Pistol ball? Or buckshot

[Barrydang]

Found a couple of these this and the button were practically side by side. I dunno old bullets are besides bigger musket balls and things opinions and facts welcome no hurt feelings. I used the button for size reference

 

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[AlabamaRelic]

Pistol

 

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[Barrydang]

Yeah digging around The tree I have been finding all this stuff The other day I did find a shotgun head stamp it was old still early 1901 to 1910 umc co so it could be some
Buckshot.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

IMAUDIGGER wrote:
>

We have found several old bullet molds that feature a conical and a round mold.
> What do you suppose was the purpose of that? Matching pistol and rifle calibers?
> They are around 30 to 35 caliber I would guess.

During the transition period (1850s-70s) from pistol balls to cylindrical bullets, bulletmolds for several types of pistols had two cavities, one making a ball and the other making a cylindro-conical bullet, same caliber for both. Apparently, the purpose was to give the owner the option he preferred.

The photos below show the following types of bullet molds. Note, due to a squick in T-Net's image-posting software, the photos might not appear in the same order as listed.
.28 Colt Root revolver (brass mold)
.44 Colt revolver (iron mold)
.36 Manhattan revolver (iron mold)
.38 Special, Smith-&-Wesson revolver, bulletmold made by Winchester (iron mold)
unknown pistol, dug at Atlanta's Peachtree Creek civil war battlefield (brass mold)​

 

[ivan salis]

hand cast in a mold blackpowder era 36 cal pistol ball -- very common pistol caliber and small game hunting rifle size (for non dangerous game up to deer size)

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

IMAUDIGGER wrote:
>

We have found several old bullet molds that feature a conical and a round mold.
> What do you suppose was the purpose of that? Matching pistol and rifle calibers?
> They are around 30 to 35 caliber I would guess.

During the transition period (1850s-70s) from pistol balls to cylindrical bullets, bulletmolds for several types of pistols had two cavities, one making a ball and the other making a cylindro-conical bullet, same caliber for both. Apparently, the purpose was to give the owner the option he preferred.

The photos below show the following types of bullet molds. Note, due to a squick in T-Net's image-posting software, the photos might not appear in the same order as listed.
.28 Colt Root revolver (brass mold)
.44 Colt revolver (iron mold)
.36 Manhattan revolver (iron mold)
.38 Special, Smith-&-Wesson revolver, bulletmold made by Winchester (iron mold)
unknown pistol, dug at Atlanta's Peachtree Creek civil war battlefield (brass mold)​

Thank you for that information!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Making molds with both conical and ball is still done today. I'm not sure why, but I guess it gives a shooter a choice.

 

[ivan salis]

for game hunting conical is the way to go --much heavier and longer sized means faster quicker kill--- but for just paper punching round ball is ok --but there are folks who want to use round ball for the "old timey" feel when blackpowder muzzle loader hunting...I hunt blackpowder both modern inline( 209 shotgun primer) and old style #11 cap and ball sidelock

plus when hand casting your own bullets you can control how hard or soft you want your "lead" bullet to be … very hard for deep penetration say for shooting a bear --or soft for thin skinned game like a deer for rapid expansion --(adding or not adding other metals to the lead mixture will cause it to be harder or not)

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I use a round ball for deer. A .530" or 0.650" round ball lets a bunch of light into a deer. Have had them drop without taking a step.

No sense hunting "traditional" season with modern implements. ;-) But I believe only Oklahoma still insists on "round ball only" for the primitive muzzleloading season. Few states bother to describe it as "primitive" season now, anyway.

 

[ivan salis]

I got a 50 cal hawken style cap and ball sidelock that I use flat based conical type bullets in ...round balls can do the job no doubt about it but I just hate dealing with the rag bit --with conical no need