Need musket experts help

[watercolor]

Need musket expert's help

I have what I THINK is a lead musket ball.

It's diameter is 14 mm and it has 7 sides that have been symmetrically flattened (possibly from a rifled barrel?)
It's overall weight is 17.9 grams.

If this is in fact a musket ball, what caliber and/or rifle might this have been fired from?

Any opinions are appreciated.







Thanks for looking!
watercolor

 

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[trusty]

Re: Need musket expert's help

14 mm = .55 inches. Is this measured on the flats? I'm pretty sure a true musket is a smooth bore. And I don't think rifling would leave flat spots, but would leave grooves.

.55 inches would be 55 caliber. I think the actual caliber would be larger than that.

 

[watercolor]

Re: Need musket expert's help

14 mm = .55 inches. Is this measured on the flats? I'm pretty sure a true musket is a smooth bore. And I don't think rifling would leave flat spots, but would leave grooves.

.55 inches would be 55 caliber. I think the actual caliber would be larger than that.

Trusty, thanks for your reply. . . When I measured the diameter, I could only measure from one of the "flats" to a corner (since it has 7 sides). Maybe this would put it around the a.50 cal range . . . I don't know. I wish I knew more about black powder rifled barrels and how the caliber was determined.

Thanks,
watercolor

 

[trusty]

Re: Need musket expert's help

Caliber on muzzleloaders is easy: .25" = 25 cal., .36" = 36 cal., .50" = 50 cal & so on.

Modern rifles are a little more complicated, but pretty easy too.

Glad to help. BTW the smoke from black powder is as addictive as MDing.

 

[dkw]

Re: Need musket expert's help

BTW the smoke from black powder is as addictive as MDing.

Amen to that!

 

[lonesomebob]

Re: Need musket expert's help

whitworth or other English rifle, I think

 

[Monty]

Re: Need musket expert's help

I'm guessing .58 Caliber. Why? Musket balls were always cast undersize than the bore for easier loading. The ball would have been wraped in greased cloth, usually flannel or mattress ticking to make it fit snugly into the bore since there was no rifling. Sometimes the cloth was chewed and made wet with saliva instead of grease ergo the "spit patch". The ball never touched the bore, rather slid down the bore protected by the patch. .58 caliber was one of the most common bore sizes around. The further you go back in history, the larger the bore it seemed. Early muskets often ran to .65 or .68 caliber. There was a few that was even larger! When rifled barrels came into being the ball could be loaded into a paper patch with the bullet, powder and patch all in one piece. The round ball was pretty much history when the Minnie Ball was invented. The Minnie Ball was a real bullet shaped chunk of lead, could be cast almost true bore diameter and was found to be much more accurate than the round ball. The base of a minnie was often hollow to expand to take the rifling when fired, thus negating the need for a patch. Oops too much information, just got carried away. M nty