From the short-term Union Camp . . .

[parsonwalker]

Got out for the afternoon today, to the campsite. I'm so beat from digging camp lead. Lots of it. Managed to pull a few keepers out of the ground, including a grapeshot a crumbled eagle button, and this weird, weird flattened bullet with a cross-hatch pattern in it.

 

[wv hilljack]

Nice finds!

 

[WHADIFIND]

Might the flattened bullets have been some that were knocked out of their molds before they hardened and got stepped on? Weird!

But nice finds!

 

[parsonwalker]

I'd buy your theory WHADIFIND, if the pattern was only on ONE side . . . but it's on BOTH sides! I am totally flummoxed.

 

[carcusrex]

Cool finds, My friend keeps all the scrap lead (which I am happy to give) to make a weight belt for diving. As far as the flattened bullet, I have found two in one hole and both had a different pattern, my guess it was whatever they used to squish the bullet. I think really it was a bored soldier or maybe he was going to make a game piece or sometimes they were given strips of led to make bullets and this person may have flattened one to make it easier to cut of a piece for a smaller bullet. Who knows really but its cool anyways because someone took the time to shape it.

 

[PeteWmass]

squished in some sort of vice....for some reason..

 

[WHADIFIND]

I'd buy your theory WHADIFIND, if the pattern was only on ONE side . . . but it's on BOTH sides! I am totally flummoxed.

Oh! I know! A bored soldier was sitting on the ground and just decided to squish a couple hot leads between his boots! Legs out front and just put both soles of his feet together! That's it! LOL

Or, or, or! Maybe he put it on railroad tracks and after the train passed it kicked it off onto the road where one of those new-fangled horseless carriages came along and ran it over with it's Michelin tires! Yeah, that's it! I'm goin' with that!

 

[parsonwalker]

Ha! Someone on the "What is it?" forum suggested the vice theory, and I'm convinced that's it. The pattern would perfectly match vice jaws. It's on a farm where an old barn and a tenant house once stood. I'm thinking somebody picked up a bullet back in the day, had some fun with a vice, then tossed it. I was hoping for a wonderful rare-bullet-modification story . . . but I now think it was a boring old farm vice.

 

[ModernMiner]

Lots of great pieces of history there PW. Congrats on that haul of CW relics.
-MM-