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Musket ball vs. shotgun slug

A

Anonymous

Guest
How can one distiguish a lead musket ball from a lead shotgun slug? Anyone know the size difference or dead give aways? The area I hunt has a great deal of Revolutionary war history, and of course a lot of modern era hunters as well. I have found three or four balls so far.
 
Musket balls come in several sizes. I have found them from .30 up to .69 which is most common in civil war sites. I mic'd a 12 Ga. shotgun slug and it measures around .72 or .73. you can also judge by the patina. The older the lead the more oxidation in most cases. Patina can be powdery white or chocolate brown as well as some other shades due to ground conditions. In the first pic the musket balls are all up top( these are dropped and fired )and the 3 slugs are at the bottom. The side view is shown in this pic. In the second pic the bottom of the slugs are shown. Hope this sheds some light for you.HH
Scott
 
Notice how the gray lead color shows through the dirt. That's a sign that it's not that old usually.
 
A friend of mine found an old slug that he said was Civil War era. I don't remember seeing rifling marks on it. Anyone shed more light on this ??
 
Scott, are these slugs you showing Civil War period or modern. Reason I ask, I found one just like it same cavity and rifling as in the pic. Found it 2 weeks ago where a Civil War battle took place. Just curious.
 
Modern shotgun barrels have no rifling that I've ever seen. That's why the rifling is made into the slug from the factory. I suspect old shotgun barrels have no rifling either. Until a few weeks ago I wasn't even aware of Civil War period shotguns (never really gave it any thought). I was told a Civil War period shotgun slug is a rare find. So my best guess on limited knowledge is that a shotgun slug with no rifling marks could be Civil War period or at least very old. Now everything is as clear as mud, eh ?? <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
HH
Guy
 
Notice how all the bullets in the first 5 pics don't have much patina. I know that most of these bullets were fired before the 1960's because that was when the park that I found most of these in was opened.This is just about half of my modern bullets not to mention all my CW bullets.
Scott
 
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