Just finished my first civil war battle site! Found several bullets (some may be post

[swVa]

 

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[swVa]

Anyone that can identify what caliber bullets some of these are would be helpful. Thanks for looking!

 

[villagenut]

Looks like you found where someone was shooting at targets or something similar

 

[Indian Steve]

Sorry to say, but all of them look fairly modern to me. I live about 45 miles from you in Patrick County. Good luck in the future. steve

 

[swVa]

Ok thanks!

 

[villagenut]

Keep at it, it 's still out there. Persistence does pay off

 

[swVa]

I was looking online once I got home and was having a hard time figuring out what I had, and that must be why lol. I can't find anything that looks like the second picture if you know please post! I will have to do some more research.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Anything with a copper, steel or brass jacket is not civil war. Even the lead bullets look like modern .38/.357" bullets.

The round nose look like .45 and 9mm FMJ bullets.

 

[swVa]

Thanks Charlie that was going to be my next question! I knew I was searching on the edge of the battlefield but maybe too far out (trying to find somewhere others might have missed). With your information I will be able to tell in the field what I found. Newbie issues lol!

 

[ivan salis]

old soft lead blackpowder rifle bullets from the civil war era --tend to of large caliber 58 caliber or 69 caliber -- most commonly (about 9 /16 ths across the base for 58 cal and 5/8th or so for 69 cal ) and they tend to be very heavy in weight-- they tend to be whitish colored due to oxidation of the lead in the ground for a long time (but not always --depends upon the soil conditions) they often have "hollow" rear bases and 3 rings around their bases to act as a gas seal to trap the burning blackpowders gases to propel them ...more modern "smokeless" bullets burned much hotter and faster making much more "pressure" thus the bullets were much "faster" thus a smaller but much faster "smokeless powder" bullet would have the same "impact" as a much larger slower "blackpowder" type of bullet ..modern bullets tend to have only 1 gas seal ring with "crimping type marks in the ring where its casing is mated around the bullet --with the civil war era muzzleloader type 3 ringers there was no"casing" --just powder topped off with a bullet rammed down the barrel ..

post civil until the late 1800 / 1900 era time --the cartridges were "black powder" about the turn off the century 1900 --modern "smokeless" gunpowder took over pushing "blackpowder" guns into the relic class of guns in general...

 

[Carolina Tom]

As usual Charlie is all over it. FMJs... full metal jacket with lead center. Modern pistol ammo.

If you get a set of calipers and measure them, you can tell the caliber... a 45 caliber is .45" diameter... 9mm is well... 9mm.

Some of the larger ones are jacketed rifle bullets... probably for deer hunting!

Best of luck to you!