Hex bullet ID ?

[Blkcloud]

Dug this last year at a C W site.. any ideas what it is? Has a solid base.
It's .950 over all length
The hex measures .512 .508 .475
Thanks!

 

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[Tpmetal]

Whitworth?? but it doesnt look like that bullet, maybe it was carved? can we get better pics of different angles?

 

[P.ALLEN]

maybe a sharps?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Looks like a bullet fired from a six-groove (like an Enfield? Boucher?) to me

 

[DownNDirty]

As posted above this is a fired bullet; it was round before it was fired, not hexagonal.

 

[Blkcloud]

 

[fyrffytr1]

Please post a picture of the base and the nose looking up and down the bullet if you can. It does look like it has flat sides on it. Do they run straight or at a diagonal? I thought maybe a round bullet fired through a Whitworth rifle if that would be possible.

 

[GeoW]

Please post a picture of the base and the nose looking up and down the bullet if you can. It does look like it has flat sides on it. Do they run straight or at a diagonal? I thought maybe a round bullet fired through a Whitworth rifle if that would be possible.

Looks too short and too fat to be a Whitworth. Looks like rifling engraved by firing the gun to me.

g

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

For over 40 years, I've been digging and collecting and very closely studying what I call "interesting" FIRED civil war bullets. I particularly like ones which were fired but show almost no damage and have really excellent rifling-marks on them. That's the case with Blckcld's mystery bulet. Only one thing keeps me from being sure his bullet is a Spencer (or a Merrill) slug force-loaded into the oversized breech of a .52 Sharps Carbine and fired through it, which squeezes the .552"-diameter lead bullet down to fit through the 6-rifling-grooves .52" Sharps bore. The result would be a somewhat "stretched" bullet showing six superb rifling-grooves, giving the bullet a Hexagonal appearnace. Also, the bullet's base comes out looking a bit cupped... as we see on Blckcld's bullet.

The photo below shows three .57"-diameter bullets which were fired out of a .52-caliber Sharps Carbine. You can see that each is somewhat stretched, and shows superb 6-groove rifling marks.

The reason I believe Blckcld's bullet is a Spencer slug (the lead from a Spencer cartridge) is that the lowest of its three body-grooves is indistinct... which is what you see in the photo of an unfired Spencer slug in the Thomas-&-Thomas book on civil war bullets & cartridges, bullet #87.

The "only one thing which keeps me from being sure" is, his bullet's diameter measurements are too small to have been fired from a .52-caliber rifle/carbine. It wouldn't come out of the barrel measuring .475 - .508 - .512-inch. Only a .48"-caliber bore (with deep rifling-grooves) could produce those measurements. The only civil war era .48-caliber firearm listed in the McKee-&-Mason book on civil war projectiles is a Smith Rifle... which had 3-groove rifling, so that cannot be the answer about Blckcld's bullet.

No offense intended, but the only answer I can think of is that he mis-measured the bullet. I'd like to see the result of re-measuring it, this time with a digital caliper's blade-like jaws.

 

[Blkcloud]

Here you , I don't have digital calipers, but I do have some brown and sharpes that are very accurate..
1st .508
2nd .512
3rd . 475

 

[Blkcloud]

For over 40 years, I've been digging and collecting and very closely studying what I call "interesting" FIRED civil war bullets. I particularly like ones which were fired but show almost no damage and have really excellent rifling-marks on them. That's the case with Blckcld's mystery bulet. Only one thing keeps me from being sure his bullet is a Spencer (or a Merrill) slug force-loaded into the oversized breech of a .52 Sharps Carbine and fired through it, which squeezes the .552"-diameter lead bullet down to fit through the 6-rifling-grooves .52" Sharps bore. The result would be a somewhat "stretched" bullet showing six superb rifling-grooves, giving the bullet a Hexagonal appearnace. Also, the bullet's base comes out looking a bit cupped... as we see on Blckcld's bullet.

The photo below shows three .57"-diameter bullets which were fired out of a .52-caliber Sharps Carbine. You can see that each is somewhat stretched, and shows superb 6-groove rifling marks.

The reason I believe Blckcld's bullet is a Spencer slug (the lead from a Spencer cartridge) is that the lowest of its three body-grooves is indistinct... which is what you see in the photo of an unfired Spencer slug in the Thomas-&-Thomas book on civil war bullets & cartridges, bullet #87.

The "only one thing which keeps me from being sure" is, his bullet's diameter measurements are too small to have been fired from a .52-caliber rifle/carbine. It wouldn't come out of the barrel measuring .475 - .508 - .512-inch. Only a .48"-caliber bore (with deep rifling-grooves) could produce those measurements. The only civil war era .48-caliber firearm listed in the McKee-&-Mason book on civil war projectiles is a Smith Rifle... which had 3-groove rifling, so that cannot be the answer about Blckcld's bullet.

No offense intended, but the only answer I can think of is that he mis-measured the bullet. I'd like to see the result of re-measuring it, this time with a digital caliper's blade-like jaws.

Don't have any digitals.. but these will do..

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Yes, that type of "blade-jaws" caliper will do. Like me, you've hung onto an old 20th-Century analog version. No batteries to quit on you at an inopportune time.

Actually, I was thinking of placing the blade-jaws "lengthwise" on the bullet, to measure its diameter in between the rifling-grooves. That could put us onto the caliber of the breechloading rifle which fired it.

Because the rifling-ridges can increase a bullet's diameter by .01 or .02-inch, your previous measurements suggest it could be either a .50 or .52-cailiber. We must also remember to account for the thickness of an excavated very-old bullet's lead-oxide patina, which usually is about .01-inch in total (2 x .005"), sometimes more.

I notice that in your most recent photos, the bullet shows some out-of-roundness at its base. That must be waht is causing the significant difference in your bullet's diameter measurements (.475, .508, .512-inch).

 

[Blkcloud]

Yes, that type of "blade-jaws" caliper will do. Like me, you've hung onto an old 20th-Century analog version. No batteries to quit on you at an inopportune time.

Actually, I was thinking of placing the blade-jaws "lengthwise" on the bullet, to measure its diameter in between the rifling-grooves. That could put us onto the caliber of the breechloading rifle which fired it.

Because the rifling-ridges can increase a bullet's diameter by .01 or .02-inch, your previous measurements suggest it could be either a .50 or .52-cailiber. We must also remember to account for the thickness of an excavated very-old bullet's lead-oxide patina, which usually is about .01-inch in total (2 x .005"), sometimes more.

I notice that in your most recent photos, the bullet shows some out-of-roundness at its base. That must be waht is causing the significant difference in your bullet's diameter measurements (.475, .508, .512-inch).

So.. do you think this was fired from a rifle with a hex bore? To me it definitely has six sides..nothing like any other bullet I have ever dug..

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Sorry, no, not a Hexagonal bore... I agree with Charlie_P., it was fired from a rifle which had 6 rifling-grooves inside its barrel.

 

[Blkcloud]

It is what it is!! Thank you!