Early-mid 1800s homesite finds

[Noah_D]

My main question is about the lead doohickey, it feels about the size of buckshot or a small musket ball but it is very mangled and not patinated. Is this just a ball in real rough shape or is it something else?

Shown next to a lincoln for scale. Thanks!

 

[DCMatt]

That ball is in rough shape. It's the right size for a "buck and ball" load. This was common type load for hunting with a muzzle loading gun.



You say there is NO patina? I suppose it could be fairly modern. One of the gun guys will have to speak to that.

 

[Noah_D]

That ball is in rough shape. It's the right size for a "buck and ball" load. This was common type load for hunting with a muzzle loading gun.

View attachment 1853168

You say there is NO patina? I suppose it could be fairly modern. One of the gun guys will have to speak to that.

There's a little, but mostly in the low parts. I suppose on the high edges and things my cleaning could have worn it off, usually the ones I find are very white like in your picture. I'm just super confused why it would be this mangled though.

 

[DCMatt]

The musket balls in this picture are larger than yours, but you can see the first one is significantly misshapen due to being chewed.



I don't suppose you're hunting anywhere near any Pequot War battlefields...

 

[Noah_D]

The musket balls in this picture are larger than yours, but you can see the first one is significantly misshapen due to being chewed.

View attachment 1853257

I don't suppose you're hunting anywhere near any Pequot War battlefields...

I wish! So it may have been chewed? Interesting, normally I would try and get a caliber off of it but I'm not even going to try. Thanks.

 

[DCMatt]

I wish! So it may have been chewed? Interesting, normally I would try and get a caliber off of it but I'm not even going to try. Thanks.

There is no question that men put musket balls in their mouths for various reasons, but there is a great debate on just how much damage human teeth can do to a lead ball.

And just to forestall any question about a patient having to "bite the bullet" during surgery back in the day - that didn't happen.

 

[Fossils]

I don’t think patina is a good measure of age because different soil conditions can yield vastly different patinas. I once found a drop of three musket balls. Two of them were powdery white, and one of them was a far less oxidized, light gray. And these were less than a foot away from each other.

It’s probably a musket ball, just pretty beat up. As other posters have said, maybe even chewed. Some bullets are also chewed by animals.