Is canon ball still live??

[BVI Hunter]

After some cleaning, these two balls and one strange cone shaped object show signs of being "plugged"?

the largest ball (2 3/4 diam) has a large plug
the second ball (2 1/4 diam) has a smaller plug
the cone (2" base, 1 1/2 high) has plug in the base

all seem to be molten lead??

any ideas??

(drill or not to drill...... )

 

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[BVI Hunter]

I told Johnsas in my first reply in this discussion (post #2 in this thread) that there have never been any explosive lead balls. He says the balls he found are made of lead. Thus there's no point in drilling into them. (I asked about doing a magnet-test to make sure they are lead, not iron, but he never responded about that.)

the largest ball ARE iron - all other are lead!

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Okay, now that you've corrected your previous statement that the balls are made of lead, now saying the largest ball (2-&-3/4" diameter) is made of iron, I can give you correct information about it.

The rather large circular mold-mark on it is typical of latter-1700s British cannonballs. You say its diameter is 2.75 inches. That is "near" the 2.84-inches diameter of a 3-pounder caliber cannonball.

In all of my decades of research, I've never come across a historical record of 3-pounder caliber explosive (hollow) cannonballs. That caliber seems to have been only Solid-Shot cannonballs.

There is a simple way to determine whether your 2.75-inches iron ball is hollow, or is solid. Weigh it on a Postal Shipping scale, which tells the weight in pounds and fractions-of-an-ounce (for example, 2 pounds 9.7 ounces). Note, typical household bathroom scales are too inaccurate for this kind of work... you must use an extremely precise scale.

According to the extremely precise weight-&-size charts of Colonial-era cannonballs, an iron solid (not hollow) 3-pounder caliber ball weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce, or sometimes a LITTLE less. If your 2.75-inches iron ball weighs a LOT less (such as 2 pounds 2 ounces), it is hollow.

If extremely precise measurement of your iron ball's weight proves it isn't hollow, there is no point in drilling into it.

Please weigh the iron ball on a Postal Shipping scale and tell us its precisely-measured weight.

 

[BVI Hunter]

Okay, now that you've corrected your previous statement that the balls are made of lead, now saying the largest ball (2-&-3/4" diameter) is made of iron, I can give you correct information about it.

The rather large circular mold-mark on it is typical of latter-1700s British cannonballs. You say its diameter is 2.75 inches. That is "near" the 2.84-inches diameter of a 3-pounder caliber cannonball.

In all of my decades of research, I've never come across a historical record of 3-pounder caliber explosive (hollow) cannonballs. That caliber seems to have been only Solid-Shot cannonballs.

There is a simple way to determine whether your 2.75-inches iron ball is hollow, or is solid. Weigh it on a Postal Shipping scale, which tells the weight in pounds and fractions-of-an-ounce (for example, 2 pounds 9.7 ounces). Note, typical household bathroom scales are too inaccurate for this kind of work... you must use an extremely precise scale.

According to the extremely precise weight-&-size charts of Colonial-era cannonballs, an iron solid (not hollow) 3-pounder caliber ball weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce, or sometimes a LITTLE less. If your 2.75-inches iron ball weighs a LOT less (such as 2 pounds 2 ounces), it is hollow.

If extremely precise measurement of your iron ball's weight proves it isn't hollow, there is no point in drilling into it.

Please weigh the iron ball on a Postal Shipping scale and tell us its precisely-measured weight.

Will get to the post office as soon as I can and weigh - thanks!!!

 

[ScubaFinder]

Hi Cannonball Guy, a quick question for you that is slightly off-topic but not so much. We recently found what appears to be a lead sheathed iron cannonball, rare but not unheard of. In the same vicinity, we found 2" diameter lead balls with square openings on one side that appeared to have an iron bar connected into the slot, we found four of these. Any thoughts on what they might be? My only thought was that they might be bar shot made with an iron bar with lead balls on the end, but I've never seen anything like them. Would love to hear your thoughts on either of the two items, and why did they coat iron cannonballs in lead?

 

[gunsil]

Nice posts, Cannonball, Too much speculation goes around about old shells and black powder. Too many people watch "Bomb Squad" on TV or something and there are many who carry on about black powder who have never used it, or not used it a much. Playing with it as a kid I found out that it won't go off hitting it with a hammer unless the hammer makes a spark against the rock the powder sits on. I'm not sure the OP's balls were lead and even if they are iron with lead plugs they look awfully small for explosive balls, they may not be cannon balls at all. I suppose things are different where different shells are dug up, but the ones I've found only had the lead or brass fuze holder present with the actual fuze either having been never installed or decayed away. Some folks got all worried that I had explosive muzzleloader shells around but since the ends were open to the elements and they were found in wet soil I knew that after all those years the powder would have been totally degraded from water entry. I also found some WW1 era live rounds once and left them right where they were, THOSE are dangerous, like you said they may have shock sensitive detonators and shouldn't be played with. Like on that first episode of "Dig Wars" that guy in the shop made a fuss about live shells in the store, when they were found immersed in water. I seriously doubt they were a threat to anybody, and I am also pretty sure that the producers knew that or they wouldn't have been allowed to excavate them.