Any ammo specialist out there? Need help I.D.ing

[WestGhost]

Was out hunting a 1840's battle site today and found this. Looks to me like a spent bullet. Any ideas?

 

[WHADIFIND]

How big is it?

 

[WestGhost]

About an inch in diameter-

 

[Az Old Noob]

Looks very much like a well mushroomed bullet. Any way you can measure the diameter of the inner circle on the the first pic? That would give you a decent idea of what caliber it is.

 

[WestGhost]

Inner circle measured in a exactly 10mm-

 

[RAINMAKER63]

10MM is 40 Caliber.

 

[Tired Rooster]

That is a mushroomed bullet........RAINMAKER is correct, 10mm is about a .40 cal.

 

[WestGhost]

Cool! This is my first real relic find. I'm going out today to find some more, do you know what type of metal these bullets where made of?

 

[NHBandit]

It's lead and most likely modern.

 

[TNGUNS]

Most bullets from that date were round balls. The conical bullet came into common use much later. Bullet strikes that lead to that kind of mushroom make it hard to tell original diameter because of the expansion. In other words even the non-expanded base still swells out from impact, especially on non-jacketed bullets.

 

[WestGhost]

Did a little research and TNGUNS is right. The first conical shaped bullet was invented by a Frenchman named Minie in 1849.