Possible 2 ring .45 cal Civil War Era Carbine Bullet?? Need Help??

bonepicker

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Jan 5, 2012
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Me and a buddy drove up to the country today and got a permission at an nice old house that was supposedly built in the 1870's. The homeowners said that 3 groups of people hunted this site over the past 16 years they lived there and that they never found anything. Which kind of made it exciting and offered us a challenge.
5 minutes into the hunt I found a token from 1905, which I gave the homeowner.
The token was neat, but i was after silver or gold, so i thought this gesture would keep us an open invitation to this site. Which it did, but no silver or gold today. definitely going back.
I did find a small pistol ball and what looks like a small 2 ring carbine bullet. At first i thought it was a modern .45 round until i noticed the 2 rings. It measures .45" diameter, .72" tall, and 14.9 grams.
The pistol ball measures .38"
Was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about the 2 ring bullet.
Is it from a civil war era carbine???
One thing i can see in the first pic after tooth-picking the rings are some tiny vertical lines inside the rings.
Ive never dug a CW bullet this size, but it does kind of look like one with the rings.
Thanks
 

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The little ridges in the groove dates it to no earlier than the 1870s. Still. that could make it almost 140-145 years old.
 

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The little ridges in the groove dates it to no earlier than the 1870s. Still. that could make it almost 140-145 years old.
I was really thinking it might be CW until i noticed the small lines inside the ring grooves.
Correct me if im wrong, but i think i read those lines are crimp marks, and bullets with crimp marks were produced after the CW.
Still really neat if it is from the 1870s.
Any more info would be greatly appreciated, and thanks for responding Fyrffytr1.
 

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I remembered this morning I had found a couple brass shell casings at the same site.
One say UMC Rem 44 WCF, and the other said UMC 45 Colt.
The bullet fit nice and tight inside the complete brass shell that says UMC 45 Colt.
.45 Mag?
See Photos.
 

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.45 Long Colt. Old cowboy caliber. Still make ammo and guns for them...d2
 

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.45 Long Colt. Old cowboy caliber. Still make ammo and guns for them...d2
Thanks for responding D2.
According to Wikipedia this caliber came out in 1872.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_Colt
Is it possible to determine age by looking at the lead and brass?
And are those tiny vertical lines inside the rings indeed crimp marks.
Thanks.
 

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yep the crimp mark lines means its a black powder era "cartridge type shell" round --UMC --union metallic cartridge* if I remember correctly 45 long colt was used in both rifles and pistols post civil war black powder era ..
 

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UMC head stamp = UNION METALLIC CARTRIDGE (CO.) post civil war era --BLACKPOWDER CARTRIDGE IN 45 LONG COLT ...

the UMC REM 44 WCF * case is for a 44 - 40 Winchester Center Fire (WCF) rifle -model 1873 - it was a 44 cal bullet over a 40 grain black powder charge
 

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The early brass for the .45 Colt didn't have a head stamp, and the primer wasn't exposed. They were center fire but inside primed. Your head stamp dates the case,
but just off hand I don't remember when UMC was first used. These pictures show what the 1870's cartridges look like. The case was copper in those days.
1AA.jpgNote, no visible primer, no head stamp. The crease on the cartridge case is to hold
the inside primed center fire primer in place.
 

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Thanks for responding guys.
I cannot say for certain if the lead and brass went together.
All I can say is that all 3 items were found on the same property within 50' from one another and that the lead fits inside the .45 colt casing.
 

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