Confederate Enfield Bullet w/ Wooden Plug Still In It

[{Sentinel}]

Found this Confederate Enfield .57 w/ the wooden plug still in it. This is the first I have found of these in two years that still had the Rosewood plug in it. Have found many of them over the years but still nice to see the wood in this one.

 

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[Rob66]

Re: Enfield w/ Wood Plug

Nice keeper for sure
RD

 

[{Sentinel}]

Re: Enfield w/ Wood Plug

Thanks RD66, yeah I have been searching this area for months and have found alot of musketballs and 3 ringers but this was the first Enfield I found at this site and it was awesome that it had the wooden plug still in it! I didnt believe it at first. Thanks for takin a look

 

[tymcmurray]

Re: Enfield w/ Wood Plug

Great find! That would be a good find in anybody's book!!

 

[kindafoundabuckle]

Those wood plugs are hard to come by! That is a great and rare find! Congratulations from a fellow relic hunter.

Tom

 

[Mac232]

Excuse my ignorance , but what was the purpose of the wood plug . ? Mac

 

[joeyp12000]

Awesome find. Congrats

 

[VOL1266-X]

Great Find-rarely do the boxwood plugs survive.

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Your great research led you to this great find. This is the 1st I have seen on here.

 

[SomeGuy]

Excuse my ignorance , but what was the purpose of the wood plug . ? Mac

Initially, the bullet is a loose fit in the bore, for fast easy loading. On firing, the wood plug is driven into the base of the bullet, acting like a wedge to force the soft lead into the rifling grooves. The Minnie balls didn't use a plug, just had a hollow base that the expanding gasses forced into the rifling.

 

[diggervet]

Very cool find, I've got a bunch of enfields but rarely do they still have the plug. Be careful because it will eventually dry out and fall out so put a small dot of elmers in if it does. Also remember to check inside the base for stamped numbers or letters,not all enfields are created equal

 

[River Rat]

Awesome find, Sentinel, Congrats!!

RR

 

[CRUSADER]

Also called - smooth sided Pritchett bullet. (Favoured by the sharp shooters)

I like these old lead bullets, all mine have red clay plugs or nothing. Never seen a wooden version. RARE & EXCELLENT FIND

 

[Baldingboy]

Man! What a super cool find. Love that bullet!!!

 

[ModernMiner]

Sentinal,
Very unusual find. Thanks for sharing, and the awesome photos too.
HH,
MM

 

[weasel606]

super find a very big congrats

 

[VA Digger]

Nice find, they are truly hard to find.

 

[RockyDig]

I have found a couple of the Enfields with the Rosewood plugs. If you carefully remove it and look in with a magnifying glass you will see what kind it is. Mine have '57' but there are others and they determine the rarity/price of the bullet.

Good Job and Happy Hunting!!

 

[CRUSADER]

I have found a couple of the Enfields with the Rosewood plugs. If you carefully remove it and look in with a magnifying glass you will see what kind it is. Mine have '57' but there are others and they determine the rarity/price of the bullet.

Good Job and Happy Hunting!!

There are loads of other letters & number combinations in the bottom. No-one is sure what they meant. Here is one of the US leading experts opinion:

The smooth sided Pritchett bullets are often encountered with numbers or letters in the base cavities. Sometimes, there is both a number and a letter such as L2; other bullets have various letters and some have star or asterisk designs. Some bullets have been recovered in America with US or CS stampings in the base cavities (there is some skepticism as to if the markings are original to the Civil War period). Bullets are found with the letter P, with interlocking P's, with q, with variants to include P., q., etc. There are at least 35 different base cavity markings known. The L markings include L, L . , L1, L2, etc up to L 12. Numbers such as 55 or 57 indicate the calibre of the bullet (not necessarily accurate designations).

There are several theories regarding the markings, but I am not positive that there is any period documentation to confirm any of the theories. Over 100 smooth-sided Pritchett bullets were recovered from the wreck of the blockade runner Modern Greece in 1962. Those bullets have several different cavity stamps. The bullets also varied in cavity depth, bullet diameters, and overall weight. Unfortunately, the team that processed the recovered bullets did not correlate cavity markings to the dimensions and weights.

 

[Ed-NH]

I never knew about the wood plug, great info thanks for sharing that.