Mystery Lead Ball.....Round Ball???

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Hey All...I went out to an old farm a while back, thathad a homestead on it that was torn down in the 30s. The Newest coins we have found there were in the mid-late 20s. So i know there hasnt been too much activity there.

I found this Old HorseShoe and Stirup But then i found this little Lead Ball. I didnt think much about it at the time. But then i started thinking...Could this be a round ball? It had the white patina on it . But i know NOTHING about them, or the weights they came in .

Can anyone tell me is this is Older or Modern?

It weighs in at 21.6 Grams

Thanks!!

 

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[duggap]

Could be a .69 round ball. I like your stirrup. Be sure to get the rust off.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

We need the exact diameter of the ball, at 21.6 grams it would weigh in at 333+ grains which puts it in the .60 cal range...(accounting for the extra`weight of the untrimmed sprue).Possibly a .62 caliber rifle ball since musket balls always run a bit smaller than the bore diameter. Yours looks unfired, and the lack of patina says modern to me.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

We need the exact diameter of the ball, at 21.6 grams it would weigh in at 333+ grains which puts it in the .60 cal range...(accounting for the extra`weight of the untrimmed sprue).Possibly a .62 caliber rifle ball since musket balls always run a bit smaller than the bore diameter. Yours looks unfired, and the lack of patina says modern to me.

So there are Modern versions of round balls? I really know nothing about them, i just know the area was old, but at the same time, im sure people have used it for hunting after the homestead was removed. It was a little whiter before i tried to get all the mud off...But not like the patina i see people have on thier CW Bullets...I will see if i can get a measurement of it.

thanks!

 

[BosnMate]

Your horse shoe is in fact a mule shoe. The lead ball has been hand cast, because the spru is shown in the photo. If you can measure
the ball in hundredths of an inch, that will give you the caliber. I shoot a .62 caliber rifle, and the ball I use is a .610 with a 17/1000
patch material. The patch keeps the fired ball from showing rifling groves, and of course a ball fired from a musket would also not show
rifling's. Today not many people shoot large bore round balls. The vast majority of muzzle loader shooters fire either .45 or .50 caliber rifles.
Next most common caliber is .54. An interesting side note, in the old days, before caliber designations, the caliber of the gun was given in
number of balls per pound of lead. A .62 caliber will gauge out to 20 lead balls per pound, which is how the the bore size of a shot gun
came about. A 12 gauge shoots 12 balls per pound, 16 gage 16 balls, etc. A undersize .440 or .445 ball would be for a .45 caliber rifle, and
an over size .451 ball is used in a .44 caliber cap and ball revolver, because a ring of lead is cut off the ball when loaded into that type of hand gun.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

As Bosn' said, people do still shoot roundball from muzzle loaders, and yeah anything over a .54 cal is pretty uncommon, but not unheard of. Personally I shoot a .50 cal and it gets the job done. The bigger calibers are still readily available though for those who want a bigger bang.

 

[BosnMate]

The poor ballistics of a .50 caliber round ball caused me to go bigger. The only way to get a heavier round bullet is to make it bigger around
and I found the .62 travels further, flatter, and carries more terminal energy, and I in fact won a rifle at one shoot because the wind was blowing
gale, and we were shooting clay pigeons at 50 yards, miss and out. The wind was blowing the lighter balls, giving those guys fits. I held on
the right edge of the clay target, and busted one every shot, while the vast majority was out in one shot. I know you can't get much deader
than dead, and a well placed shot on a buck will bring home the meat if it's .50 or .62. Keep in mind that in a lot of ML shoots, the target
is cut the string, split the ball, cut the card, etc., and the .62 cal ball is 5/8's which gives me an extra 1/8 inch over your .50. I've had a lot
of fun shooting ML's over the years, and picked up a number of prizes with my .62 caliber flint lock knock off of an English sporting rifle.

I want to add, that it takes more powder to get the larger ball rolling, but it keeps going once in motion.