Lead Basket for crop pickers?

[Jlefebvre]

Can anyone Identify this lead basket? It?s from a mold and we?re finding them buried about 10? down in a large set of fields in mid coast Maine. I?m guessing they may have been given out to crop pickers for every bushel picked during colonial times but it?s just a guess.

 

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[Mud Hut]

I believe you are finding old wad-buster bullets.

 

[Jlefebvre]

Zoom in on the picture and you will see a basket with design on it.

 

[crashbandicoot]

I believe you are finding old wad-buster bullets.

Wad Buster?Mud Hut,you know it,s wad cutter!Looks like the knurling pattern Hornady uses on their swaged lead pistol bullets for hand loading.Look on their site and you can find about anything they sell.Their wadcutters are hollow base,which could account for the hole.Some modern muzzleloader bullets have that pattern and are hollow base too as well as hollow point.

 

[Mud Hut]

Wad Buster?Mud Hut,you know it,s wad cutter!Looks like the knurling pattern Hornady uses on their swaged lead pistol bullets for hand loading.Look on their site and you can find about anything they sell.Their wadcutters are hollow base,which could account for the hole.Some modern muzzleloader bullets have that pattern and are hollow base too as well as hollow point.

yeah .. I was being politically correct.

 

[crashbandicoot]

yeah .. I was being politically correct.

Laughed my arse off!!!!!Good one Mud Hut!

 

[Jlefebvre]

Checked it out. I totally see what you are talking about and it does look like the swaged lead round. Thanks guys.

 

[crashbandicoot]

Checked it out. I totally see what you are talking about and it does look like the swaged lead round. Thanks guys.

Thank you and you,re welcome JLefebvre.I,ve loaded a bunch of those things so was reasonably sure what it was,Mud Hut steered me in the right direction too.Guess this time I won,t have to eat that crow!Keep on keeping on!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

For anybody here who is unfamiliar with the Hornaday (brand) "crosshatched" or "basket-weave" wadcutter (target-shooting) bullets... here is a photo of a slightly different version of Hornaday wadcutter bullet from the one dug by Jlefebvre.

Also for anybody here who doesn't already know:
The name "wadcutter bullet" comes from the fact that the bullet's form causes it to reliably punch a clearly visible neat round hole in the paper (or wood) target.

 

[crashbandicoot]

For anybody here who is unfamiliar with the Hornaday (brand) "crosshatched" or "basket-weave" wadcutter (target-shooting) bullets... here is a photo of a slightly different version of Hornaday wadcutter bullet from the one dug by Jlefebvre.

Also for anybody here who doesn't already know:
The name "wadcutter bullet" comes from the fact that the bullet's form causes it to reliably punch a clearly visible neat round hole in the paper (or wood) target.

And that,s the truth!!!!!

 

[Tedyoh]

98% sure that the OP's item is not a bullet...

 

[crashbandicoot]

98% sure that the OP's item is not a bullet...

Does that mean I,ve got to thaw out that crow!?

 

[Tedyoh]

Does that mean I,ve got to thaw out that crow!?

Haha...maybe...OP's item is somewhat hollow and coned shaped / double tapered...along with the weave pattern being raised up off the piece.....no wadcutter has even one of those characteristics

 

[ToddsPoint]

CannonballGuys pic is actually a semi wad cutter. Gary

 

[Jlefebvre]

Here is another picture of a slightly different one we found in the same field about 20 yards away. It’s the one on the right.

 

[Tedyoh]

The one on the right looks very similar to your original picture, with the weaving missing/ripped off.....very odd banged up lead items...whatever they are.

 

[pepperj]

The one on the left-2nd photo, has a loop on the side, so entirely a different item.
The one on the right does have sq. & rectangle design, different than the first photo-which TheCannonGuy posted up an ID

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The lead object on the right in the 2nd photo shows rifling-marks from being fired through a rifled gunbarrel... so it is definitely a bullet.

For anybody here who doesn't already know what "rifling-marks" on a bullet are, and what "rifling grooves" inside a firearm's gunbarrel are, please study the educational diagram attached below.

 

[crashbandicoot]

The original photo has faint rifling marks too.If you don,t think it,s a Hornady bullet,look up the many brands of modern muzzle loader bullets.Buffalo Bullets comes to mind,hollow base and hollow point styles.You can very easily get that result when a soft lead bullet hits hard stuff.I,m not thawing that crow just yet.I still say bullets.

 

[Tedyoh]

No need to thaw your crow.....I finally noticed / realized the OP is posting the bullets upside down.....the base of the bullets are facing up.....the rifling on the picture on the right proves this.....showing the flow of the lead moving up, filling the canular groove......solid wadcutter with hollow base.....not hollow point wadcutters