Bullet ID

[Prime_Focus]

Can anyone help with ID'ing this bullet. I found it in a field in central Iowa while I was looking for artifacts. Kind of looking for an approximation of it's age. Thanks in advance.

 

[smokeythecat]

Due to the little ridges in the rings, 20th century. But pretty old. Do you have a caliber?

 

[taz42o]

Thats a nice picture of the bullet in the corn field.

 

[vpnavy]

I pulled this from another TN thread...

Civil War Bullet ID Chart (Sep 05, 2013)http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/civil-war/374406-civil-war-bullet-id-chart.html

 

[Prime_Focus]

Thanks, smokey! I figured it was a fairly recent style for the same reason but someone suggested to me that it was possibly a lot older. I can tell you about arrowheads but don't know much about bullets. :-) Thought I'd ask the experts.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

According to my bullet-dating research at the Cartridge Collector website, and elsewhere, the earliest date for a bullet having tiny multiple parallel ridges in a body-groove (which known as a reeded groove or a knurled cannelure) is 1877. Also, your bullet shows the white-ish patina of "pure" lead, rather than the thin greyish patina of hardened-lead, which had mostly superceded pure-lead bullets by the 1890s. So, I think your bullet can be from before the 20th Century. But to ID it correctly, we need you to measure its diameter super-pricisely, by using a Digital Caliper, which tells measurements in hundredths or thousandths-of-an-inch, and post that information.