CIVIL WAR BULLET ID HELP? PLEASE?

[spudnutt]

Dug this up over the weekend. Can anyone help ID what type of bullet it is? I've never dug one quite like this one before.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!~

 

[Gunrunner61]

Maybe some type of williams cleaner

 

[spudnutt]

someone also told me it could be an exploding bullet. Is anyone familiar with these? I've never heard of one before.

 

[duggap]

What you have is a type 3 williams cleaner without the zinc base.

 

[vadigger89]

I believe it could be a williams cleaner bullet. I dug a bigger one with a hole in the bottom like that it baffled me for a while then it just hit me I realized that it was a williams cleaner with the zinc part missing. I believe what you have is a type of williams cleaner with the zinc missing not sure though. Nice find.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Breezie posted one here that looks exactly like yours (also missing the base-plug) about a week ago. So, my answer is the same as I told her.

Your bullet is definitely an unfired civil war era Williams Type 3 "Bore-cleaner" bullet. The Type 3 made its first appearance on the battlefield in Summer 1863, and was used through the end of the war. All of the Williams bullets are .58-caliber, and all of them were strictly yankee-made. Here's a photo showing some Type 3 Williams bullets, with and without their base-plug (which some people call the "thumbtack" because it was a separate piece that was simply pushed into the bullet's base during manufacture).