✅ SOLVED What rifle shot this Minnie Ball ????

[ArDirtSlinger]

I dug this 2 days ago at a CW campsite I found back in Feb. It's the smallest Minnie I've ever found. I think it is of Confederate manufacture but don't know what muzzleloader would have fired this.




The cavity is not uniform so I think they discarded it. Don't understand why they didn't just remelt it and repour.

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks for looking and as always HH and GL

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[pistol-pete]

Don't know ANYTHING about milimeters. Post it in inches.

 

[ArDirtSlinger]

Don't know ANYTHING about milimeters. Post it in inches.

Digital read out is in Inches....

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The digital caliper shows you Minie-bullet's diameter is .527-inch, so it was made for use in a .54-caliber muzzleloader rifle. There are several varieties of those... but the most-used ones were the US Model-1841 "Mississippi Rifle" and the .54 Austrian rifle. Both US and CSA troops used the .54 Austrian rifle in very large numbers in the "Western" campaigns ("west" at that time meant anywhere west of the East Coast states. Because you seem to have found that .54 Minie-bullet in Arkansas, I think the soldier who discarded it was carrying a .54 Austrian rifle.

I should mention:
Of course, both the US and CSA manufactured .54-caliber 3-groove Minie-bullets. Some of those look so much alike that it's difficult to tell with certainty whether it is a US-made or CS-made one. But the thick "skirt" (base-rim) on your .54 Minie indicates it is CS-made.

 

[ArDirtSlinger]

Thanks CBG !! I have a follow up question.. I have found 2 other sizes of 3-ringers here. 1 being .54 and change and the other being .57 and change. Are both of those .58 cals

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

There was a .55-caliber Austrian rifle, listed on page 190 in the McKee-&-Mason book about civil war bullets. We know with certainty that it got used in large numbers during the civil war, because some yankee-made "Machine-Pressed-&-Turned" minies have been dug whose diameter measures in the high-.53/low-.54-inch range.

 

[ArDirtSlinger]

Thanks man!!