Question on old civil war bullets.

J

Jare

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wichita falls texas

• Jul 7, 2017

• #1

First off, I did not find these but inherited them. I have a musket ball, definitely civil war, possibly older, a 3 ringer bullet, and the most interesting piece. Like the bullets it is made of lead, but it seems like someone flattened a bullet and made it into a button or something of the sort. The hole in the middle was clearly made by a knife. There is a pattern scratched into the top. Does anyone know for sure what it is? Thanks, Jare.

 

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J

Jare

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wichita falls texas

• Jul 7, 2017

• #2

.

 

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CJ319

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Bryan, TX

• Jul 7, 2017

• #3

Pattern looks like file work to me.

 

Beach Bum

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Palm Bay, Florida

• Jul 7, 2017

• #4

probably some sort of game piece. They used to make them out of the bullets

 

W

worm12ga

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• Jul 8, 2017

• #5

Jare said:

First off, I did not find these but inherited them. I have a musket ball, definitely civil war, possibly older,

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You cannot say it is 'definitely civil war'. It is a musket ball, beyond that there is no way of knowing how old it is or even if it was used in a conflict as opposed to hunting or target shooting.

 

J

Jare

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wichita falls texas

• Jul 8, 2017

• #6

Based on the patina, type of metal, weight, size, and crude seam from when it was made I can infer it is from at least civil war era, possibly older.

 

W

worm12ga

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• Jul 8, 2017

• #7

Jare said:

Based on the patina, type of metal, weight, size, and crude seam from when it was made I can infer it is from at least civil war era, possibly older.

Click to expand...

Patina is not a reliable indicator of age, neither is the size. All musket balls are lead and thus are the same weight for a given size. Crude seams occur on musket balls throughout history, it just indicates it was likely hand cast.

 

Z

zeemang

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• Jul 8, 2017

• #8

Civil war era would be about right, cool fishing sinker there too!

 

N

ncplumber

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• Jul 8, 2017

• #9

I have several pre civil war Colts that are cased. I use authentic 150 year old Cold molds to cast lead bullets to go in the cases. After a year or so the patina on the lead makes it impossible to tell if the bullet is a year old or 150 years old.