musket ball ?

[scs]

found in creek Antrim county mich. it is very shiny on the raised parts

 

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[l.cutler]

Don't know, is it made of lead? What is the size?

 

[scs]

don't think its lead . it is heavy though .1/2 inch

 

[duggap]

I don't know what you have found, but it is not a musket ball.

 

[l.cutler]

Agreed, a musket ball would be made of lead and also larger.

 

[Tejaas]

Deleted.

 

[gunsil]

The object in question is an iron pyrite nodule. Google them and you will see others, I have found many myself. I personally doubt (no offense intended) That Tejass' bronze ball is a musket projectile, and it is without a doubt that the indians did not have the ability to cast bronze, or use it for projectiles. I suggest any who think this true about indians casting bronze projectiles try to do it. Lead and it's common alloys melt at a very low temperature, and bronze, copper, and brass melt at MUCH higher temperatures, and these are not suitable to casting into small round molds made of brass or iron. Lead melts around 600 degrees F and bronze and brass in the 1700-1850 degree F range. The southwestern Native Americans did not start casting silver jewelry until they were taught how to do it in the late 1800s-early 1900s. The Native Americans are considered a stone age culture since they had no real metal usage except for the rare copper items that were not cast, but pounded from existing native copper. They did not have the capability to cast copper.

 

[Tejaas]

Deleted.

 

[Tejaas]

Deleted

 

[l.cutler]

The following is not in regards to the OPs find... If he can get his hands on a caliper and/or grain scale I'd be more than happy to help ID what he has. I.cutler - Please DO NOT use "material" to rule something out of being identified as a round ball. That logic can only be applied loosely to Minies and other "conical shot". Depending on the times, country, and individual, round balls were made of VARIOUS conglomerates. Instead, use measurement, weight, and "vicinity likelihood" as a basis. "Larger"? - no, not necessarily. There were plenty of smaller caliber pistol balls, and the US used buck-and-ball loads almost exclusively in certain long arm models for more than two decades in various regions... Case and point, from my personal collection - Mexican BRONZE musket shot found In the vicinity of the La Bahia massacre. The French, from which Michigan (OPs location) derives it's name from.... supplied a lot of the local inhabitants (Indians) with firearms during the Seven Years War. Indians would commonly use trade ingots and scrap (lead/iron/bronze) to manufacture shot for their muskets. I'm not saying the OP did/didn't find a round ball. I'm simply trying to show that there is more to take into account. You don't want to just chuck that into the trashcan assuming it's a rusty ball bearing!

As I said, a musket ball would be larger, certainly there are rifle and pistol balls of a similar size and smaller, but the question was whether it was a musket ball. I know of no muskets smaller than .69 caliber. You are correct though that there can be off metal round balls although uncommon, I guess whatever material was at hand.

 

[gunsil]

The outside of SCS' nodule already displays the fool's gold. Pyrite nodules when cracked open often look more silvery and will not show "flecks", but more of a crystalline structure. I won't attempt to refute Tejass's theory about bronze musket balls any more, evidently he knows what he has, but I'm sure if cannonballguy saw this he would have something interesting to say. Obviously some folks just don't realize the difference in the difficulty of casting different metals and will believe what they wish regardless of facts.

 

[Tejaas]

Deleted.

 

[scs]

not fools gold to hard