Need help with a bullet ID.

Arkennon

Jr. Member
Feb 4, 2011
35
0
Northwest Ohio
Detector(s) used
Minelab E-Trac
I found a lot of these bullets in an area in 2010 that I would love to know a bit more about. I found several that were partially smashed like they were fired and hit something and I found a few like this that were still nicely shaped. And slightly ballooned at the top which suggests it was fired but did not hit anything. They are quite large almost 1 and a quarter inch long and half an inch wide. If anyone can tell me anything about these I would greatly appreciate it.
 

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Most of the CW era muzzle loading bullets had a gaping hole in the bottom. Instead of an indentatiion. Notice I said MOST, because there were exceptions. The reason the hole was so large was to let the base of the bullet expand to catch the riflings. The bullets were undersize for easy loading. If not, after a few shots the barrel would be so fouled by the black powder a full size bullet couldn't be loaded from the muzzle. Even today for example, a .44 Magnum's bullet diameter is not .44", but actually .429". That's a hold over from the old black powder days. Not being able to seat the bullet snug on top of the powder would leave an air space between the powder and the minnieball and could be dangerous. A phenomenen known as "detonation" could occur, causing the rifle barrel to blow up and split, wounding or killing the shooter. That's just some of the reasons you can tell one bullet from another, and also why it is often really hard to perfectly ID a bullet, especially without measurements and weight. Monty
 

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If you scratch around all over the City of Fort Stockton Texas you will find those. There they are military 45/70. Lead. You should mike it as best you can, is it larger at the nose than the rest of the missile like maybe it struck something?
I found a lot of these bullets in an area in 2010 that I would love to know a bit more about. I found several that were partially smashed like they were fired and hit something and I found a few like this that were still nicely shaped. And slightly ballooned at the top which suggests it was fired but did not hit anything. They are quite large almost 1 and a quarter inch long and half an inch wide. If anyone can tell me anything about these I would greatly appreciate it.
 

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