Help with OO buckshot size / musket ball size.

[sasnz]

hello folks

Trikikiwi found what looks like either a small musket ball or buckshot round. The lead ball found is 5mm across and when i used to shoot guns i remember thinking that was pretty close to the size of buckshot. I am wondering if anyone here can firmly confirm the size of OO buckshot. Tricki and myself are hunting a site of a squirmish and am having trouble locating the exact spot so we are really wanting to confirm wether we are in the right area or not.

Tricki thinks that the buckshot is 4mm across, just want to confirm this.
another question is how small do musket balls go? the time of the squirmish is around 1870 so guess they would be using guns of an erra close to this.

Many thanks Sasnz

 

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[Shortstack]

I believe that OO buckshot is classified as .30 calibre, where the smallest CW miniballs were .54 calibre for a foreign made rifle. The normal sizes for CW rifles were more .54 to .68 calibres; that's in round minis. I think what you've found are buckshot. Now, for the curveball.....could they be from CW era shotguns? LOL Never can tell.

Do a Google search for "shotgun shot sizes". I did this one time, but forgot where I "saved" the info.

 

[truckinbutch]

As I remember , 00 buck was .38 calibre and ran 9 shot to the cartridge in shells . Muzzlestuffers took what ever an excited combatant threw down the pipe .
.36 cal pistol and .44 cal pistol were preferred repeating percussion arms for short guns . Both round and conical projectiles were fired in them .
Minie balls were a hollow based cast lead projectile specific to .45 and larger calibre muzzleloading longarms .
Jim

 

[dirtscratcher]

Just to add to the confusion, I was told 9 32cal pellets in 00.

 

[trikikiwi]

To allay confusion - sasnz misheard me, the musket shot is actually, probably 50 calibre; being 12.0 to 12.5 mm in diameter.
This is an excellent link for comparing shot sizes
http://www.hallowellco.com/shot_size_chart.htm

This was our hunt.
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,212453.0.html

Look out for more finds from sasnz and me

Mike

 

[ivan salis]

civil warish era bleckpowder pistols (round ball shot) common sizes were 44 , 36 and 32 ca;

shotgun buckshot type pellets size as follows *

tri ball (round ball slug) ,60 dia -- 15.24 mm---- (1) weight 3/4 oz

000 buck ---- .36 cal /dia --9.1 mm --6 per oz
00 buck ----- .33 dia -------8.4 mm----8 per oz
0 buck ------ .32 cal / dia--8.1 mm---9 per oz
# 1 buck --- .30 dia-------7.6 mm---10 per oz
#2 buck --- .27 dia ---6.9 mm-----15 per oz
#3 buck ----.25 cal / dia --6.4 mm --18 per oz
#4 buck ---- ..24 dia ---- 6 . mm--- 21 per oz

 

[l.cutler]

The smallest US musket was .69 caliber, there may have been some foreign muskets smaller but I do not know of any.

 

[dcinffxva]

The smallest US musket was .69 caliber, there may have been some foreign muskets smaller but I do not know of any.

The LARGEST US musket was .69 caliber. There were larger foreign muskets used in the US during the Revolutionary war, and war of 1812, as well as domestically made "Committee of Safety" and Manufactory muskets as large as .80 caliber. There may have been some larger, but i don't have any specific manufaturors.

.69 cal. was the standard for the US Models 1795, 1812, 1816, 1840, 1842 and 1847.

.54 cal included US Models 1803, 1814, 1817, 1841 and all these models were rifled, so not traditional muskets. .54 was also common for single shot pistols..

The model 1819 Hall used a .52 cal. Other carbines and rifles used varied sizes, but include .51, .56, which may be close to your find.

Starting with the Model 1855, and continuing to 1861 and 1863, the .58 cal. was the standard. After that, calibers continued to get smaller with the Allin conversions down to the "trapdoors" going from .58, to .50 to the 45/70. After the 45/70 the US military switched from blackpowder to smokeless powder rifles.

 

[l.cutler]

The question was " how small do musketballs go" and as I said, the smallest US musket was .69 caliber so the ball in question cannot be a musket ball. There were larger muskets in US usage.

 

[dcinffxva]

The question was " how small do musketballs go" and as I said, the smallest US musket was .69 caliber so the ball in question cannot be a musket ball. There were larger muskets in US usage.

The .69 cal. muskets were often loaded with "buck and ball", which was a single .69 cal ball, with three .31 cal. balls, so yes, there are US musket balls smaller than .69 cal.

The Models 1855, 1861 and 1863 were all officially designated as rifle muskets. All three were in .58 cal.

The Model 1799 pistol was .69 cal., the Model 1805 was .54 cal., the Model 1808 was .64 cal., and so on. All used round ball ammunition.

There is no way to determine if a recovered round lead ball was intended for use in a musket, rifle, pistol or shotgun. There is only a "best guess" using the items found nearby, and the history of the area.

 

[l.cutler]

The buckshot was designated as buck, not musketball, hence the term buck and ball. Rifle muskets fired minie balls, rifles also fired round balls, pistols also fired round balls. No you can't usually tell what firearm a ball was fired from. The fact remains no US muzzleloading musket was less than .69 caliber. The ball was slightly smaller than bore size to allow for loading when fouled. There is no US musketball smaller. Many people generically call any round ball a musketball, which it not always is. No harm or foul, but anything smaller than that for the .69 family of muskets can't really be called a musketball. A musket is a smoothbore longarm of military configuration, but many people call any muzzleloading firearm a "musket". Again, no harm done but not really proper. As preservers of the past I think we should strive to properly identify and present our finds. Probably most of our lound ball finds are from civilian hunting guns, either rifled or smoothbore, I generally try to determine the caliber and just call them xx cal. round balls.