✅ SOLVED help date bullet

[Helix]

Found this bullet over the weekend and thought it was a modern shotgun slug. Looks older now cleaned up. I was hoping for a rough date I.d. Lock was found at same site.

 

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[Tony in SC]

What are the measurements on the bullet? Tony

 

[Helix]

Diameter is 6.13 mm

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

It is a civil war yankee 3-groove Minie bullet, which has been hard-rammed and fired. Hard-ramming with the rifle's ramrod made the circular indention at the bottom of the bullet's curved nose, and firing through a rifled gunbarrel made the ridges (called rifling-marks) running up the bullet's sides from its base.) As Tony In SC indicated, when you give us precise measurement of its diameter we'll be able to tell you what caliber it is. Going just by the photos, it looks like a .58-caliber.

If you find another one, please do not remove the greyish-white Lead Oxide patina, which most collectors consider to be the proof that the bullet is really from the civil war and not a modernday reproduction Minie bullet. (Yes, reproduction Minie Bullets are made and used for Blackpowder Rifle hunting and target shooting.)

 

[Helix]

Thanks for the help! Makes sense about ramrod deforming nose of bullet. Yes when I dug it, it really didn't have much of a white patina like old lead should. That's why I thought it to be modern. Only rinsed it and used a tooth pick to dig out dirt in concaved base. Thanks again , and its 6.13 mm.

 

[fyrffytr1]

I think you may need to measure your bullet again. 6.13mm converts to .24" or .24 caliber and your bullet looks much bigger than that. Do you know what the large piece you have is? Looks like a padlock to me.

 

[Helix]

I think you may need to measure your bullet again. 6.13mm converts to .24" or .24 caliber and your bullet looks much bigger than that. Do you know what the large piece you have is? Looks like a padlock to me.

Oh yes we were using the digital caliper wrong. Now we have 14.98mm. The padlock is neat I guessed its from around same time as bullet it was found at same site. Also incidentally this is the same site we just dug those two reales we found last weekend.
Just did the conversion to inches and if we are using caliper correctly 14.98mm comes to .58 inches exactly what cannonballguy said. Well that solves that mystery. Again thanks for the help!