It's not a cap and ball. I have a couple of cap and ball pistols and a cap and ball rifle.
Hello, This is my first post on this forum, I'm a relative newby to metal detecting. I've owned detectors for a number of years, but haven't used them all that much until lately, and I've really been getting into this hobby. Anyhow, it looks like a CB Cap to me. We used to buy them by the box when I was a kid. They were a step up from a .22 caliber pellet gun, but still didn't have much power. By step up, I mean no more pumping, but a real cartridge like the adults shot. It was something a parent would turn a country kid loose and let him shoot in those days. I also own cap and ball, and flint lock firearms, and this has nothing to do with muzzleloading. Perhaps you don't know that the US Military still calls some rifle bullets by the name "Ball." A full metal jacket is ball ammunition as opposed to tracer or incendiary. So in this case the term cap and ball simply means that if there is any powder in the case, it's not much more than the primer or cap, and the bullet is called a ball. It's an underpowered cartridge, not just used in amusement parks though, because like I said, I shot a bunch of them when I was a kid. This particular one with an H head stamp might well pre-date CB Caps. Some of the original or perhaps I should say first to be invented cartridge pistols by Smith and Wesson, back in the Civil War days, were underpowered .22 calibers that shot .22 shorts. I have the one my Great Grandfather carried as a hideout gun when he was in the 192 Ohio Infantry. I'm sure as a young kid he though he was well armed. The truth is, if he ever shot a Reb and the guy found out about it, I reckon grandpa would have been in plenty of trouble. My guess is that it probably dates further back than CB Caps, and was perhaps manufactured for a pistol of the type grandpa had. If you have access to one of the repo Sears and Roebuck catalogs from the turn of the century, they sold the same types of pistols and perhaps they would have this type of ammo listed.
..Gil
