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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[paul1410]

Cool find, {Sentinel}!

Love seeing the relics you pull up.

Thanks for sharing.

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.

Thanks for the explanation, SomeGuy.

I was also clueless.

 

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[romeo-1]

Nicely done...I have half a dozen Enfield rounds with the plugs still in. I also have another half dozen with the iron plugs and with the wooden nose plugs. Granted mine are not Confederate...found in Nova Scotia...British...

 

[stevesno]

Very cool. Congratulations on the great conversation piece...Steve

 

[civilman1]

Nice find Sentinel....Are you going to try to remove the plug,the suspense is killing me.Congrat's and best of luck to ya!!

 

[{Sentinel}]

Thank all of ya'll for the compliments. And I don't know CivilMan, I might wait to see if the plug dries up enough to slip out before I try to force it out. I dont want to damage the wooden plug too much. But I am curious as to if there is a symbol or not in the base.

 

[piggman1]

Very nice collectors item for sure. I've learned a lot from this post. Way to go!