First Minie Ball Find please help identify

[Riggleman]

Found 10-09-16. Unsure of type of bullet. If anyone could give me the type, caliber, and which side would have predominately used this bullet i would appreciate it. Ive been detecting for coming on a year and finally found my first CW bullet. The bullet has been fired and is a little mangled. Best i can do on dimensions. The groves are slanted to the rear of the bullet. The inside cone comes to a point with no symbol. The bullet was found at 5 inches in soft fertile farm soil. Also can someone give average range this bullet would have been fired. Would like to find the shooters position. The smaller diameter picture is of the inner groove diameter.

 

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[Riggleman]

More pictures

 

[nsdq]

58 cal minie ball

 

[alabama11]

Riggleman you have a nice find. I have hunted 3 years and only have 10 of those. Im not clear on the dimensions. If they are metric centameters it is complex. The bullet looks like a 3 ring 58 caliber.which is the most common type. The land grooves could say union. The standard measurement should be .58 inches or close to width dimensions. The ATPro scores about 67 on the ping chart for this bullet hunting standard mode. The range on these bullets could be 100 s of yards accurately. My choice would be over a 100 yards and above the enemy. So maybe that could narrow down where the shooter was located. Good hunting.

 

[gordonquixote]

...

 

[gordonquixote]

Metric measurements.....how useful! Not.

 

[ScubaDetector]

14.57mm = .577. So I believe NSDQ hit it on the head with a 58 cal. I am no civil war expert at all or even close but I can use a converter to convert mm to inches.

This is the gun that possibly fired it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Model_1861

So 200 - 300 yards and marksmen up to 500 yards. Looking for the shooters position would be impossible I believe. If you found it in a farmers field it would have been moved and plowed and there is absolutely no way you could know by the orientation of it which way it was fired from.

Also even thought this is a CW era bullet, these rifles were also used for hunting after the war. So it is even possible you have a post CW find.

 

[trapperart]

Congrats

 

[Scrappy]

Cool minie. Congrats

 

[dts52]

Great find!
HH
dts

 

[ArDirtSlinger]

Yes it is a 3-ringer .58 cal..... congrats on your popping your CW bullet ch****...LOl

 

[Riggleman]

Thanks to everyone for their imput and helping me ID this find. Sorry for the metric measurememts. The ground is hay fields so it has never been tilled or worked. I have dug tons of horseshoes all in perfect condition. As someone stated the find may not have been CW era here is a link to the histoy in the area it was located, also google McNeils Rangers, lots of interesting histort with this group. P.S dont try to come up here and find anything lol the land has been POUNDED, landowner said he hasnt seen anyone pull a bullet in over 2 years. Thanks again everyone!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moorefield