✅ SOLVED Lead balls from my property

[castletonking]

hey whats up? These are a few of the lead balls I've found on my property,about 1/4 mile from the Revolution era(1 day before the battle of Hubbardton) Castleton skirmish here in Castleton Vt.no idea if they are from that era or not.the sizes range from marble size to a little larger than a pea..also i have no idea what the piece pictured above them is.the flattened are on the right in the picture is perfect to fit a thumb and the little piece sticking up is a pin of some sort.Also i have pictured 2 of the many many spoon bowls also found on my property,any idea of age? i believe they are pewter,I also find pewter buttons as well here.(picture isnt great,but it appears to be a scalloped pattern on both bowls near where the handle was attached. thanks for any info you can provide on these items.

 

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[Broken knee]

There definitely pewter and the right time frame. HH when the ground thaws.
Broken Knee

 

[castletonking]

There definitely pewter and the right time frame. HH when the ground thaws.
Broken Knee

thanks

 

[kuger]

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[TheCannonballGuy]

The lead balls are the right sizes to be musketballs and pistol balls. But there is no way to date them, because smoothbore muzzleloader firearms were used continuously in America from the 1500s through the 1880s. Another fact about lead bullets which is just as important as the date-range... throughout all of that time, there were fewer men in the Army than the number of civilian game-hunters providing meat for the family dinnertable.

 

[castletonking]

The lead balls are the right sizes to be musketballs and pistol balls. But there is no way to date them, because smoothbore muzzleloader firearms were used continuously in America from the 1500s through the 1880s. Another fact about lead bullets which is just as important as the date-range... throughout all of that time, there were fewer men in the Army than the number of civilian game-hunters providing meat for the family dinnertable.

thanks for the info..whats the deal with the pointed one though?

 

[kuger]

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[Broken knee]

thanks for the info..whats the deal with the pointed one though?

The mold may have been slightly open upon casting ? your guess is as good as mine ? it looks more like a teardrop sinker than a ball. is it solid on the pointy end or is there a hole? HH
Broken Knee

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I was going to say the pointy one is more likely to be a sinker than a bullet, but Broken Knee beat me to it. So now I'll say I agree that its shape is too irregular for a bullet ...and none of the "teardrop" bullets had a round bottom.

(Yes, I know the McKee-&-Mason bullet-book shows one, listed as bullet #162, but that is now believed to be an incorrect identification.)

 

[BosnMate]

The thing above the bullets with the square hole looks like it might have started out life as a hub wrench or something like that. Nuts in those days were square, and they made combination wrenches for the hub nuts, and also the other sized nuts on buggy's and wagons.

 

[castletonking]

The mold may have been slightly open upon casting ? your guess is as good as mine ? it looks more like a teardrop sinker than a ball. is it solid on the pointy end or is there a hole? HH
Broken Knee

no theres no holes at all and it was found no where near any water

 

[castletonking]

....I thought you had asked and I answered the exact question before about the spoons......nope,nothing has changed from that time

Yes I did ask before,I do have the right to get other opinions,and no things do not change,but I have also found out that they were produced by parker and are from the period you stated.and if you are going to give me a wise ass answer then please don't reply to my posts. thank you

 

[castletonking]

The thing above the bullets with the square hole looks like it might have started out life as a hub wrench or something like that. Nuts in those days were square, and they made combination wrenches for the hub nuts, and also the other sized nuts on buggy's and wagons.

Interesting..the end is cupped and rounded at the end like a spoon handle,and the part sticking up is a round pin with a notch in the end of it.interesting,it was found over a foot down in the packed clay soil.

 

[castletonking]

I was going to say the pointy one is more likely to be a sinker than a bullet, but Broken Knee beat me to it. So now I'll say I agree that its shape is too irregular for a bullet ...and none of the "teardrop" bullets had a round bottom.

(Yes, I know the McKee-&-Mason bullet-book shows one, listed as bullet #162, but that is now believed to be an incorrect identification.)

i took it to the town historian and was told it appears to be a homemade bullet of some sort.it is solid,no holes,no notches for fishing line

 

[taz42o]

What about M&M 160 teardrop picket?

 

[castletonking]

What about M&M 160 teardrop picket? View attachment 720409

interesting

 

[Broken knee]

Could you post a better pic of the one in question? And what is the Diameter and length?
BK

 

[taz42o]

Here are measurements for .41 and .44 cal teardrop picket. Not sure of other calibers made but think .36 also.
.395 dia & .605 length, caliber -.41 cal.
.437" - .468" in diameter & .75 length -.44 cal.

Here is a mold for making them.

.44 "Sugar Loaf" Bullet Mold,like M&M #160, but larger

 

[kuger]

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Taz, here is the reason I discounted the teardrop-shaped lead from being a bullet:
As your photo of M&M bullet #160 shows, a bullet's opposite sides are always symmetrical (meaning, the opposite sides have the exact same shape). But Castletonking's photo shows his lead teardrop's right side bulges outward much more than its left side does.

So that everybody can easily see what I mean by "symmetrical sides," here's a repost of your photo of M&M bullet #160. The curvature of its right and left sides is identical -- and Castletonking's isn't.

Sidenote:
When I said teardrop bullets don't have a round bottom, I meant that the presence of the casting-sprue on the bottom (even when it has been sliced off) keeps the bottom from being truly "round." There's always a flat spot where the sprue was sliced off.