projectile (please help)?

[bergie]

Please let me know if you can identify this projectile or the era. You'll see it's rounded at top and hollow back, around the size and shape of a very thick/fat thumb, but not as long. I live in Rev. war area of NY. It may be lead, but is not as weathered as the musketballs I find here. Liberty Quarter found elsewhere (just for size). Thanks very much. I found one other of these and a couple flattened ones.

[mavrick03]

that would be the next generation of bullet after the round musket ball
The successful inventor, Col. Mini? of France, designed a conical lead bullet with a deep cavity in its base. The body of the bullet was small enough to fit all but the worst-fouled bores. On firing, expanding powder gas swelled the cavity and part of the bearing surface, effectively increasing the bullet diameter to engage the rifling.? and it picked up a new term still used today: the Minnie ball. The hollow-base lead bullet continued into the cartridge firearm era, and is still seen today in modern 38 Special ammunition loaded with lead bullets

hope this helps

also you may find the article here where i obtained this answer

http://www.speer-bullets.com/default.asp?s1=6&s2=10

mav

[bergie]

Thanks. This is very helpful. It's still unclear to me from reading the article if the projectile I found could still be from the Rev. War era (at what specific point in time were these conical bullets replacing roundballs). Specific reason I am interested is I found it near a semi circular, one or two man "fort" made of stones that could be from the Rev. War based on the reading I've done of the area. This is hidden up in some hills overlooking a main roadway during the Rev. War. The "fort" could also be something from a little later period used for hunting. I have to excavate all the dirt in the fort (that came down from the hill above) and detect it to see what else might be found.

[tchaire]

Bergie--

You may be going down the wrong path. I'm not a bullet expert, but from the research I've done, that definitely is not the minie designed by Minie of France. Keep in mind, the minie was replacing the musket ball during(actually before, 1840's) the Civil War Era. So the Rev. War bullet theory is out. Personally, if it is a projectile at all, I would guess that it's probably a more modern shotgun slug, just by taking a look at the size of it in comparison to the quarter. What's its diameter?

T. Haire

[bergie]

Thank you. Diameter is a fraction less than and inch and length is 3/4 inch

[True_Metal]

Bergie has shown me this item and i have held and inspected it. My question is this. If this is a bullet what is it from, a cannon?? This thing is huge, and if from a hand held firearm it would have to be an elephant gun and fired by a sasquatch as the recoil from such a weapon would knock the biggest human down on their butt. It does look like a bullet and appeared to have rifled barrel marks on the sides but it would have to have been from some type of large mounted weapon. I really wonder about this thing as it's so different from the other projectiles we have found, both newer and older.

[bergie]

Good point True_Metal--I should have mentioned looking at it if you place the bullet hollow end down/round end facing up, there are vertical lines/grooves of various lengths around many parts of it.

[Cladius]

I agree it is way too big for any shot gun caliber. And I wouldnt want to be on the butt end of the gun when it was shot they dont make a recoil pad good enough to take up the kick that puppy must of had! 30 mil cannon? I dont know. Cladius.

[mavrick03]

okay so allow me to reconsider what i said what are the rough demensions of the item in question




mav

[True_Metal]

Mavrick. It's about the radius of a half dollar or just very slightly smaller and about 1" tall. The closest thing i can think it resembles is a round from an M79 grenade launcher like they used in Vietnam, but i think those rounds were bigger than this and the launcher was smooth bore. This thing has rifled barrel marks on the sides from being fired.

[True_Metal]

Whoa. Light bulb just appeared over my head after thinking about what i said in my last post.

Bergie, that cant be Rev War as i'm pretty sure they didnt have the technology to make rifled barrels back in the colonial days, the muskets and weapons then were smooth bores.

I could be wrong as i do know guns, but am no expert, I just seem to remember that all the antique firearms from that era i have seen up close were smooth bore. I dont think rifled barrels came along till well into the 1800's

[chuckered]

Could it been from not sure what they called it for sure, I think it was an old deck gun slug off around early 1700's it usually mounted on the upper decks and close fighting compared to the big cannons on a ship. But they were alsp used off of a ship in forts at times.

[chuckered]

I think it was called a swevil gun and that was the bullet.

[bergie]

Thanks for all the feedback. I tried Swevil gun and couldn't find any references. Could it be spelled another way? Also, I found these in two locations. One was the at the one or two man stone fortification that could be from the Rev. War I talk about in this string of messages (again, which I have to further excavate and detect). The other was found along a creek where Rev. War troops were known to camp (but again, this round could be from a later period given True Metal's point on smooth bore guns). Thanks for all of the feedback. The mystery continues...

[searcher]

Howdy
If you would post exact dimensions, and a couple more pics. maybe of the grooves and the tip.
I have a couple of ideas but i need more info, please.
Searcher HH

[tchaire]

Bergie-

I think chuckered is referring to a swivel gun. But I don't think I've heard of them shooting anything but round munitions.

T.Haire

[bergie]

I will post more pics and the exact dimensions soon. THanks for all the feedback. For what it's worth, I sent the info to a firearms expert and here's what he sent back, but he couldn't see the photo--
I couldn't get logged in to see the picture... But I am a bit perplexed from the descriptions. The US grenade launchers are 40mm, so you could measure and see - but I can't imagine it came from those as these normally fired exploding munitions or clusters of shotgun pellets or (rarely) flechettes. I suppose some homemade thing might be seen, but I seriously doubt that it was fired from a modern grenade launcher.

Rifled weapons were used by the colonists during the Revolutionary war, one reason they had a greater range on the British who were generally armed with smooth-bores, as were some of the Americans.

I am not an expert on older weapons, but some had pretty large bores. And even though shot was often fired from larger bores, shooters often made their own balls and shot so it is always possible that you could find some oddity that was created by some experimenter. (Though, again, this would be exceedingly rare).

I am not certain (but pretty)... but I don't think rifled bores were seen in cannons and such until much later. Yet these seems to be from a larger rifled artillery piece or some odd-ball shotgun. That said, I have to wonder (also given the less weathered look it apparently has) if the projectile is newer than the Revolutionary War -- perhaps Civil War or later vintage?

A mystery, and I'm sorry I can't help you more.

[chuckered]

Sorry I spelled it wrong its Swivel Gun dumb me lol

[Terry ETex]

This is a shot in the dark, pardon the pun, but I remember reading about an elephant gun that was once used that had such a large projectile it spun the hunter around giving him a black eye and a bloody nose. I wish I could remember more details.

[mavrick03]

okay i am going to take a new stab at this
could this possibly be a round from an early 25 mm Gatling gun some older naval guns and some derivatives of the hotchkiss rotary cannon used a caliber up to 1 inch which is right around 25mm i couldn't locate any pictures of a 25mm early Gatling gun ordnance but from what i have read this is the only type of weapon that i was able to find that had this size of round and this is only from some of the few things that i was reading so now my head hurts from straining my brain wheres buckram when you need him someone find me some asprin.......


Mav
ps maybe possibly for a

Nordenfeldt 1-inch (25 mm) Gun

check here
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/site/request/se...contentId/1277

i dont know but i am leaning in the gatlin gun direction ask you guy if this is a possibility
also i am leaning in the direction of post civil war more towards ww I or II