Civil War bullet help

[Mike from MI]

Hunted an old home site where we also found a 58 cal 3 ringer.
Got this little guy too. Looks to be CW era, but can ya tell me for sure? Appers to be pistol size maybe? 2 rings
7/16 dia, and a little over 5/8 long. not including the sprue on the bottom. Any help out there?

 

[vayank54]

I've never seen one like it so I looked in McKee's & Mason's bullet book and didn't see anything like it in there. I guess it could be a regular pistol bullet that didn't have the sprue cut off. I would hang onto it though. There are a lot of different variants of bullets.

 

[dick99344]

Hunted an old home site where we also found a 58 cal 3 ringer.
Got this little guy too. Looks to be CW era, but can ya tell me for sure? Appers to be pistol size maybe? 2 rings
7/16 dia, and a little over 5/8 long. not including the sprue on the bottom. Any help out there?

7/16 dia. = .4375 by 5/8 lg. = .625> Could very well be .44 cal revolver bullet. Looks to be poorly moulded. Dead lead will shrink if the mould being used is not preheated. Mould sizes could differ greatly from one to the next for the same designated caliber. Could have been moulded for a .44 cal black powder catridge revolver. Just after the civil war, many .44 cal Army Remington revolvers were converted from cap and ball to cartridge revolvers. The Remington's have a closed stronger frame (Backstrap) as opposed to the Colt revolvers which have an open frame. MHO.

 

[Monty]

Civil War era .44 caliber rim fire rifle bullet? Monty

 

[mavrick03]

That's a Williams cleaner

Three types of projectiles known as Williams Patent "cleaner" bullets were used by the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Type I bullets have a thick leather and zinc base, whereas Type II and III's have a zinc base (similar to a flat washer), all of which were designed to help remove excess black powder build up and soft lead residue from the lands in a rifled musket barrel. A common package of arsenal-issued bullets would contain eleven percussion caps and one Williams patent cartridge— the latter always wrapped in blue paper, not buff, white or brown like standard Minié balls. Soldiers were instructed to use the special bullets as every tenth round fired.

Since the Williams bullets did not have a hollow base like a standard Minié ball, they were not as accurate and their cleaning effectiveness was dubious at best. Most relic bullets are found as drops, discarded by veteran soldiers in the field.

 

[Tnmountains]

Yep I have a cleaner bullet like that but fired. Nice find.

 

[dcinffxva]

It's doubtful that is a cleaner at .44 cal.

From the looks of it, I'd think most likely a carbine, but possibly a pistol bullet.

 

[Monty]

The cleaner bullets I have seen before were like #3 in the picture. Now I have learned something new again. That's why I love this forum! Monty

 

[mavrick03]

It's doubtful that is a cleaner at .44 cal.

From the looks of it, I'd think most likely a carbine, but possibly a pistol bullet.

the Williams cleaner was designed for any cal rifle that was used at the time i did not go with a bullet like a sharps because the sharps had 2 rings but one was raised
and all of the other 2 ring bullets i have seen none of them are even close to his



Mav

 

[Monty]

If what Maverick sakys is true, then I would guesstimate that it is just a miscast bullet that was discarded. I still think it looks like a 2 ring that just didn't have the sprue cut off. But , Oh well, "I'm just saying"! Monty

 

[DirtyMike]

I have never seen any size other than the normal 3 williams cleaners. Does anyone have any other cleaner bullet pictures?

 

[crashbro17x]

It almost looks like a Merill (sp) Carbine with a bad mold defect....Might look at the Burnside Carbine too. The Merill is a little more pointier than the Burnsides I have found, that is why I'm leaning Merill.

The only thing I can'tremember is what cal the Merill's were.

 

[Monty]

A rimfire carbine bullet was my first guess and I think they were originally .44 caliber. Present day .44 caliber bullets are .429". If the measurements are correct, this one is nearer a true .45 caliber. But measuring with a ruler isn't very accurate, so miked it should run just over .440 as the older bullets seem to have been nearer a true bore diameter if not slightly over, and they used lots of lube to prevent bore fouling. They also fired the bullets as molded back then but now they are run through a sizing die to pare them down to the exact diameter needed. If the bullet had been fired it would be easier to identify because those carbine cases were straight sided and had to be crimped. Therefore there would possibly be a line where they were crimped, usually just ahead of the top lube groove. If they weren't crimped they would have been fired in a caseless chamber. So, it leaves me guessing. Monty