Large round ball uncomplete mold

[Amce54]

So I know this is a round ball what I want to know is it's caliber and why it looks unfinished. Was it a bad mold? Did he not finish cutting the slag? What the story to your knowledge for why it looks like it does? It is about 3/4 of an in diameter of just the ball.

 

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[taz42o]

It appears to have been fired and hit something.

 

[deodra]

It appears to have been fired and hit something.

I concur.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Your lead ball was in a fire, which partly melted it. As a 40-year civil war relic digger and dealer who specializes in projectiles, I've studied them closely, and learned to recognize the different shapes which result from fire-melting and a fired one which smacked into the ground or a tree. (Fire-melted ones turn up in army campsites, and fired ones turn up at battlesites.)

How they get fire-melted:
Soldiers often had to build a campfire with wet wood. The easiest way for them to accomplish that was to use some gunpowder from a cartridge as a "firestarter." Without gunpowder, the bullet was of no use, so the soldiers typically dropped it into the fire, perhaps for the fun of watching it melt.

Please take my word for it, fire-melted bullets are a fairly common find when we dig at civil war army campsites. You learn to recognize the different shapes of fire-melted ones and fired ones.

About your melted lead ball's original size/diameter/caliber:
You said it is "about" 3/4-inch in diameter. Being found in Texas, it could be either a .75-caliber late-1700s/early-1800s musketball or a Texas War Of Independence/civil-war-era .69-caliber musketball. Please get it weighed on a Jeweler's Scale, in Grains (not Grams).
Average weight of .69-caliber musketballs (actual diameter .645-inch) is about 410 grains.
Average weight of .75-caliber musketballs (actual diameter .715-inch) is a little above 500 grains.

 

[Amce54]

Wow man thank you so much please be my friend so I may confide in your knowledge. I have quite a few lead finds and know a little but I know there ls a great deal of knowledge to be learned. I really appreciate to taking the time to educate me. You have no idea how much that helps. I'll let you know ASAP I get it weighed. Thanks again

 

[deodra]

Your lead ball was in a fire, which partly melted it. As a 40-year civil war relic digger and dealer who specializes in projectiles, I've studied them closely, and learned to recognize the different shapes which result from fire-melting and a fired one which smacked into the ground or a tree. (Fire-melted ones turn up in army campsites, and fired ones turn up at battlesites.)

How they get fire-melted:
Soldiers often had to build a campfire with wet wood. The easiest way for them to accomplish that was to use some gunpowder from a cartridge as a "firestarter." Without gunpowder, the bullet was of no use, so the soldiers typically dropped it into the fire, perhaps for the fun of watching it melt.

Please take my word for it, fire-melted bullets are a fairly common find when we dig at civil war army campsites. You learn to recognize the different shapes of fire-melted ones and fired ones.

About your melted lead ball's original size/diameter/caliber:
You said it is "about" 3/4-inch in diameter. Being found in Texas, it could be either a .75-caliber late-1700s/early-1800s musketball or a Texas War Of Independence/civil-war-era .69-caliber musketball. Please get it weighed on a Jeweler's Scale, in Grains (not Grams).
Average weight of .69-caliber musketballs (actual diameter .645-inch) is about 410 grains.
Average weight of .75-caliber musketballs (actual diameter .715-inch) is a little above 500 grains.

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Someone grab this guy a round!

 

[wvplug]

The first thing that came to my mind was a split shot sinker....

 

[Amce54]

Well I got it weighed and converted equaling 402.78 grains. Telling me most likely was 410 and civil war as a-posed to Texas revolution. Well the hunt continues, in the mean time I know where a civil war camp was that hasn't been established with the others.

 

[Amce54]

I think this is a possible confederate slug the grain is 356.48 it's about an inch long and half an inch wide give it take? Thoughts, concerns?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The McKee-&-Mason book on civil war bullets shows it as a European bullet called a "Hanovarian" or "Saxon" (M&M bullet #63). But, that book has not been updated since the 1970s... and recent research has proved it contains more than a few bullet-ID errors. So, to help you, I phonecalled Mr. Dean S. Thomas, the author of the recently-written "Round Ball To Rimfire" series of books on civil war bullets, which corrects many of the ID-errors in the M&M book. Mr. Thomas told me that none of the Hanoverian/Saxon bullets has been confirmed as being excavated from a civil war site. But many of them have been dug at late-1800s hunting sites in Germany. That is why your bullet is not shown in any of the Thomas-&-Thomas books.

In view of the many found at late-1800s sites in Germany, civil war bullet collectors have to decide their own answer to this question:
Is it more likely that these "Hanovarian/Saxon" bullets are late-1800s German bullets (which may have also been used in hunting rifles here in the US at that time... or is it more likely that a bunch of Confederate bullets got used in Germany 20-30 years after the end of the civil war?

Speaking as a civil war bullet dealer, I have to go with what is said by the top-level experts who've done massive research on the subject... instead of what I myself would hope the bullet is. Sorry to have to give disappointing news, but I'm telling you what the Top Experts on civil war bullets say.

 

[Amce54]

Hey no problem, education is education no matter how you take it i base what something is by facts more than anything thanks again for the info it is much appreciated.

 

[Amce54]

I do concur that it was found 10 to 15 feet where my dad excavated a union button in the fence and other civil war items related to that era. So it was a civil war camp site. Just never can know if if was in there pocket or another's.