Bullet???

[ModernMiner]

Can anyone ID this piece I found today? Is it a bullet?
The casing is brass I believe, and the inside is lead, and there are lines & grooves down the side. It looks like it exploded on the end.
Any idea?
Thanks,
MM

 

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[willie d]

It is a copper jacketed bullet AKA full metal jacket or possibly a hollowpoint with minimal expansion, kinda tough to tell.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Definately a rifle bullet. Sometime after smokeless cartridges - around 1890 to the present. Didn't expand much so it was probably a long range shot or a miss. The spiral lines are the rifling transferred from the bore and the channelured impressed band is where the case was pressed tight at the neck to hold the bullet in the brass case.

Not full metal jacket - they're open at the base. This ine has a solid base cup so it was a spire point (spitzer) or round nose.

 

[Montana Jim]

You getting them there photos from CSI Miami?

 

[ModernMiner]

Definately a rifle bullet. Sometime after smokeless cartridges - around 1890 to the present. Didn't expand much so it was probably a long range shot or a miss. The spiral lines are the rifling transferred from the bore and the channelured impressed band is where the case was pressed tight at the neck to hold the bullet in the brass case.

Not full metal jacket - they're open at the base. This ine has a solid base cup so it was a spire point (spitzer) or round nose.

Charlie,
Thanks for that info. I was hoping it was some sort of bullet.

You getting them there photos from CSI Miami?

Jim,
I'm getting hi-tech now. Taking my digital photos through my son's microscope.

-MM-

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Here's another tid-bit.

It was fired from a Marlin rifle, so it was likely a round nosed bullet.

 

[ModernMiner]

Here's another tid-bit.

It was fired from a Marlin rifle, so it was likely a round nosed bullet.

What's a Marlin rifle? Would that narrow down the time period of this bullet?
I think my last gun was a Red Ryder BB gun (no compass in the stock).
-MM-

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Unfortunately, no. It's the longest continually operated line of rifles in the U.S. and the .30-30 (which may-or-may not be the bullet you found but is a cantidate without accurate weight and diameter measurement) has been made in huge numbers continually since 1895. The Marlin Company uses lots of smaller rifling cuts in their barrels instead of fewer & wider ones, and that's how I'm pretty sure it's one of theirs. Winchester is known as "The Gun That Won The West", but that's only because of their advertising department. Marlin was every bit as present and popular. And actually, the gun that won the West was more likely a single-shot Spencer or Remington buffalo rifle or a double-barrel shotgun in the hands of a dirt farmer. The repeaters came along so late it was just "clean-up duty" by then.

The Marlin and Winchester look physically similar, and both started out with single-shot rifles before the lever action (like your Red Ryder )

And be careful with that. You'll shoot your eye out.

 

[ModernMiner]

Thanks again Charlie. Very informative info.
-MM-

 

[Montana Jim]

Charlie... well written, you are doing a great job of identifying stuff, and seem to be a great wealth of knowledge... Keep up the good work.


You buckin' for moderator status?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Too high exposure. Celebrities get no peace from the paparazzi and tabloids.

 

[ModernMiner]

You guys are hilarious!