Red bullet? and a button..

Genool · Mar 24, 2008

Went out this morning after work and found the two bullets around a tree stand. Then went into a field and in the middle of the field found the RED bullet. Anyone know why the bullet would be red?? Thought it was wierd. Then on the way home, I was passing by a place I've hunted only once before. I heard a lonely tree calling my name, so I jumped out and MDed around it and found the button. There are no marking son the button, but I thought it was a pretty cool find. I will be back in that area again...

Bavaria Mike · Mar 24, 2008

The bullet probably has some copper in it and has oxidized a bit. The button looks like it might have some age to it. HH, Mike

CRUSADER · Mar 24, 2008

Yeah, the button is a pewter or tombac type (1790-1830s) :thumbsup:

Charlie P. (NY) · Mar 24, 2008

Here's a guess on the red bullet. The jacketet is a wartime production when copper was scarce and it is a different alloy than "regular" production. Just as some Indian Head and Lincoln cents become "red cents" with exposure.

Looks small, but .25 ACP and even .38 Spl FMJ bullets are common throughout most of this century.

Genool · Mar 24, 2008

CRUSADER said:
Yeah, the button is a pewter or tombac type (1790-1830s)

Thanks for the post Crusader...I don't know much about pewter, but doesn't it usually have some weight to it? This doesn't have much weight to it at all. To bad this thing doesn't have any marks on it, that would make it a bit easier.

Genool · Mar 24, 2008

CRUSADER said:
Yeah, the button is a pewter or tombac type (1790-1830s)

It could be tombac I guess...I've never heard of that, so I don't have anything to compare it to..

Genool · Mar 24, 2008

Charlie P. (NY) said:
Here's a guess on the red bullet. The jacketet is a wartime production when copper was scarce and it is a different alloy than "regular" production. Just as some Indian Head and Lincoln cents become "red cents" with exposure.

Looks small, but .25 ACP and even .38 Spl FMJ bullets are common throughout most of this century.

Thanks for the post Charlie P. It does look like a smaller caliber from a pistol of some sort. The color is wierd, a very distinct red. And it appears to be older than a lot of the other bullets I've found, so your guess on the different alloy may be correct..

BuckleBoy · Mar 24, 2008

Everything you ever wanted to know about Tombac Buttons:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,122423.msg894182.html#msg894182

Reply #14 and #15. There are also examples there for you to compare yours to...

By the way, you should search that area THOROUGHLY! Some of the oldest coins and relics you could ever dig in the States will be in an area where old flat buttons, pewter buttons, and tombac buttons like yours are coming up.

Regards,

Buckleboy

Genool · Mar 24, 2008

BuckleBoy said:
Everything you ever wanted to know about Tombac Buttons:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,122423.msg894182.html#msg894182

Reply #14 and #15. There are also examples there for you to compare yours to...

By the way, you should search that area THOROUGHLY! Some of the oldest coins and relics you could ever dig in the States will be in an area where old flat buttons, pewter buttons, and tombac buttons like yours are coming up.

Regards,

Buckleboy

Thanks for the info Buckleboy... I will check out the site you sent me, and will deffinately be going back to the same spot to do some more checkin..

Genool

wyattrr · Mar 24, 2008

Nice Digs...Cool Relics, I believe the copper bullet was made after the CW. The weapons that were used during became hunting weapons after. It took a while to start the mining process again...to harvest Copper.

Anyhow, Congrats on your finds and HH

Genool · Mar 24, 2008

wyattrr said:
Nice Digs...Cool Relics, I believe the copper bullet was made after the CW. The weapons that were used during became hunting weapons after. It took a while to start the mining process again...to harvest Copper.

Anyhow, Congrats on your finds and HH

Thanks Wyattrr for the info... So...you are saying the bullet is probably between the war erra and the time prior to mining for copper again, correct? If so, do you have an idea of what kind of alloy it would be made of??

Thanks again,

Charlie P. (NY) · Mar 24, 2008

There just weren't many jacketed bullets until just prior to the Hague Convention of 1899.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Conventions_(1899_and_1907)

After that they were very common.

The machinery didn't exist and the need to keep the barrel free of leading didn't arrive until modern smokeless powders got the velocity up in the 1880's or so.

They really took off with the invention of semi-automatic pistols after the turn of the last century because they feed better out of magazines.