I need a musket ball expert!!!

[John 'n' W.Va]

I wanted to take my autistic daughter outside on such a beautiful day. She just sit around the house and that is not healthy for her. So I took her to a park where we both could get a little exercise.

[attachment 71952 10-31-07003waveteck.jpg]

I was swinging while she was swinging. Got the normal loot, except for this musket ball. I found a 22 bullet, that's normal.

[attachment 71954 10-31-07total.jpg]

I have a few questions.
Is it really a musket ball? It is lead. It measures 5/8". That's a 22 lead beside it.
Why did I find a musket ball there?
Up till when, did they quit using musket balls?
Why is it not perfectly round?
Could it be CW? This hill top over looks the city quite well, minus a few trees. When I was a kid my friend found a CW canon ball in his back yard, about 10 city blocks down the hill.
I have a hard time finding the information to do a proper ID. Then they asked questions that I have no idea what they are talking about. I admit my ignorance on this topic.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Could be a ball and they tend to become deformed after they hit something. Many modern black powder shooters still use musket balls. Looks to be about a 58 caliber. Have you got calipers to measure it in thousandths. I forget what the designation for 58 caliber is. 357 thousandths is 38 caliber. Did you find out what that bell was?

Bill

 

[silvernail]

A ".58 caliber" is prolly .579 - which is a true 24 gauge (24 balls to the pound of lead). Tolerances found in old guns as well as modern reproductions are pretty loosey-goosey so you just have to measure what you have and get the right fodder for it. Dixie Gun Works carries several different Minie bullet molds to allow for this. Arsenal bores would be pretty close to standard but some contractors might not have been quite that good, and the reproductions can be even worse. Anyway, if using a patched ball, it would be around .570-.572, and a Minie maybe a bit bigger. Measuring with a ruler is pretty approximate and five eighths of an inch is .625 inch. There could be a buildup of lead oxide or something that disguises the true original dimensions. A 20 gauge ball is .615 inch in diameter, so something around 6/10s of an inch could also be an old deer load for a smooth bore hunting gun. Back before there was much caliber standardization for hunting bores and barrels were made one at a time by hand, the hole was made for "squirrels" or "bear" and it came out however it came out. After the smith was satisfied with the finished hole, he measured it and made a mold to go with the gun. If it came out a .58 caliber, he marked the mold "24" (balls per pound) and everybody was familiar with that designation. No, I ain't a Expert, I just read it somers. Good diggins.

 

[silvernail]

An afterthought ... After the Civil War was done, thousands of shoulder arms were disposed of and found their way to the far corners of this land as homestead and rural pot guns. Very often the muskets were cut down and the rifling reamed out to better serve as economical (cheap!!) combination shotgun & round-ball arms. Sears & Roebuck had them in their catalogs around 1900, I think in both original and cut down (sporterized) versions, and there were many still in use until about WW I. The point is, finding Civil War stuff does not necessarily mean Civil War activity at that location.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

n/t

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

[quote Uncle Willy]Could be a ball and they tend to become deformed after they hit something. Many modern black powder shooters still use musket balls. Looks to be about a 58 caliber. Have you got calipers to measure it in thousandths. I forget what the designation for 58 caliber is. 357 thousandths is 38 caliber. Did you find out what that bell was?

Bill[/quote]

Most in the Relic Forum says it is the top of a counter bell.