Confederate nose cast 3 ring minie ball

[cmthunder]

I believe this to be a confederate nose cast 3 ring minie ball?
Found in Maryland at Cavalry battle this past week.
493 grains, L-.940, D-.566

TheCannonballGuy gave a detailed excerpt in 2017 post explains the confederates were only ones to nose cast bullets other than Williams Cleaner.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Sorry to disappoint you, but... no, your find is note a nose-cast Minie bullet. What you see on it is the impression of the ramrod's mouth. Usually the ramrod does not make an impression on the bullet during ramming. But when the gunbarrel has become "fouled" with powder-ash from repeated firing without cleaning, the fouling can make it very difficult to push the bullet down into the bore. When that happened, during a daylong battle, civil war soldiers' diaries mention having to pound on the ramrod's end with a rock to get the bullet loaded down the barrel.

Your bullet definitely has been rammed and fired... the base-view photo shows its base rim expanded outward into gunbarrel with three wide rifling-grooves (most likely a yankee Springfield).

A nose-cast bullet almost always shows either a flat tip (like you see on a Williams Cleaner), OR flat where the casting-sprue was cut off (like in the photo below), OR a projecting casting-sprue (like in the other photo below). All Gardner minies were nose-cast. You can see the uncut casting-sprue on the photo below showing "unfinished" Gardner bullets, as they looked when they came out of the mold.

 

[cmthunder]

Thank you for the correction I wish I had half your knowledge. You are amazing the Civil War Columbo!
Thanks again for such a detailed explanation.
Always appreciate your opinion and facts.
Hope your well!
Chuck

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Cmthunder wrote:
> Thank you for the correction I wish I had half your knowledge.

My knowledge comes from doing this sort of thing for 47 years. If you keep on asking questions here in the T-Net forums, and reading the correct answers to other diggers' relic-ID questions, you can achieve the level of relic-knowledge I'm currently at.

Trust me, I am proof that a high IQ is not required. It's just that I've been paying attention whenever somebody kindly put the knowledge in front of me.

 

[Jakesm89]

Would this be a nose cast confederate bullet?

 

[Davers]

Would this be a nose cast confederate bullet?View attachment 1935810

Look's kinda like the tip was cut , I'd love to know the answer as well .

GD & Welcome to the Site.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Jakesm89 and Davers, I somehow missed seeing your replies when you posted them back in July. Yes, that it a nose-cast Confederate bullet. Lots of people incorrectly think that if a Minie-bullet has 3 body-grooves, it's automatically a yankee-made bullet. But in reality, the Confederates also made 3-groove Minies, and did so by the millions. Some examples are the 3-groove Augusta Arsenal teat-base (a.k.a. "Georgia Troops") minies, and the 1864-65 Confederate "imitation" of the typical yankee 3-groove minie, which have been found in VAST quantities in the Petersburg Siege trenches. In my opinion, that is what is shown in Jakesm89's photo.

 

[fyrffytr1]

Thank you for the correction I wish I had half your knowledge. You are amazing the Civil War Columbo!
Thanks again for such a detailed explanation.
Always appreciate your opinion and facts.
Hope your well!
Chuck

I did have half of TheCannonballGuy's knowledge but have managed to misplace most of it!👴

 

[devldog]

I did have half of TheCannonballGuy's knowledge but have managed to misplace most of it!👴

Yer just being modest here.