as...

www.ima-usa.com

I doubt this is the case. IMA is a reputable company, and I just don’t see them as being easily fooled or willing to run the risk of losing credibility.

 

[pepperj]

Really, who knows? It could be undersized to account for fouling, or some soldier tossed it in the wrong pile of thousands of bullets at some point.



I doubt this is the case. IMA is a reputable company, and I just don’t see them as being easily fooled or willing to run the risk of losing credibility.

Never under estimate the yarn for money.
Spent a few months in Nepal. Trekking and mainly buying silver jewelry and handicrafts.
Indonesia was the same, Thailand, India.
New became old.
Not saying it happens all the time, but it does occur.
They've been selling these balls for a long time now, must of been a big pile.

 

[JPetersen]

Never under estimate the yarn for money.
Spent a few months in Nepal. Trekking and mainly buying silver jewelry and handicrafts.
Indonesia was the same, Thailand, India.
New became old.
Not saying it happens all the time, but it does occur.
They've been selling these balls for a long time now, must of been a big pile.

Well Lagan Silekhana was an arsenal with around 50k antique firearms. I’d believe that IMA acquired legitimate balls rather than the Nepalese government fabricating balls and then sealing them just to sell to IMA which in turn sells for $2 a piece, but what do I know. Crazier things have happened.

In a way I could almost see it being true. Why would the Nepalese gov’t fake Brown Bess musket balls. I guess the question is…how desperate is Nepal? Might be a good lesson in authenticating relics, and a cautionary tale for purchasing “the real deal”. Fake shoes everywhere. Life skill to know the difference. But after reading more on how IMA acquired the arsenal…I doubt they’re inauthentic.

 

[l.cutler]

I'm sure they're legit, there were absolutely tons of these found in the Nepal hoard. The video of the stuff they found is fascinating, I think it's called "Treasure is where you find it" well worth watching. There were also Brunswick smoothbores in the Nepal grouping, I believe they were slightly smaller caliber than the brown bess.

 

[JPetersen]

I'm sure they're legit, there were absolutely tons of these found in the Nepal hoard. The video of the stuff they found is fascinating, I think it's called "Treasure is where you find it" well worth watching. There were also Brunswick smoothbores in the Nepal grouping, I believe they were slightly smaller caliber than the brown bess.

The whole IMA origin is interesting. Finding defunct arsenals and selling their contents…I’ll have to check out the doc on it. The Brunswicks are on sale in untouched condition for 350, I think. They are .70 caliber.

The arsenal had 50k guns, so I doubt I’ll ever know for certain which fired the .60 ball.