finding caliber by weight

[Older The Better]

I have a growing collection of lead balls that I have dug some I'm sure are musket balls others are so smashed its hard to tell. I bought some calipers and a digital scale so I could make an educated guess as to the caliber of the balls. I thought at one point I had found a chart converting weight to caliber but when I looked for it again I couldn't find much. some sites even said you cant find a caliber by weight due to variations in composition. I'm not looking for an absolute id on all the bullets but a ballpark would give me some idea of which weapons have been used on the family land. so to the question finally, can I use weight to find caliber? anybody know how to do it or know of a site to guide me?

 

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[laidback4sho]

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[RTR]

Here ya go.Lead shot size Cal. weight chart.Scroll down ,their all here > Muzzleloaders / Lead Round Ball Bullets / Diameter / Weight / Ballistic Coefficient:

 

[Red James Cash]

Dont try it with non muzzle loader bullets,it wont work.

 

[Older The Better]

ok that chart helped a lot. if got balls ranging from .35 to .535 I had a lot of .49 so that would mean a .50 cal so the ball would fit down the barrel if I'm not mistaken. Then there were 8, .53 cals
I also had 7 lead balls that came in between 151 to 159 grains which was pretty far away from the 142 or the 177 grains on the chart, I feel like maybe the chart is missing a caliber anybody know what caliber would fall in the 151-159 grain weight range?

 

[Red James Cash]

The .35 would be .36 caliber more than likely from a cap and ball revolver.The .53 are really .54 caliber.The 151 to 159 grain could be from the musket load called buck and ball,a .69 caliber ball with smaller shot thrown on top of the larger ball.Or it could be antipersonal
shot from a swivel cannon.