Found my first musket ball from old 1700s home site

[bigtim1973]

Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

A few weeks ago I stopped and talked to my neighbor and he told me about an old house that was on his land from the 18th century and told me he would take me down there sometime......I said heck yea so this morning he calls and asked me if I wanted to go and I said sure...........He showed me an old Beech tree that has carvings in it right near an old spring.......Anyways I took a couple of pics and posted the best one of them of the tree on here for you guys to see..Any ideas on the symbols guys? You can also tell by how the rocks are arranged at the old spring that they were stacked up by man and not natural..........Anyways I included a picture of the spring along too..............Well after I turned on my mxt and balanced it I walked around a bit and did notice there was alot of iron in the area, I know you guys will say I should have dug everyone of those signals but I was short on time today...........I did manage a hub off of a buggy and an old stove leg but I did not take a picture of these...........After a little more swinging I got a good hit in the 20-22 range and about 3 inches down I pulled the musket ball out of the ground!!!!! I love this kind of stuff and it is my first musket ball too!!!....I would say it is a 36 caliber by the size of it....Anyways I should have stayed right there but I decided to go to where the land opened to a field but no luck there............I had to cut it short because I had to get back home........He said I can go whenever I wanted to so I might be posting more finds from the area in the future........Happy hunting, Tim

 

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[Detectingfreak]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

Nice musketball! I am not on expert on the caliber numbers, but maybe other people on this forum can shed some light on the subject

 

[allen]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

time for a treasure hunt !!

 

[Rusted_Iron]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

Nice old musket ball... that has some real age to it. Congrats on the first!

 

[dfx willy]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

that one thing on the tree kinda looks like a duck? i found a old tree like that ounce and it had 1857 carved on it. willy

 

[bigtim1973]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

that one thing on the tree kinda looks like a duck? i found a old tree like that ounce and it had 1857 carved on it. willy

Yea I see what you mean...........I am starting to think it is just a bunch of antique "doodling" you know? I am going to take a day and go over it real good maybe next week and see what else is there........Heck I would be happy with more musketballs, Tim

 

[dick99344]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

A few weeks ago I stopped and talked to my neighbor and he told me about an old house that was on his land from the 18th century and told me he would take me down there sometime......I said heck yea so this morning he calls and asked me if I wanted to go and I said sure...........He showed me an old Beech tree that has carvings in it right near an old spring.......Anyways I took a couple of pics and posted the best one of them of the tree on here for you guys to see..Any ideas on the symbols guys? You can also tell by how the rocks are arranged at the old spring that they were stacked up by man and not natural..........Anyways I included a picture of the spring along too..............Well after I turned on my mxt and balanced it I walked around a bit and did notice there was alot of iron in the area, I know you guys will say I should have dug everyone of those signals but I was short on time today...........I did manage a hub off of a buggy and an old stove leg but I did not take a picture of these...........After a little more swinging I got a good hit in the 20-22 range and about 3 inches down I pulled the musket ball out of the ground!!!!! I love this kind of stuff and it is my first musket ball too!!!....I would say it is a 36 caliber by the size of it....Anyways I should have stayed right there but I decided to go to where the land opened to a field but no luck there............I had to cut it short because I had to get back home........He said I can go whenever I wanted to so I might be posting more finds from the area in the future........Happy hunting, Tim

Mic the diameter in inches, ie. .360. And weigh it in grains if possible. You could weigh it in grams and we can convert to grains. It could be a 32 Cal. rifle ball for a rifled musket. In these muskets, round balls were patched (So called Squirrel gun or Kentucky rifle) or perhaps for a revolver in 36 Cal. Great find. MHO

 

[l.cutler]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

Smallest musket ball would be around .69 caliber. It would be a rifle or pistol ball, always fun to find!

 

[rjw4law]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

Probable a drop

 

[dick99344]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

Smallest musket ball would be around .69 caliber. It would be a rifle or pistol ball, always fun to find!

This would be true if it were a smooth bore musket. Smaller caliber patched balls (Patched round balls were used in smooth bore muskets as well) were used in what was called a rifled musket like the Kentucky rifle which were actually made in Pennsylvania. Even the 1863 Springfield rifle was called a rifled musket by some. Musket--Rifled Musket--Rifle, perhaps confusing I agree. .32 cal. Kentucky rifled muskets were used as sniper weapons during the revolutionary war because of their range and accuracy, as compared to the old Brown Bess smooth bore musket, but were not issued in quantity. They were usually personal weapons that were a one of a kind. Our Militia at this time used guerrilla warfare tactics. They would hide behind rocks and trees and could pick off the enemy leadership at great range for the times. They usually did not join the ranks in a stand up rank to rank fight, or the so called Gentlemans type of warfare and trade round for round with the enemy. This type of fighting was left to our regular Continental troops. Long Hunters of the time used the Kentucky because it could bring home the bacon. It is my belief that the "Shot heard 'round the world" at Concord was fired by a Militia man with an attitude to get the war moving.

 

[l.cutler]

Re: Found my first musket ball from old 1700's home site

Yes it can be confusing, but the kentucky rifles were rifles not rifled muskets. A musket was a military smoothbore arm. Some old smoothbore muskets were later rifled , these were known as rifled muskets. Rifle muskets were originally munufactured with rifling to fire the new Burton or Minie ball. The first US rifle musket was the model 1855 with Maynard tape primer. The simplified Model 1861 soon replaced the 1855. The kentucky rifles and other sporting rifles were just that, rifles. Rifles generally fired a patched roundball. Muskets fired an undersized roundball without a patch, usually from premade paper cartridges. The old muzzleloading firearms are fascinating to study and shoot, been doing it for almost 40 years!