✅ SOLVED Help Identifying 1st Bullet Find

[ScriptRhythm]

I have finally found something that isn't an unidentifiable piece of corroded iron, a bottlecap, or pull-tab.

I suspect this is an old (?) bullet. It was found in the city where people most likely haven't been able to fire a weapon for over a hundred years - I found an article about someone charged in the 1920s for shooting a .22 at tin cans at a nearby park.

Caliper measurements: 0.459" (w), 1.217" (Outer edge of base to tip - Length)/ 1.210" (Bottom of Indent to tip - Length)

Weight: 31.04 grams = 479.02 grains

Is there an online resource/catalog/database available for reference?

Thank-you for your assistance.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Thank you for the effort you put into providing this forum's bullet-ID helpers with WELL-FOCUSED CLOSEUP photos and PRECISE (thousandths-of-an-inch) diameter measurement of your bullet. In combination, they prove your bullet is definitely a (fired) US model-1873 Springfield "Government Rifle" .45-70 bullet. The fact that it has what bullet-collectors call a "dish" base, with a small dimple in the center, and no "reeding" in the body-grooves, means it was made sometime in the 1880s-90s.

I should mention, the reason its diameter measures .459 even though it was fired out of a .450-inch gunbarrel is, the barrel's rifling-grooves create slight raised ridges on the bullet's sides. Those "rifling-marks" from firing have the effect of slightly increasing the bullet's original unfired diameter.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I should mention, the reason its diameter measures .459 even though it was fired out of a .450-inch gunbarrel is, the barrel's rifling-grooves create slight raised ridges on the bullet's sides. Those "rifling-marks" from firing have the effect of slightly increasing the bullet's original unfired diameter.

CBGuy..Would the slight compression of the fired bullet also force it into the rifling?

 

[ScriptRhythm]

That's fantastic. Thank you for your detailed analysis 'TCG' - very informative.

Once upon a time, my father was a machinist ... I inherited his calipers - this is the 1st time I got to put them to work.

I can only imagine the bang this made when fired - this round weighs in at over an ounce.

be well.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

DizzyDigger asked:
> CBGuy..Would the slight compression of the fired bullet also force it into the rifling?

Yes. Actually, bullets for Breechloader (load from the back end of the gunbarrel) firearms are deliberately manufactured slightly larger in diameter than the gunbarrel's bore diameter. Therefore, the bullet being slightly oversize, HAS to grip the rifling-grooves in the slightly-smaller tunnel through the gunbarrel. For example, a .52-caliber Sharps bullet typically measures about .54" in diameter, and a .44 Colt bullet typically measures about .46-inch in diameter.

Note for anybody who doesn't already know:
Muzzleloader (loads from the front end of the gunbarrel) bullets are typically slightly smaller than the bore diameter... which is the opposite of Breechloader ammunition. For example, a civil war .58-caliber Minie bullet was usually about .56-inch to .57-inch in diameter... manufactured that way for use in a .580-inch diameter Muzzleloader bore.