✅ SOLVED Bullet ID

[RelicHnter]

Ball is approx 5/8" in diameter
Bullet is 1-1/8" x 1/2"

 

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[Yak1366]

Interesting DEEP rifling grooves, maybe a machine gun round?

 

[jewelerguy]

Interesting DEEP rifling grooves, maybe a machine gun round?

the grooves match up the the form of the tail end of the bullet, so I don't believe they are from the barrel rifling. I also believe that a firearm that had rifling that pronounced would probably explode. Personally, I see no rifling marks on the bullet and blowing it up in expanded view kinda sorta looks like they were hand cut. It's interesting for sure. Hopefully someone will have a proper ID

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

First... the grooves running lengthwise down the bullet's body are straight (meaning, perfectly parallel to the bullet's axis), not slightly slanted, so those grooves are absolutely not rifling-marks.

We really need a Caliper measurement of the bullet's body diameter. Near the ruler, it looks like it's a little over or a little under .50-inch. If it's over, it might be a soldier-carved-on civil war Confederate Enfield-pattern .54-caliber Minie bullet, whose unfired diameter in 1864-65 was specified to be .51-to-.52-inch.

It appears to have a base cavity. If so, we need a closeup photo of the cavity's shape. (Deep cone, shallow bowl/dish, "plug" or etc.)

 

[RelicHnter]

I also thought the grooves are too deep and indeed do look like they were carved. This is my only find of this type . I'm stumped on the type of round it is

 

[BosnMate]

5/8 is .62 caliber, or 20 balls to the pound, or 20 gauge, all mean the same thing. I have a .62 caliber flintlock that I shoot. They weren't a real common caliber, and as far as that goes, not today either. I don't know what size the round lead balls were that they used in artillery case shot. It might be something like that. The other bullet, the rifling grooves look like they were hand cut to me. Don't know why someone would do that. The size and the flat nose on the bullet suggests it might possibly be a .45-70 bullet intended for a rifle with a tubular magazine. Actually, I'll admit those are just guesses, a SWAG on my part.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

RelicHnter, thanks for providing a base-view photo of your bullet. Unfortunately, I still can't quite be CERTAIN about the base-cavity's shape... is it a cone (like a letter v) or a bowl/dish (a very short letter U)?

If it has a cone cavity, the bullet is probably a civil war Confederate-made Minie bullet, as I guesssed in my previous post. If the cavity is a bowl/dish, the bullet is probably a postwar rifle bullet such as a .44-60 Sharps. But as I also said previously, for certainty in identifying it, we REALLY need you to measure it with a Caliper, which measures in 1/100th or 1/1,000th-inch increments.

If you are going to continue digging century-or-more-old relics, let me urge you to buy a good-quality Digital Caliper. Harbor Freight Tools sells good METAL ones for about $20. Don't buy the plastic version, it wears out and becomes inaccurate pretty quickly. A Digital Caliper measurement can be crucial fo correctly identifying bullets, coins, buttons, and buckles, among other relics when "size matters a lot."

If you don't mind, please tell us the area of Alabama you dug the lead ball and bullet at. I suspect both of them are civil war relics... and I suspect a Caliper would show the ball to measure about .645-to-.655-inch, which would make it a Colonial Era or civil war .69-caliber musketball. (That is why guessing with a ruler is too inaccurate... as BosnMate said, 5/8th-inch is .625-inch, which gives a different identification for the ball.)

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Civil War bullets are a little outside my expertise but to me it looks like an Enfield that someone carved up.

 

[RelicHnter]

Thanks for the info. I am in Spanish Fort Al.
I have calipers, just a newbie

The ball is .644 inches

The bullet base is cone shape for sure
It is .535 inches x 1.15 inches

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thank you for doing the precise measurements. They confirm the identifications above... a .69 musketball (surely Confederate at Spanish Fort AL) or MAYBE a yankee artillery case-shot ball if it isn't PERFECTLY round, and a soldier-carved .54 Confederate Enfield-Pattern Minie bullet. I say "Enfield Pattern" because although it has the same body as bullets made for the .577 Enfield Rifle there was no .54 Enfield Rifle. The Confederates just used the same form for some Minies made for use in their .54 Mississppi Rifles and imported .54 Austrian Rifles (some of those arrived at the Port of Mobile AL).

Since you say you're a newbie... here's some free friendly advice from an oldtimer. Hunt the spot where you dug that unfired, carved Confederate .54 "Enfield" super-closely. I mean, like you were mopping your kitchen floor with the wife watching you to make sure you don't miss a few inches of it. Go very slow, and be SURE you're keeping the searchcoil close to the ground. There's almost certainly some more goodies close by. They can get quite deep in Spanish Fort's sandy soil. I know because decades ago I traveled from Atlanta to dig there, several times. Dug a bunch of "Selma Lube-Grooved" minies, and a groundburst 3.3"-caliber Read shell.