Found a small cannonball

[lostlake88]

I found this yesterday along side a 2 ring bullet. Here are before and after pictures.

 

[RON (PA)]

Great find and it cleaned up very well. How did you clean it

 

[silvereagle78]

That is awsome

 

[spartacus53]

nice find

 

[lostlake88]

Great find and it cleaned up very well. How did you clean it

I soaked it in peroxide for awhile and then lightly tapped off the corrosion with a round tip rock hammer.

 

[allen]

that thing turned out nicely !!!

 

[history hunter]

Excellent find!!

 

[Narthoniel]

Great find and it cleaned up very well. How did you clean it

I soaked it in peroxide for awhile and then lightly tapped off the corrosion with a round tip rock hammer.

You know, those things were packed with powder and were supposed to detonate. The longer the powder sits the more potent it becomes. Picking on one could potentially detonate the ball, and that is VERY messy. I have heard of people being killed cleaning civil war cannonballs. Last summer a guy in or near Richmond blew both of his legs off and bled to death after accidently detonating a ball while cleaning it. This was AFTER he thought he had emptied all of the powder out. You made a great find, and I applaud you for it, but I want to be sure you understand that these things are still deadly. We do not want you, or anyone else, to become the latest civil war casualty.
Anthony

 

[lostlake88]

Great find and it cleaned up very well. How did you clean it

I soaked it in peroxide for awhile and then lightly tapped off the corrosion with a round tip rock hammer.

You know, those things were packed with powder and were supposed to detonate. The longer the powder sits the more potent it becomes. Picking on one could potentially detonate the ball, and that is VERY messy. I have heard of people being killed cleaning civil war cannonballs. Last summer a guy in or near Richmond blew both of his legs off and bled to death after accidently detonating a ball while cleaning it. This was AFTER he thought he had emptied all of the powder out. You made a great find, and I applaud you for it, but I want to be sure you understand that these things are still deadly. We do not want you, or anyone else, to become the latest civil war casualty.
Anthony

Thanks for the info, but I believe it is just SHOT. I read that same story about that guy who was killed.

 

[{Sentinel}]

Yeah, thats just a Solid Shot, no danger there, except maybe to your toes if you were to drop it Very nice find though bud!

 

[garthbfan169]

Very kool lostlake AWESOME find!!

 

[moundbuilder]

very cool.

I found this yesterday along side a 2 ring bullet. Here are before and after pictures.

 

[{Sentinel}]

Great find and it cleaned up very well. How did you clean it

I soaked it in peroxide for awhile and then lightly tapped off the corrosion with a round tip rock hammer.

You know, those things were packed with powder and were supposed to detonate. The longer the powder sits the more potent it becomes. Picking on one could potentially detonate the ball, and that is VERY messy. I have heard of people being killed cleaning civil war cannonballs. Last summer a guy in or near Richmond blew both of his legs off and bled to death after accidently detonating a ball while cleaning it. This was AFTER he thought he had emptied all of the powder out. You made a great find, and I applaud you for it, but I want to be sure you understand that these things are still deadly. We do not want you, or anyone else, to become the latest civil war casualty.
Anthony

This is utter nonsense. First of all, this is a SOLID shot 3lber. NOT a sperical case shot (the type that explodes). Secondly, I have dug cannonballs and know several OLD guys including Harry Ridgeway who drills cannonballs as
part of his relic business and he has said many many times that the cannonballs such as the Bormann and Parrott
are almost IMPOSSIBLE to detonate unless exposed to very very high tempuratures for a sustained amount of time.

The man you were speaking of in Richmond, I knew personally and had been drilling cannonballs for many years.

And although he had gotten very skilled at it....he was drilling the ball OUT OF water which is a big no no because

it produces a spark. Very sad day for the Relichunting community.

As stated above, this is a solid shot and you have nothing to worry about.

 

[GopherDaGold]

I actually appreciate the info I've learned on this thread. I don't feel that it's 'utter nonsense' because many of us don't know of all the different types of balls.
Your reply, although informative, was quite condecending.

 

[Iron Patch]

Great find and it cleaned up very well. How did you clean it

I soaked it in peroxide for awhile and then lightly tapped off the corrosion with a round tip rock hammer.

Nice one! As soon as I seen it I knew it was a "hammer cleaning." Here's a pic of mine from last Fall which I used the hammer on and nothing more. It was covered in thick rust and I couldn't believe what it looked like below after the first wack.

 

[Iron Patch]

Great find and it cleaned up very well. How did you clean it

I soaked it in peroxide for awhile and then lightly tapped off the corrosion with a round tip rock hammer.

You know, those things were packed with powder and were supposed to detonate. The longer the powder sits the more potent it becomes. Picking on one could potentially detonate the ball, and that is VERY messy. I have heard of people being killed cleaning civil war cannonballs. Last summer a guy in or near Richmond blew both of his legs off and bled to death after accidently detonating a ball while cleaning it. This was AFTER he thought he had emptied all of the powder out. You made a great find, and I applaud you for it, but I want to be sure you understand that these things are still deadly. We do not want you, or anyone else, to become the latest civil war casualty.
Anthony

Thanks for the info, but I believe it is just SHOT. I read that same story about that guy who was killed.

Yep, but you have to make sure there's not a fuse hiding under the rust. For an early ball it is much more likely to be solid, at least here anyway because there's only one place we've found fused balls and the rest all had solid.

 

[Deepdiger60]

Since i know just about nothing about cannon balls is there a fuse that is ignited when the ball is fired out of the cannon and by the length of the fuse that determines the distance it can travel before it explodes ? just curious Dd60. Nice find

 

[Monty]

It's not a fuse in the ordinary sense of a string hanging out of one end. It's a timed fuse that is inserted into the hollow ball full of powder. It is designed to ignite at a certain distance usually determined by the time of flight of the ball. Some are air bursts while others ignite on striking something. That's about as simple as I can explain it. Monty