REAL chewed bullet

YuokonHo

Tenderfoot
Feb 15, 2018
9
19
The Mountains (Rocky)
Detector(s) used
Garret Ace 250
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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Found in Louisiana and definitely has human teeth marks!
 

Upvote 9
That definitely looks like a civil war bullet that has been chewed. Most likely by an animal. Pigs, squirrels, mice, rats, will gnaw on the lead. There's a book called musket ball and small shot identification guide by Daniel Sivilich that dedicates some good info on this. It's a great read. If you don't believe it try biting a bullet. Reading a book doesn't mean I'm correct though. If you took that to a dentist they might be able to tell you if those bite marks are human or not.
 

Pain bullet.a guy could of been biting on that when his leg was cut off.
Ya had to go there lol I cant or dont want to imagine being held down no meds while they saw your. leg off eeeeee I dont think I would want that bullett anymore lol
 

Hi, nice find. Congrats:icon_thumleft:
 

While visiting the Civil war medical museum in Fredrick, Md. someone brought the “chewed bullet” story up. It was mentioned that it wasn’t likely because of the high possibility of swallowing it. If it had to be done it was more likely to be leather or wood. Also he mentioned that over 90% of all surgeries during the CW were done using anesthesia. Usually ether. The belief is that this is something that Hollywood came up with. Kinda like the “fast draw” in westerns. Another thing mentioned was that lead is fairly hard to chew and especially at the end of the war the soldiers teeth were in pretty bad shape from scurvy. If you ever make it to Md. make sure u go to the museum. It’s obvious why so many died.
 

While visiting the Civil war medical museum in Fredrick, Md. someone brought the “chewed bullet” story up. It was mentioned that it wasn’t likely because of the high possibility of swallowing it. If it had to be done it was more likely to be leather or wood. Also he mentioned that over 90% of all surgeries during the CW were done using anesthesia. Usually ether. The belief is that this is something that Hollywood came up with. Kinda like the “fast draw” in westerns. Another thing mentioned was that lead is fairly hard to chew and especially at the end of the war the soldiers teeth were in pretty bad shape from scurvy. If you ever make it to Md. make sure u go to the museum. It’s obvious why so many died.

Aqua Chigger says same thing, according to the Chigg the bite marks will line up with a boar bite... bullets would break teeth and risk choking...boars teeth are similar to human teeth
 

I have to agree. A big confusion with bite marked bullets. Nearly 90% of all medical surgeries during civil war used anesthesia, chloroform if I remember correctly. Again if remembering correctly these bullets were dipped in a liquid fat during manufacturing as a lubricant. When dropped in the fields, wild hogs, squirrels, rats, could smell the fat and attempted to eat the bullet which leaves teeth marks. I could be completely wrong, this is the answer I got when I found my first teeth marked bullet.
 

Congratualtions on the nice find! :occasion14:
 

I know I watch too many movies!!!Good to know that
 

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