I dont think this bullet is a bullet, but I dont know what it is!

[turtlefoot13]

I don't think this bullet is a bullet, but I don't know what it is!

Okay, this "bullet" has so many problems with it, isn't funny. I will be very honest, I don't believe that it is a real bullet. I don't know if it is a degraded toy, a salesman's sample (think cut away) or


Here is what it is. Look at the pics below.


The headstamp reads RMP 44-40. The rim diameter is 0.395". The bullet diameter is 0.348". The complete length is 1.031". All measured with a digital caliper.


Here are my questions.


1. What is this thing?
2. What is the "rod" going from the primer area into the bullet itself.
3. What company made this thing?
4. Why does the base have a "stair step look to it"? No bullet casing I know of is like that.


The size is not right for a .44-40, bullet or rim. Any help is appreciated.


Doug

 

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[Ant]

I found something like that but it sort of looked like a real hollow point bullet. I carried it around and even brought it to work and showed it to some firearms experts that work at our armory. They couldn't figure it out either. Then about a year later I decided to take it apart and that is when I noticed the shell casing was loose from the bullet. I worked with it a minute or so and all of a sudden the shell case slid over the bullet and I saw that it was a weed pipe.

I'm not saying that is what you found but what I found had a similar steps but the bullet was pointed.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

That is pretty odd.

Couple possibilities. It may be "toy" ammo that is intentionally undersize so a kid won't stick a real shell in a toy pistol.

1 PC Bronco 44 cap gun COWBOY SERIES

It is a snap cap so the real gun can rest on a "dud" in the chamber and be test-fired. Some have wool or felt to absorb oil (which may be missing on yours. Unlileky as it would be the same rim diameter as the real fodder (0.525")

Stage/costume/Hollywood prop ammo?

 

[NGE]

i watched the video about this modern day cap gun with the modern day crap caps. those caps suck compared to what we had in the 50's , 60's, and 70's annnd , my caps only cost a nickel a box (5) rolls.

 

[Ant]

A long shot, bullet chest set pawn.

 

[turtlefoot13]

Thank you for taking the time to read this and comment. I am not ruling anything out at this point. I appreciate the tips as it will give me more places to look and more avenues to research.

Doug

 

[Sheldon J]

i watched the video about this modern day cap gun with the modern day crap caps. those caps suck compared to what we had in the 50's , 60's, and 70's annnd , my caps only cost a nickel a box (5) rolls.

Big red rolls of caps that you could make firecrackers from... nickel a box, and the top was "Supper Bang" cap guns were a loud as a .22 but heaven forbid we damage little kids ears so then we give them MP3 players and head phones so they can go deaf before their 15th B day...

 

[petecnc]

i remember the big red rolls of paper caps. we used to hit the whole roll with a hammer.

 

[BosnMate]

i remember the big red rolls of paper caps. we used to hit the whole roll with a hammer.

Yeah, that, and we had an old 1873 springfield that probably cost 50 cents in those days. It wasn't a shooter, but the hammer still worked, so we would pile so many caps that they had to be held in place with scotch tape. I was so loud that it would ring our ears. Remember scratching caps with your fingernail to make them flash, and your nail would be all burnt looking?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

We used to take a cap (the green self-stick ones that came on sheets were the best) and a pebble and put the cap on the pebble and twist it all up it into a piece of foil or TP to make little "darts" that popped. Precursor to the little snappers. And they weighed a lot more.

Ah, good 'ol misspent youth. Some of the booby-traps we would set for each other would get a kid on the FBI watch list today. Caps, flash-bulbs (remember Magic-Cubes that were self-igniting?), clothespins, mousetraps and rubberbands. My poor cat was a nervous wreck.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

I'm going to agree with it being for an old cap gun, like a Nichols maybe? It would be an off size to keep kids from loading a real bullet into a toy gun, and the "stepped" base is probably where a tin body has rusted away....

I had some of these kinds of cap guns as a kid and I really wish they were still around instead of lost in the corn fields by my grandparents old house.... I heard long ago that with a little work and a drill you could modify certain of these shells to hold a .22 short and actually fire it...... I will not confirm or deny that I may or may not have tried it.....but I somehow survived childhood with all my fingers, limbs and eyes intact.....

 

[Ant]

All the cap gun bullets that I have found never broke apart like that but all of them did fall apart. The shell casings just will disintegrat when handled as would the bullet itself. I have found several different kinds of toy bullets and seen some that others have found.

I was a cap gun cowboy and a combat solder beginning in 1960 through 1967, that's I grew out of that and went to bb guns. It could have been a novelty key chain or a toy bullet. But sitll just a guess.