some type of musket ball?

[jeepjoe79]

buddy found this while detecting in new lenox, il.....we have no idea what it is, the ball is about 1/2 inch ? Thanks for lookin!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Nope. Even if it was an un-cut casting sprue it wouldn't be that long of a "tail".


Net weight, perhaps?

 

[NOLA_Ken]

looks like a bolt handle from a bolt action rifle. Is it steel?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Knowing what the metal is would help for identifying the object. The only thing you tell us which might give us a clue about the metal is your guess that the item might be a musketball ...which suggests the metal is lead. Is it lead?

Lacking that info, my preliminary guess (just a guess at this point) is that it is the finial from a bayonet-scabbard's tip or large knife-scabbard's tip. But if your estimate of the ball being "about 1/2-inch" in diameter is accurate, it's unusually large for a scabbard-tip finial ball.