??? Musket Ball or NOT ???

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

I dug this musket ball (?) this afternoon.

It is not perfectly round in the sense that there are flat spots all over it (otherwise is round). It is very heavy. I do not currently have a way to measure it properly. Clad nickle and dime are for sizing. it is about 3/4 of an inch long (when resting on the desk) 3/4 inch high. it is not magnetic.

I dug it in an urban area where I normally find clad change and stuff that looks like the area may have been a car garage or mechanic shop of some type. However, this entire area is littered with civil war artifacts. bullets and musket balls could be anywhere you dig.

any ideas, hypotheses, and informed speculations are WELCOME! Feel free to chime in!



PIC BELOW: Musket ball (?) is center. The other balls I dug this month on separate digs. the bullet is still yet to be ID'd for sure. Wanted to include for sizing purposes on the musket ball (?). The 3 rounds balls are either case-shot or pistol shot, still to be determined. Chime in on any of these...



I did find this information online that may explain the flat spots?:

"Musket balls have been excavated at Monmouth with shallow circular depressions as shown in Figure 5. Again based on the personal experiences of the author in firing black powder flintlock muskets, this appears to be ramrod marks. Even though a ball may be sitting loosely in the breach of a musket, you still ram it several times to compact the powder. If the ball is loose, it will rotate slightly with each strike. This ball has three blows from a ramrod."

 

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[nsdq]

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/307997-musket-ball.html

 

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[ivan salis]

a brown bess ..British military musket was .75 caliber in size ...which is 3/4 of a inch ... a fired musket ball due to impacting things can easily be "out of round" a bit //highly possible you got a fired 75 cal brown bess type musket ball

Virginia did have British rev war era activity ...and US troop s would have had a mixed bag of guns --I sure at least some were of British style

 

[rjw4law]

I have dug musket balls that looked like that...my guess esp with it being heavy.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

I have dug musket balls that looked like that...my guess esp with it being heavy.

did u notice all the square spots on it and the color? there was no patina on it either, real dirty though and i wiped it off.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

a brown bess ..British military musket was .75 caliber in size ...which is 3/4 of a inch ... a fired musket ball due to impacting things can easily be "out of round" a bit //highly possible you got a fired 75 cal brown bess type musket ball

Virginia did have British rev war era activity ...and US troop s would have had a mixed bag of guns --I sure at least some were of British style

I was wondering COULD THIS BE REVOLUTIONARY WAR surely that stuff is around here also. does it look like the right size?

 

[nsdq]

Very possible to Rev war.... and to answer you question it had hole in it from worm screw to pull it with the ram rod

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

Very possible to Rev war.... and to answer you question it had hole in it from worm screw to pull it with the ram rod

yes, i understand what you meant now. my bad. i am thinking rev war with this musket ball. i googled and saw one that looked like it already. this is very cool if it is. MY FIRST!!!!!!

 

[nsdq]

Wait til you find one with teeth marks in it

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

Wait til you find one with teeth marks in it

yes, i have seen pics of those. from biting the thing for pain. i will be reading up about rev war around here now. been a civil war guy until now. what a hobby!!!!!!!!!!

 

[civil_war22]

Wait til you find one with teeth marks in it

I've got a bunch of those bullets. People say they aren't human teeth marks because that was a myth but I would have to say if a rodent had teeth the size of a human molar we would all be screwed. Where I found mine at was the yard of an old rent house we had on a union campsite about 2 miles south of the battlefield that was a field hospital.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

I've got a bunch of those bullets. People say they aren't human teeth marks because that was a myth but I would have to say if a rodent had teeth the size of a human molar we would all be screwed. Where I found mine at was the yard of an old rent house we had on a union campsite about 2 miles south of the battlefield that was a field hospital.

love to find something like that. congrats. u ought post some pics. love to see that stuff.

i do have a round ball with a gash in it, like someone cut it, really straight. pic below. the DARK brown across the center is the slit.



u can see the slash in the round ball running horizontally across the center (DARK BROWN LINE). could have been cut with a knife? that or it hit something. this one has been fired. the ball is resting on a flat spot.

 

[civil_war22]

I'll get some pics later today of them. You can clearly see the teeth marks. I've never posted pics or said they were teeth marks because a lot out there has tried disproving that biting the bullet was a method used during any war or surgery but I'm pretty sure if all I had was alcohol or a crappy local anesthetic I'd be biting on something

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

I'll get some pics later today of them. You can clearly see the teeth marks. I've never posted pics or said they were teeth marks because a lot out there has tried disproving that biting the bullet was a method used during any war or surgery but I'm pretty sure if all I had was alcohol or a crappy local anesthetic I'd be biting on something

i have read that "biting the bullet" was a technique. remember they were amputating limbs right and left, with a saw. OUCH! post it on here if you want. the heck with the naysayers. bite marks are bite marks.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/307997-musket-ball.html

that is what i am thinking it is. maybe rev war even.

 

[BosnMate]

You could possibly have a shrapnel ball from an explosive Civil War era cannon shell. A solid shot cannon ball that was fired from a 12 pounder Napoleon Cannon was a solid iron ball that was 4.52 inches in diameter, and weighed 12.25 pounds. British Major General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842) invented the explosive shell that was the same size and was fired from the same gun, except it weighed a little over 8 pounds, and contained round lead balls and an explosive charge. The cannon ball was cast hollow, then it was filled with round lead balls, (not always, minnie balls were used also) but I'm showing a picture of one with round balls. Once the balls were in the shell, melted sulfur was poured in to hold the balls in place, and a hole was drilled through the fuse hole into the lead and sulfur, leaving a cavity for the bursting charge. Last, a time fuse was placed in the fuse hole, which in the picture, it looks like the shell has a Boreman fuse. When the gun was loaded, a hole was punched in the Boreman fuse at the number of seconds you wanted before it blew up, then the shell was loaded with the fuse pointing out the muzzle. The fire from the exploding gun powder flashed around the shell igniting the fuse. The fuse then burned the number of set seconds, and the shell burst, the idea being to have it explode above and in front of advancing troops. In the picture the balls are different sizes because the saw didn't cut all of them exactly in half. The F indicates the fuse, the arrow points to the cavity for the bursting charge, and the X shows one of the round shrapnel balls. The flat spots on your ball, could be explained by the balls being compressed together, at the very beginning of the explosion, before the shell case burst scattering them. Just one more probable thing for you to think about.


Oh yeah, the hole you see in the bottom of the shell is one that someone drilled so the bursting charge could be removed before the sawing was done. If black powder is dry, and exposed to enough heat, age means nothing, it will go off. People have been killed and maimed drilling these old shells out. I expect the best way is to drill under water, but I would think twice before doing it.

 

[coinman123]

I have found 50 or so musketballs, maybe more. I would probably classify that as one if I found it.

 

[relic nut]

i have read that "biting the bullet" was a technique. remember they were amputating limbs right and left, with a saw. OUCH! post it on here if you want. the heck with the naysayers. bite marks are bite marks.

Here's one I have. Make your own judgement.

HH RN

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

You could possibly have a shrapnel ball from an explosive Civil War era cannon shell. A solid shot cannon ball that was fired from a 12 pounder Napoleon Cannon was a solid iron ball that was 4.52 inches in diameter, and weighed 12.25 pounds. British Major General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842) invented the explosive shell that was the same size and was fired from the same gun, except it weighed a little over 8 pounds, and contained round lead balls and an explosive charge. The cannon ball was cast hollow, then it was filled with round lead balls, (not always, minnie balls were used also) but I'm showing a picture of one with round balls. Once the balls were in the shell, melted sulfur was poured in to hold the balls in place, and a hole was drilled through the fuse hole into the lead and sulfur, leaving a cavity for the bursting charge. Last, a time fuse was placed in the fuse hole, which in the picture, it looks like the shell has a Boreman fuse. When the gun was loaded, a hole was punched in the Boreman fuse at the number of seconds you wanted before it blew up, then the shell was loaded with the fuse pointing out the muzzle. The fire from the exploding gun powder flashed around the shell igniting the fuse. The fuse then burned the number of set seconds, and the shell burst, the idea being to have it explode above and in front of advancing troops. In the picture the balls are different sizes because the saw didn't cut all of them exactly in half. The F indicates the fuse, the arrow points to the cavity for the bursting charge, and the X shows one of the round shrapnel balls. The flat spots on your ball, could be explained by the balls being compressed together, at the very beginning of the explosion, before the shell case burst scattering them. Just one more probable thing for you to think about.
View attachment 1371881

Oh yeah, the hole you see in the bottom of the shell is one that someone drilled so the bursting charge could be removed before the sawing was done. If black powder is dry, and exposed to enough heat, age means nothing, it will go off. People have been killed and maimed drilling these old shells out. I expect the best way is to drill under water, but I would think twice before doing it.

it would explain the flat spots all over the ball. see that bottom ball on the left of your pic, looks like it develops a big flat spot resting on the shell. then others around it, other flat spots. def something to consider, though i surely would like the revolutionary war musket ball to be the one that is true. bottom line, we just dont know. prob the best way is to get it measured and weighed and start ruling explanations out based on that. then see what is left.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

Here's one I have. Make your own judgement.

HH RN

this sounds nuts, but did you try placing the bullet in your back molar and see if it sort of fits into those marks? better yet, get a friend to do it. they look like they could be bite marks to me.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

I have found 50 or so musketballs, maybe more. I would probably classify that as one if I found it.

u think civil war or revolutionary? guess we will never really know.