✅ SOLVED Possible button? If so would love help identifying it

patpall22

Sr. Member
Jul 4, 2006
436
174
Carmel ca/ Big Sur ca
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CTX 3030, whites DFX, XP DEUS, etrac and sandshark
Hello all, I found this button looking thing while I was hunting stir in California that goes back to the late 1800’s. first I thought it was the top off a spent Henry rifle shell the when I got home, it almost seems like it could possibly be a button? i cannot make out what is stamped on it but doesn’t appear to be an H and almost looks like I can make out the # 2. i was finding Henry shells here but the back doesn’t look like it’s broken off the shell. I tried my best with the pics and any info would be much appreciated.
 

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TheCannonballGuy

Gold Member
Feb 24, 2006
6,529
12,996
Occupied CSA (Richmond VA)
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White's 6000, Nautilus DMC-1, Minelab
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Your find is in fact part of a .44 Henry Repeating Rifle cartridge-casing, which has been fired. It has been flawlessly sliced off the cylindrical portion of the casing's body. That is my appraisal, for two reasons.
(1) You said you found several .44 Henry casings in the area.
(2) Your find shows the distinctive "twin" marks of the Henry's famous double firing-pins, 180 degrees apart. The unmarked center of the casing's base got "domed" by firing, because the Henry casing's base sometimes was not thick enough to keep its flat shape when the gunpowder inside it blew up. Note, I am 100%-certain about all that because I've dug dozens of fired .44 Henry casings at civil war battlefields, and many of them had bases which are "bulged" like yours.
 

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Retired Sarge

Silver Member
Feb 22, 2009
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Panama City Florida
Primary Interest:
Other
Your find is in fact part of a .44 Henry Repeating Rifle cartridge-casing, which has been fired. It has been flawlessly sliced off the cylindrical portion of the casing's body. That is my appraisal, for two reasons.
(1) You said you found other .44 Henry casings in the area.
(2) Your find shows the distinctive "twin" marks of the Henry's famous double firing-pins, 180 degrees apart. The unmarked center of the casing's base got "domed" by firing, because the Henry casing's base sometimes was not thick enough to keep its flat shape when the gunpowder inside it blew up. Note, I am 100%-certain about all that because I've dug dozens of fired .44 Henry casings at civil war battlefields, and many of them had bases which are "bulged" like yours.
(2) You said you found other .44 Henry casings in the area.

You never cease to amaze me CBG......
 

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