✅ SOLVED Bullet #5

[fyrffytr1]

Here's #5 in my small collection that I need help with. Hagerstown, Md area (Antietam/Gettysburg).

 

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[mirage83]

Looks like a modern-cast .58 minie to me (for re-enactments maybe?) due to the angle of the grooves/rings (I'm uncertain of the technical term for this). They're very distinct in photo #1, but the bullet might be cw-era and simply in very good condition.

 

[duggap]

I agree it is a .58 three ringer but I am not so sure it is a modern bullet. Looking at it with a blown up picture I think it may be civil war era.

 

[mirage83]

I agree it is a .58 three ringer but I am not so sure it is a modern bullet. Looking at it with a blown up picture I think it may be civil war era.

Entirely possible. It lacks the patina most bullet finds from that era display and it's in very good shape, but that could just be due to the soil conditions where it was dug.

 

[fyrffytr1]

Back in the 70s when I found these bullets I was young and naive so I probably "cleaned" some of them so they would show better.

 

[mirage83]

Back in the 70s when I found these bullets I was young and naive so I probably "cleaned" some of them so they would show better.

That could explain it's appearance too. It appears to be in excellent condition in any case.

 

[fyrffytr1]

Many of our finds back then were eyeballed. We would walk a new construction site and pick them up. I use to have a lot more but have given them away over the years.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

It is DEFINITELY a modernday "Lyman-Mold" imitation of a civil war 3-groove minie, made for use by Blackpowder Rifle shooters. The key ID-clues are the unusually short "nose" above very-wide-spaced (and deep) grooves, in combination with a very-deep base cavity with very thin "skirt" (rim around the base cavity). Go to the following website, which sells Lyman-Mold and Ideal bullets, and scroll (a long way) down to bullet #575213.

I should mention, I've got a jar full of those, in still-shiny condition, here at my house. I also dug a bunch of fired ones near the Cold Harbor VA battlefield. I'll never forget that very frustrating afternoon of swinging the detector (and shovel) in the woods.

 

[fyrffytr1]

Thank you. I will put it in the "I wish it was real" box with my two "cannonballs".