✅ SOLVED Bullet ID please part deaux

[cornspike]

Bullet ID please

Hey, posted these before but didn't have the right measurements. Found south of Nashville, TN, all surface finds on an old road/creek. Anyone know what kind of weapon fired the long 31. cal? Are these all 1800's? cs or yank?

Hope this helps!

Thanks for looking.

 

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[TNGUNS]

Not sure if they are even old. Cast bullets are still used in modern and black powder. They look to me to be modern cast but I bet some of our other members would know.

 

[cornspike]

You could be right but they were found about 40 years ago, so at least 40 years old?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Without haing a sufficient amount of patina (oxidation), it's just about impossible to accurately date the manufacturing era of a lead bullet.

That being said... I believe the visible evidence strongly indicates your various bullets (and balls) were all manufactured in the mid-20th-century. The key clues are the first bullet and the last bullet shown in your photos.

The first bullet (whose body-diameter measures .311) is a "Spitzer style" bullet. The first US manufacture of Spitzer style bullets was in 1906. However, factory-made Spitzer style bullets (even the 1906 ones) always have a metal jacket. Your photo shows your Spitzer style bullets do not have a metal jacket ...so they are "home-cast" ones, cast by guys who like to re-load used cartridges. If I had to guess about what specific type your first bullet is, I'd say it is a home-cast repro of the US Army .30-06 Springfield bullet Model-1906.

The last bullet is definitely a home-cast 1960s-and-later "Lyman mold" reproduction of a civil war .58-caliber Minie-ball. I still own several exactly like yours, from my bygone days as a Blackpowder shooter. Speaking of which, I was very frustrated to dig a bunch of fired Lyman Mold .58-caliber 3-grooves on a hillside at the Cold Harbor VA civil war battlefield. The giveaway clues about them are their extraordinarily huge base-cavity in combination with "oversize" grooves/rings.

Unfortunately, the presence of the two varieties of home-cast bullets indicates your other ones are also home-cast reproductions of the original 1800s bullets which they resemble.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Looks like a modern gas check bullet for a .30 cal rifle. 1930's to present.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thank you, Charlie P. That sure looks like the one.

Readers who are interested can learn a lot more about "home-cast" bullets at www.castboolits.com.

No, I did not mis-spell that website's name. ;-) It is a reflection of the fact that a great many people like to make their own cast lead bullets, for doing in-home reloading their used bullet-casings.

 

[cornspike]

Thanks for your help, outstanding info!