Musket Balls...Need help determining caliber

[TomB]

Recovered these musket ball from a area that I suspected was a civil war training camp. I now believe it's an old home site (late 1700 to early 1800 hundreds) because no civil war relics have been found. The balls measure 12mm. Can anyone tell the caliber from this measurement. HH TomB

 

[Lucas]

Caliber is the diameter in hundredths of a inch, so 12mm comes out to about .47 inches or 47 cal.

 

[TomB]

Lucas...I also found some information that the .47 cal musket ball was used in the .50 cal rifle. Also the 47 call is almost 1/2" in diameter. You can see from the pic the ball is just under 1/2". Thanks for the info. TomBhttp://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=78153.5;wap2

 

[l.cutler]

You are not reading the caliper properly, the measurement is where the zero line is. The ball measures 16.5 inches, or using the inch measurement on top looks to be a little over 5/8ths of an inch. This is probably for a .69 caliber musket.

 

[Old Town]

You are not reading the caliper properly, the measurement is where the zero line is. The ball measures 16.5 inches, or using the inch measurement on top looks to be a little over 5/8ths of an inch. This is probably for a .69 caliber musket.

It's 16.5 mm, not inches, but cutler is correct in general and probably just misspoke. There are roughly .040 inches to the mm. So 16.5 X .040 equals about 66 caliber. Close enough to what cutler said. Probably a ball meant to be patched and shot in a .69 cal rifle or musket. You really have to have an accurate measurement to .003 plus or minus to figure bore size of intended gun.

OT

 

[l.cutler]

Yeah,sorry about the inches in a hurry going to work! The US musket caliber .69 used an undersized ball, it wasn't patched but was loaded with a paper cartridge. The undersized ball was used so that even when fouled the musket could be loaded.