Unknown Bullet

[jason4kstate]

I found this bullet in a field in Kansas. I found it an area where they cleared some soil. It appears that there are some small groves around the groove. I don't know that much about bullets. Any help id'ing this would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[duggap]

The crimp marks along the ring tell you it is post civil war as they did not use that method of loading until later. I would guess a larger caliber pistol bullet.

 

[RevJoel]

Looks like a modern cast bullet used by hobby reloaders, probably in the .38 cal range.

Pax Christi
Rev. Joel+

 

[RiverRat3]

I find those types of bullets all the time especially when I am hunting Civil War sites but its definately more modern than the Civil War. Keep hunting....

 

[Monty]

When thumbing through "Civil War Projectiles II" I saw a couple of bullets that look similar and they were used in various early cased carbine calibers. I am referring to the very first bullets that were contained in a cartridge case and usually rimfire. The grove on this bullet has been "gnurled" into the base instead of cast like most CW bullets. Usually gnurled bullets indicate it is a crimp groove instead of a lubrication groove, but not always. When you are talking about and studying projectiles there are given facts, and unfortunately there are many exceptions. That's why so many are difficult to ID exactly. Being a handloader I have seen similar bullets intended for the .38 special and the .44 Special and many of the smaller revolvers. That being said, I actually have not come across one identical to this one. A precise measurement with a caliper might be helpful as I am not much on metrics. Being an old fart, everything in my 3rd grade class was taught in inches. Monty

 

[jason4kstate]

Most of the stuff I've been finding has ranged from the 1880's to 1930's. The odds of it being a civil war era bullet are fairly low since the area saw little activity. The pile of soil I found it in was fairly large and was recently removed to build a school. It definitely looks older than many of the modern era bullets I've found over the years. It was pretty exciting because it's one of my first older bullet finds. Thanks for your help!

 

[Old Town]

That's a 125 grain cast 9mm bullet (.355). Looks like it's from an RCBS mold. The groove is not for crimping but to hold lubricant.

Notice the 10 mm marking on the ruler. This bullet is just a little smaller at 9mm. I've seen and reloaded a million of these things in both the 9mm and .38 Super.

Old Town

 

[Monty]

Hmmmm, well, I have gone back in my reloading library and can't find a 9mm bullet resembiling this one. Would you happen to have a picture of one Old town? The ones I could find have the lube groove cast into the bullet, no gnurling apparent. Of course I suppose someone could have done it aftermarket? I don't reload 9mm, but I do .380 ACP and ditto. My stuff only goes back to 1956 however, an old Elmer Keith manual. Monty

 

[Old Town]

Monty, the gnurling was there to ad texture to better hold hard commercial lubricants that tend to fall out in bulk handling. Ammo companies and large bulk hobby loaders find that some of the harder modern lubes fall out of the grooves with rough handling as in a bullet hopper.

So this mold produces a gnurled lube groove. (A true cannulare (sp?) for crimping would be much shallower.) This helps to hold the hard lube in place. Something for it to "grip". In the old days of softer Alox and beeswax/pump grease lubes, you did not need this kind of texture inside the bullet lube groove.

I could be wrong on the mold maker but I'm dead sure on the bullet. I've seen many of these and have used them in the past. I size them to .355 for the 9mm and .3565 for the .38 Super. Supers of Colt manufacture run a little larger.

Remington used to produce a soft swagged (or swaged?) bullet of this weight and configuration that looks just like this. The only difference is the gnurled groove is much shallower and held a dry lubricant of some kind. They were terrible bullets and leaded bores badly over 900 fps.



Hope this is clear.


OT