Help Id'ing a found bullet

[metaldiggr]

Hi folks,

I do a lot of detecting around a late 1700's house. I've found large cents, seated liberty half dollars, a good amount of wheaties and a flat button. I usually find a decent amount of bullets but none like this. My state is a rifle hunting state, we don't have to hunt large game with slugs so I've never found any. I guess this is why I'm asking about this bullet.

Any ideas on this bullet? The house where I found it was built in 1778 but was lived in until the early 1900's.

It's about 5/8" and weighs .6oz/17 grams.

 

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[Rookster]

Without a cleanup it’s going to be purdy hard to tell.

 

[metaldiggr]

Without a cleanup it’s going to be purdy hard to tell.

How do you clean it? Not sure I want to though.

 

[GaRebel1861]

Could be a deformed musket ball or a lead dripping. I wouldn't clean it up any further though. Good luck!

 

[TreasureCatto]

How do you clean it? Not sure I want to though.

If you want to clean it let it sit in vinegar for a day or two.

 

[releventchair]

Guessing here...

The folks had money to lose ,that's nice.

You could measure the diameter of the sides, and figure some leeway for obturation and then compare to more common shotgun slugs of the estimated era of the homestead.

Was a time that if a man could only have one gun it was often a shotgun. Versatile for the investment. And if it was a farm/working homestead ,hunting big game for sport VS utilizing small game instead was not always common when working daylight till dark. ...Might have helped lean towards shotgunning as a compromise..
Defense of stock or crops was a possibility too. Night time shooting of a bear or other predator up close during a raid was not the concern it is in modern times....
Any neighbor potentially benefited from reduced depredation.
Given the right position , a shotgun took deer. Neighbors were likely more understanding about that as well. If not sharing.

The era of the homesteads hay-day may have had few deer though. Knowing the context better would help , but in my state deer were thinned pretty tight by homesteaders and market hunting ect. Was not until the 1950's (?) that concern about future sport hunting (much of that concern due to market hunting's effect on remaining deer numbers) generated much in the line of regulations. And then it was decades before huntable numbers existed in many places. Beyond silver coins and wheaties dates even...

 

[metaldiggr]

Guessing here...

The folks had money to lose ,that's nice.

You could measure the diameter of the sides, and figure some leeway for obturation and then compare to more common shotgun slugs of the estimated era of the homestead.

Was a time that if a man could only have one gun it was often a shotgun. Versatile for the investment. And if it was a farm/working homestead ,hunting big game for sport VS utilizing small game instead was not always common when working daylight till dark. ...Might have helped lean towards shotgunning as a compromise..
Defense of stock or crops was a possibility too. Night time shooting of a bear or other predator up close during a raid was not the concern it is in modern times....
Any neighbor potentially benefited from reduced depredation.
Given the right position , a shotgun took deer. Neighbors were likely more understanding about that as well. If not sharing.

The era of the homesteads hay-day may have had few deer though. Knowing the context better would help , but in my state deer were thinned pretty tight by homesteaders and market hunting ect. Was not until the 1950's (?) that concern about future sport hunting (much of that concern due to market hunting's effect on remaining deer numbers) generated much in the line of regulations. And then it was decades before huntable numbers existed in many places. Beyond silver coins and wheaties dates even...

I will tell you that the landowner was very, very wealthy. He worked with General Washington and had him stay at the house for an event in the late 1700's. I like to imagine the two downing a few colonial drinks and going out back to blow off some steam. Washington said "I gotta take a leak" and went to the spot I found the double-gilded flat button and broke one trying to get his junk out of the 5 layers of clothes they wore. Oh well, my kids get a laugh out of my thoughts anyways. The wife gives an eye roll. (she doesn't have my sense of humor... or imagination for that matter).

These were military figures at the highest level. They could prob have any weapon they wanted.

 

[DCMatt]

I will tell you that the landowner was very, very wealthy. He worked with General Washington and had him stay at the house for an event in the late 1700's. I like to imagine the two downing a few colonial drinks and going out back to blow off some steam. Washington said "I gotta take a leak" and went to the spot I found the double-gilded flat button and broke one trying to get his junk out of the 5 layers of clothes they wore. Oh well, my kids get a laugh out of my thoughts anyways. The wife gives an eye roll. (she doesn't have my sense of humor... or imagination for that matter).

These were military figures at the highest level. They could prob have any weapon they wanted.

OMG that's funny! I've seen posts about ALL sorts of things on Tnet over the past decade, but NEVER one about George Washington's junk!

 

[invent4hir]

It could be a homemade Conoidal bullet. Compare to bullet (b) shown in the photo which was found during Archeological excavations at the Mexican-American War Battlefield of Palo Alto. They were one of many types of lead balls found there. The report can be seen at https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/paal/thunder-cannon/chap7.htm.