1700s site... need some help Identifing a bullet casing and other items......

[strateloss]

1700's site... need some help Identifing a bullet casing and other items......

I was at a cellar hole in PA recently and after reading a wonderful story here on TNET it's making me want to go back. Not that I'm not expecting to find anything remotely close to his, but I only worked the cellar hole area and the well for a few hours. There was a large pine tree grove about 50 feet away in the middle of an extremely large wooded area in the mountains, with no other pine trees in sight. The cellar hole, and well are located on one side of the old wagon trail and the pine tree grove is on the other. My first time there was a few weeks back and with my detector getting hits all over the place, I could tell this was going to be a serious undertaking. I made a few finds, but I was all over the place and should have concentrated on one area at a time vs jumping around. I didn't go near the pine grove but I intend to this time around.


Here are some pics of the bullet case and what I believe is a cigarette case, the CC is probably from a hunter as I can't imagine it being more than 75 years old or so. If anyone can help identify the bullet casing, that may help date some of the finds. I showed it to a few hunters and they had no idea what type of gun it was for or how old it was. There's also the barrel of what seems like a hand gun.

Thanks guys!!

ps I had more pics of the cigarette case, but they're to big for the forum..ugghh

 

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[TNGUNS]

Cool stuff......It appears to be an old rimfire cartridge. Several different ones have been produced but the .22 family and .17 are about all that is still produced. Several calibers including .32 and .44 have been made but fell by the wayside decades ago. Without measuring the width of the case and the head of the casing and the length there is know way to know. Looks like a .32 but that is purely a guess based on proportion.

 

[TNGUNS]

Woops ....forgot to add that the .32 in particular was similar to todays .22 in that it came in short, and long etc. The longer ones generally simply had higher power levels and often heavier bullets. The rimfire cartridge came into being in the 1860's and had pretty well died out by the 1930's with the exceptions of the ones listed in first post.

 

[MrSchulz]

Is that amber bottle a crown top? Where does the seam stop on it? I like the gun. Nice pieces of history!

 

[strateloss]

Thanks for the info guys!

MrSchulz the seam stops before the bottle neck. I'm not to familiar with bottles so I'm not to sure of its age. If I was to guess, I'd say it was a hunters and he happend to leave it close to the cellar hole. It was buried but only slightly.

 

[BosnMate]

I can imagine the cartridge case dating to the Civil War, here is a photo of a .32 caliber Model #1 Smith and Wesson dating to 1860. And there is also what looks to me to be a possible percussion cap gun barrel. Check out this photo. Do away with the back half of the gun, and ignore the ramrod below the barrel and you have what looks to me like the steps and the barrel of the pistol in the photo. I have an original Sheriff's model that doesn't have a ramrod and never did, so don't let the ramrod in the photo throw you off. It's hard to tell from the picture, but if it was me, I'd sure be checking it out. I just looked at your photo again, and it sure looks like the barrel on my pistol.

 

[strateloss]

Awesome Bosnmate!! It does indeed look just like it. Thanks bud