🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Found in SE NC

NCSurfer

Newbie
Aug 30, 2024
3
10
Carolina Beach NC
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting

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I'm new to detecting, but live in an area (Carolina Bch/Kure Bch) that saw a lot of Civil War activity. I was detecting yesterday on a piece of land that had an old homestead that was built back in the 1800's but was demo'd back in the 90's. Anyway found this lead ball down about 6-8", it's small may be nothing but I figured I'd ask the experts.
Good job. It has a nice patina. One question on that measurement…..it says mm, but that is impossible. Is that 1 cm (~.4”) or 1”? The sprue is fairly pronounced.
 

Upvote 2
Good job. It has a nice patina. One question on that measurement…..it says mm, but that is impossible. Is that 1 cm (~.4”) or 1”? The sprue is fairly pronounced.
Each mark is 1 mm, so the ball measures 10mm or 1 cm.
Which makes the ball around 40 cal.
 

Upvote 4
To my eye, the size looks a bit off from 10mm. It could be worth your time & money to spend $15 for a digital caliper at Harbor Freight Tools, to get a truly precise measurement of the ball's diameter. That measurement matters a LOT when you're trying to correctly identify a possible musketball or bullet.
PS -- Don't buy an el-cheapo plastic caliper. Those are notoriously inaccurate.
 

Upvote 9
Its too small for a musket but could be for a small caliber muzzleloading rifle or a pistol. It looks like it was dropped after it was cast and before the sprue was filed off.
 

Upvote 2

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