Chewed Bullet

[Riggleman]

I've always heard mixed thoughts on chewed bullets. Until this weekend. I found my first what I believe is a chewed Bullet. This was found at a Union camp in West Virginia. We do not have wild hogs, which I hear is usually the chewed Bullet culprit. The only other animals that could be the culprit would be squirrels or deer, the teeth marks don't appear to match either. The bullet was found in what we believe to be leveled terraces made for tents. It was nearly 8 inches deep. The intact bullet was recovered on a previous trip about 20ft from this bullet. Please post your thoughts and opinions. Thanks and HH.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Cool find. Guess we'll never really know.

 

[Fullstock]

I've heard all the explanations for them too, and I'm sure animals are responsible for a lot of them. But I still think some were chewed by soldier out of boredom, and some could have been used as pain bullets.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Aquachigger has a good video about these on youtube, I'm inclined to agree with him that they were chewed by pigs and other animals

 

[Tnmountains]

I have so many from hitting chert ground. I say this take a bullet and chew it. I do not know why they would with their teeth probably not in the best of shape anyway. People say animals I do not know. But I have many that hot the ground and looked chewed. The fired million and millions of rounds during the civil war. Odds are some look chewed by man. People used to call them medicine bullets but I would rather have a stick to bite on then a hard bullet then choke on it

 

[Driftwoood]

Even though bullets are mostly lead, they are hard as heck... not the kind of thing you'd give someone to chew on when wood, canvas and leather were available. That said, I don't know what would have caused those marks.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

 

[Riggleman]

We have found no fired bullets at this site and no fighting occurred for miles of this site, a camp only. I know some refer to them as medicine bullets, which I agree a bullet to bite on seems strange when leather or wood would suffice and less dangerous, my thought is boys will be boys and I bet you a soldiers weeks pay I could bite a bullet in half, with that being said I think it was more of a camp boredom occurrence.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

I'd love to see someone bite into a bullet hard enough to mark it up like that and not break a tooth....

 

[d2]

Were the bullets back then pure lead or did they have something added to them? Growing up with a pellet rifle I kept handy and ready ammo in my mouth, which explains a lot of stuff to my wife, and a .22 caliber pellet was easy to chew on. I figure 99% of chewed on bullets are animal the other 1 % were people out of boredom. I have one that I carried to the dentist and he said it was "chewed by man" The others are chewed on by hogs and such. If there are no wild hogs in west Virginia now there probably were at one time because that is how most folks ran them a long time ago, loose and in the woods...d2

 

[taz42o]

Chewed by hogs and cattle.
But dont think a person cannot chew up a bullet, I have chewed bullets and fishing sinkers.
And no I did not break teeth.
As d2 said there were feral hogs most everywhere back then.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Were the bullets back then pure lead or did they have something added to them? Growing up with a pellet rifle I kept handy and ready ammo in my mouth, which explains a lot of stuff to my wife, and a .22 caliber pellet was easy to chew on. I figure 99% of chewed on bullets are animal the other 1 % were people out of boredom. I have one that I carried to the dentist and he said it was "chewed by man" The others are chewed on by hogs and such. If there are no wild hogs in west Virginia now there probably were at one time because that is how most folks ran them a long time ago, loose and in the woods...d2

They were fairly pure lead, Minie balls need to be able to expand at the base to make a seal with the bore so the lead needs to be soft enough to flex under pressure. Pistol balls for revolvers are slightly oversize so when you seat them a sliver of lead is shaved off the ball to make a tight seal so they need to be soft enough for that.

EDIT... I used to carry my pellets the same way..... so I think I'll try that as an excuse the next time I walk into a room and forget what I was going in there for But as to chewing on them and squishing them up, you have to remember they are pretty thin compared to a solid lead ball.....

 

[DCMatt]

References for chewed or bitten bullets over the centuries:




1640's - In the English Civil War one side accused the other of chewing bullets and rolling them in sand (to make them more deadly) which was "contrary to the law of arms".


1796 - John Hey uses the phrase, "He compares ridicule in controversy to chewed bullets" in a lecture at Cambridge.


1829 - John Shipp, a British Infantry officer writes in his memoir of a man taking 50 lashes without making a sound. Later he learns the man bore the pain by biting a bullet.


1850's - Choctaw indians are known to chew bullets used for hunting (to make them more deadly).


1891 - Kipling writes in "The Light that Failed" - "Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid."




So, it seems people have been biting and chewing bullets for a long time. Why would Civil War soldiers be any different?


It could be pigs, I suppose. But it could be bull as well...

 

[ironhorse]

To attempt to chew up a bullet like the OP example, I feel, would constitute as madness

Animals with a strong jaw known for chewing or biting is more believable if you think about it

There are more efficient ways of putting a bullet in your head than trying to chew up that much lead to that state

 

[GopherDaGold]

I have a 'chewed' pistol ball from the War of 1812 and I agree with Aquachigger. No Civil War doctor would have a patient chew on such a small item while lying prone when several methods of anesthesia were readily available.

 

[sutphin]

NICE BULLET FIND.

 

[Spats]

I had always subscribed to the theory that most tooth mark bullets were chewed by hogs, but I never could figure out why the patina is always even on the ones I find. A lot of the sites that I hunt still have a healthy hog population so it would stand to reason that they would occasionally root one up and chew on it.

Yesterday, at the site of a Civil War battle, we found both minie balls and musket balls. Two feet from a hog wallow, I found the bottom right musket ball lying on top of the ground under the leaves. My first freshly hog chewed bullet! It measures .65 inches, the same as the others in the photo. It is shinier at the depths of the tooth marks, but all white patina is gone all over it. I know which end of the hog this bullet went in, but am not sure which end it came out. The top right musket ball is an impact bullet and has older tooth marks on the right side.

 

[gsxraddict]

I've heard all the explanations for them too, and I'm sure animals are responsible for a lot of them. But I still think some were chewed by soldier out of boredom, and some could have been used as pain bullets.

Try to chew on a bullet, you'll change your opinion real quick.

Give it a try, make a video for youtube!