Really odd round

[cgsaunde]

Hello All,

I'm new here and new to metal detecting. I've been having a lot of fun finding and researching things for about a month now. I have two items that have me stumped and am hoping for some insight. This is the first of those items. It was found in the Piedmont area of NC near a pulled musket ball and this other really odd unidentified item i'll post momentarily. I can't seem to find anything that looks like it on the "interwebs".

It is .357 in diameter and weighs 135 grains. It is .675" long. The bottom is slightly concave. It appears to have been shot and maybe ricocheted. I've added a second photo of the other side has some weird markings/results of being shot? Limb splinters??

To my untrained eye, it appears that the circle was crimped by something crude to make the bottom flange outward. The round was found about 10-20 feet from a pulled musket ball. Both were along a well traveled colonial route in the piedmont triad region of NC. There is definitely a seam lengthwise.

Any information or guesses greatly appreciated.

 

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[MuckyBottles]

I'm not up on my civil war rounds..I would like to say it's a two ringer

 

[BosnMate]

Looks like a modern .38 pistol bullet to me. Proper measurement, knurling in the groove, dates from 1890's to present. Very popular cartridge mid 1900's.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Cgsaunde, welcome to T-Net's What-Is-It? forum, the best place on the internet for getting unknown objects correctly identified.

The groove encircling your bullet's body has multiple tiny parallel ridges (called "reeding" or "knurling") in it... which means the bullet dates from sometime between 1877 and today. More specifically, your bullet is the correct size, weight, and shape to be a .38-caliber Short Colt bullet, from the 1880s into the very-early 1900s. The "limb splinter" markings you asked about appear to be teeth-marks made by a squirrel or other rodent who thought the bullet might be an acorn.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Agreed.

Note that lead oxide is sweet and critters will gnaw on it if available to them.

Definitely post Civil War.

 

[MuckyBottles]

Agreed.

Note that lead oxide is sweet and critters will gnaw on it if available to them.

Definitely post Civil War.

How much lead oxide do you consume daily?..lol

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Itz never hert me.

Seriously - the Romans used it as a sweetener. Before cane sugar was rare stuff.

 

[MuckyBottles]

Itz never hert me.

Seriously - the Romans used it as a sweetener. Before cane sugar was rare stuff.

Absolutely correct. ..see Caligula, he is an example why one should never consume lead. .lol

 

[cgsaunde]

That is awesome! Thank you especially to BosnMate and thecannonballguy!