✅ SOLVED One For the Bullet Folks

[Erik in NJ]

Found this piece of mushroomed lead today and it appears to be either a bullet or musket ball that struck something. It weighs in at 25.5 grams. Can anyone tell me what it was? Thanks.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Sorry, that one is just too deformed for me to id.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Eric in NJ wrote:
> Found this piece of mushroomed lead today and it appears to be either a bullet or musket ball that struck something.

Your bullet appears to have had what we civil war relic diggers call a "plug" type of cavity in its base. ("Plug" meaning wide and flat-bottomed.) So it definitely cannot have been a musketball. The most common 19th-century bullet which had a plug cavity was the .577-caliber Enfield minie. But that type with plug cavity typically weighs 500 grains, and your bulet at 25.5 grams (393 grains) being about 20% lighter excludes it from being a .577 Enfield.

So, what comes to my mind is a 20th-century shotgun slug. Some of those are very short-bodied and have a very wide plug cavity in their base. After a mushrooming impact, that shape could look a lot like your find.

 

[Erik in NJ]

CannonballGuy,

Thanks for the quick ID, I will mark this as solved. I appreciate your help!