Found today!! QUESTION

[haboo]

I found this musket ball near my colonial site. This is the 4th one I found each are slightly different sizes.
1 ball near colonial site
3 balls about 1/4 mile from colonial fort

How do you determine the caliber of a musket ball? Any ideals on the cal. of this ball?

 

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[junkdigger]

Haboo,to accurately measure the caliber of that ball,you need a micrometer or a dial caliper. And you need to measure the ball 4-5 times and average the measurements. Those balls were never perfectly round. Just eyeballing your ball beside the ruler,I would guess it is about .44" diameter. This size would not be for a musket or military size rifle,it is too small for that. It was probably for a .44 caliber percussion revolver(like a Colt),or a hunting rifle like a "kentucky" flintlock or percussion rifle or smoothbore. Hunting rifles varied from about .28 for squirrel hunting,to about .50 caliber. The Harper's Ferry rifle,used by the Lewis-Clark expedition was .54 caliber. And muskets ranged from .54-.69 caliber. There were exceptions.......and even squirrel rifles were used in the Civil war. If that ball could only talk.....I'm sure there would be an interesting story!

 

[d2]

I am gonna guess .45 caliber. You need a set of calipers to determine the exact caliber...d2

 

[haboo]

Haboo,to accurately measure the caliber of that ball,you need a micrometer or a dial caliper. And you need to measure the ball 4-5 times and average the measurements. Those balls were never perfectly round. Just eyeballing your ball beside the ruler,I would guess it is about .44" diameter. This size would not be for a musket or military size rifle,it is too small for that. It was probably for a .44 caliber percussion revolver(like a Colt),or a hunting rifle like a "kentucky" flintlock or percussion rifle or smoothbore. Hunting rifles varied from about .28 for squirrel hunting,to about .50 caliber. The Harper's Ferry rifle,used by the Lewis-Clark expedition was .54 caliber. And muskets ranged from .54-.69 caliber. There were exceptions.......and even squirrel rifles were used in the Civil war. If that ball could only talk.....I'm sure there would be an interesting story!

Thank you... I have a dial caliper checked 5 times ... .44 .43 .42 .43 .44= .44 caliber right?

I not too savvy...when it come to musket balls/mine balls, especially when it comes to what calipers where made and what calibers were use in what guns.

Do you know of any web references for this kind of info?

 

[l.cutler]

I agree, too small for a musketball. It would be for a .45 cal.rifle or pistol. The standard US musket caliber was .69 from it's beginning, derived from the French musket cal. used during the Revolution, until rifles and rifle muskets took over before the Civil War. The .69 smoothbore musket was still used extensively during the Civil War. The British Brown Bess was .75 cal, so most musketballs found in the US will be either .69 or .75 cal. Rifle balls however can be anywhere from the .20 cal range up through the .70's in caliber.