Any ideas...??????

dand · Aug 16, 2011

Dug these pieces of LEAD today in one hole about 10 inches deep. The small ones are approximately 1/4 inch & the large ones 3/8 inch. We dug 65 out of one hole and there's more. The area we are hunting was a Union Artillery camp during the Civil War.

Hopefully someone has dug some like these, they are definitely not like the small Round balls that are usually dug.

Thanks, appreciate the help..........Dan

NOLA_Ken · Aug 16, 2011

Fired buck shot?

High Plains Digger · Aug 16, 2011

Lead seeds. Trying to grow .58s. Season is too short for anywhere north of So. Carolina for them to mature.

duggap · Aug 16, 2011

Since you mentioned artillary, let me relate an experience we had. We stumbled into an artillary practice range by accident and found a substantial number of small, misshappened round balls that were coming out of Hotchkiss shells. Maybe they were loading shells at your location. I would think you would find some others items relating to artillary.

TheCannonballGuy · Aug 18, 2011

In response to Dand's request in a PM:
Actually, I saw your post. Somebody else had already given the same answer I'd have given, so I did not feel a need to repeat his answer (buckshot).

That being said, they are a strange find. They are clearly in "fired" shape. Yet they were in a single hole. The only answer for that mystery I can surmise is that a soldier had gathered them with the intention of melting them to cast some new bullets ...but he never had the spare time to do so, and wound up abandoning them.

The buckshot balls in a typical .69-caliber Buck-&-Ball paper-cartridge (and a .69 all-buckshot cartridge) are about .31-to.32-inch in diameter. The paper cartridges of buckshot for a .58-caliber rifle contain buckshot which are a bit smaller, approximately .25-to.28-inch. That seems to be the sizes of the small lead balls you found ...before they were damaged by firing, of course.

Since you say some of the balls you found are about 3/8-inch (.375-inch), those could be fired .36-caliber pistol balls.

That's the best answers I can come up with for you.