✅ SOLVED Bullet experts: please teach me about this bullet

[brianc053]

Hello all! I found this bullet over the weekend, and I don't know much about bullets so I'm hoping to learn from some of you.

I've watched lots of detecting videos, and I've watched Larry Hogston (Saving Local History) pull dozens (hundreds?) of "3-ring bullets", and those tend to have a white color and a hollow bottom.

This bullet has 3 rings, but doesn't look the same.
And it's .51 caliber, which seems odd to me.

Could someone with more knowledge please pass along some to me? Thanks in advance!

- Brian

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Charlie P. (NY)]

.50-70 cartridge uses a bullet of 0.515” diameter.

 

[brianc053]

.50-70 cartridge uses a bullet of 0.515” diameter.

View attachment 2068275

Looks familiar! Looks like a match!
Thanks!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Brianc053 wrote:
> Hello all! I found this bullet over the weekend, and I don't know much about bullets so I'm hoping to learn from some of you.
>I've watched lots of detecting videos, and I've watched Larry Hogston (Saving Local History) pull dozens (hundreds?) of "3-ring bullets", and those tend to have a white color and a hollow bottom.

You mentioned an important ID clue, "a hollow bottom." Since you want to learn about bullets, here's a major ID clue to help you tell civil war era bullets from later ones. Note, it is a "rule of thumb," not a 100%-always rule.

In general, if the bullet has a solid base, or just a shallow small cavity in its base, it was made to be loaded into the gunbarrel's back end (called the Breech). If the bullet base has a large cavity, it was made to be loaded from the barrel's front end (the Muzzle). Muzzle-loading firearms (and their bullets) fell out of favor shortly after the end of the civil war, due to the advent of quick-reload Breechloading cartridge firearms.

That being said:
Imitations of civil war bullets are still being made, for use in Reproductions of antique firearms, such as the .50-70 caliber rifle bullet you found.

I myself dug several Reproduction civil war 3-groove .58 caliber Minie-bullets which had been fired into a forested hillside on the Cold Harbor VA civil war battlefield. A blackpowder rifle shooter was doing some target practice, I guess.

 

[brianc053]

You mentioned ....

TheCannoballGuy, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I appreciate that you took the time to pass it along via your reply!

That bullet (and a few others found yesterday) will go in the metal recycling bin, and I'll keep looking for the hollow-bottom ones!

- Brian

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

That bullet could be as old as 1866 or as new as last week. The .50-70 was a US service cartridge for a decade after the Civil War. Could be a good spot to keep pounding.