Fired Musket Ball?

[PowerDetecting]

n/t

 

[Ant]

I would say no by the looks of it but what does it weight in grains if possible? It would take a lot of volicity to flatten out a fired musket ball like that or a near point blank range impact.

 

[Ism]

I'm not sure what you have. Fired into something metal could possibly flatten a lead ball in that fashion.
I have found a couple chunks of lead just like that, one being yesterday and it made me think of your post.

 

[Ism]

This is the one I found yesterday. It is smaller than yours and might be from buckshot.
It also looks like a cloth pattern is imprinted on one side.

 

[PowerDetecting]

it weighed in at 8g

 

[Ant]

If that is 8 grams then the ball weights 123.46gr (grains). I found this formula on ehow, see if you can figrue it out.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7633630_identify-revolutionary-war-musket-balls.html

1
Pick up the musket ball with forceps and examine it for a mold seam. Because of the crudeness of some 18th-century molds, the seam of an authentic musket ball may be slightly offset.

2
Hold the musket ball in the forceps and look for a round, raised bump on the ball. The bump, known as the casting sprue, was made in the inlet channel of the mold.

3
Examine the ball for a white, lead-oxide patina. Musket balls buried underground for years develop a coating. However, the presence of pine and oak trees in the excavation area can darken the sheen of an authentic musket ball to a deep reddish-brown.

4
Measure the ball's diameter. 18th-century musket balls range in diameter from 0.39 inches to 0.69 inches. The British Brown Bess musket carried a 0.693 inch diameter ball. American rifles took smaller balls, measuring less than 0.60 inches in diameter but no smaller than 0.39 inches.

5
Weigh the ball if its shape is not spherical. A fired musket ball may have hit a tree or other object and changed shape. Calculate the ball's diameter with the formula: Diameter in inches = 0.223304 x (Weight in grams) to the power of 1/3. Compare the calculated diameter to the measurements in Step 4.

 

[Ant]

If you post the outside diameter I will use the formula in number 5 so we can compare it to number 4.

 

[PowerDetecting]

it is 2/3" long and 1/2" wide

 

[Ant]

Because it is not perfectly round you can take a string of tread and tape it on the outer most edge of the item. Then run it around and either mark the tread at the end or cut it. Then take the tread and place it on a ruler that you have the smallest scale on, a machinest ruler would work best because it uses incrments of 64th of an inch but use whatever you have.