Musket Balls Advice...Please?

[ajaj]

I dug these two musket balls this weekend in Westchester county, just about 3 miles north of White Plains. The area did see some Revolutionary War activity, and the area of woods I was in was located between White Plains and the Young House in Thornwood. Is there any way of determining whether these were military or civilian? The large ball on the right is 19 mm diameter and weighs 31.9 grams; the smaller of the two is 15.5 mm diameter and weighs 16.5 grams. Thanks!

aj

 

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[Dug]

If they have through and through holes, you have early net or fishing weights. First pic shows holes on both, one on right is caked with oxide and sand.

If the holes do not go through clean them carefully as they may be threaded from having been pulled.

Would like to see exact opposite side from pic one.

 

[ajaj]

Hi, and thanks for the reply. The second picture shows the opposite sides of both. None of the "holes" go through the lead; they look like they were in a mold.

aj

 

[duggap]

It's awfully hard to tell if your balls are military. Every gun carried fired balls until around the 1860s (for the most part). If your ball mics out at 69 caliber it would be more likely to be military as that was what a lot of the early guns fired. But it would be hard to tell if a bullet was fired from a Kentucky long rifle or a pistol.

 

[gunsil]

"Musket" ball infers military use and as Dug says it would be hard to prove any military use, and it is impossible to put a definite date on them. Many more round balls were fired for hunting and target practice here in the U.S. than were fired in battle. They were fired from smoothbore and rifled long firearms, from pistols, and shotguns. Your area had very early settlement as did where I am directly across the river so they could pre date the revolution (back to the 1600s) or could be much newer, no way to tell. Also muzzle loaders did not disappear around the 1860s, thousands were sold as army surplus after the civil war and used up into the early 20th century by poorer folks for hunting. A friend of mine found a civil war era minie ball in Peekskill, definitely not lost there due to military use. The holes are not from a mold, more likely from being chewed by an animal or other post manufacture means. The battle of White Plains was right down on Rte 100 in city limits, you can see the signs marking the area, but it has all been developed for years.

 

[smokeythecat]

Best to research the area to see if there was any military action there.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Possible they are rifle or musket balls that have been pulled with a screw puller. But metric balls were never used in the United States or colonies. ;-)

19mm works out to 0.748" and 15.5mm to 0.610"

The former is in range with what was used in paper cartridges for Bess muskets. But I have never heard of one larger than 0.735"; because cleaning was impossible in battle and tolerences were liberal to accomidate fouling. Possibly yours was deformed in the pulling and subsequent handling. Or something for a civilian 10 bore/gauge (0.750"). The latter is small for a musket but large for a rifle. Possibly a civilian 20 bore fowler (0.620") using a single ball with paper or no patch.