Metal Detecting

One of my permissions had major civil war action. There are musket balls everywhere Fred had told me earlier this year to watch out for powder measures and today I found my third bit of one . But I’d never had a powder flask nozzle but, a few feet away, I got my first one. Then a few feet from that a chewed musket ball.


It made me start thinking about what I’d found on this site. There are hundreds of musket balls, and lots of other lead shot. I have been reading this great guidance on recording civil war battlefields and realised I have pretty much all the musket balls described. I have 2 chewed balls, one with purposeful dents, ones unfired, some with impressive impact evidence and ones with bands round (supposedly not civil war ones). The guide has loads of photos and additional info so really is worth a read.

I even have this one where two balls have collided

There are lots of spoons and other evidence too. It builds a great picture which I’m carefully recording

So enjoy the photo gallery of musket balls, peripheral items and other ammunition.

They come in lots of different sizes...





Some are chewed whilst others are burred



Banded ones are post 17th century



Distorted bullets with firing marks - possibly from being rammed too hard into the gun



Conjoined? No I think it’s two that just collided



They can get very squished on impact




Gunpowder measure

Nice post and photos look forward to seeing what comes up next.
John

Interesting finds from a civil war Battlefield area.

Cannon Balls should also follow.

Well thats my past experience.

Jerry.

What a great post, thanks and for the link

Dave

Maybe a siege piece if you are extremely lucky. They were carried as souvenirs so can turn up anywhere related to that period. Scarborough ones are the rarest.

JBM wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 8:26 am Interesting finds from a civil war Battlefield area.

Cannon Balls should also follow.

Well thats my past experience.

Jerry.

Haven’t found canon balls but have dug up parts of mortar - the thick iron shell of the exploding type often used in siege situations. Big iron I ignore so I’m sure there’s loads there.

Mike. T. wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:11 am Maybe a siege piece if you are extremely lucky. They were carried as souvenirs so can turn up anywhere related to that period. Scarborough ones are the rarest.

I've been looking, believe me. All I’ve found coin wise are rose farthings for this period. A bit of silver would be nice too

Found loads of bullets too. These are later aren’t they?

Great mix of stuff & a most excellent post, there were so many skirmish`s across the country its important to treat them well.
Certainly worth the "pain" of some all metal detecting to establish the kit used.

It would be pretty cool if you found a cannon!

Nice lot of finds there Cath, how about a nice Oxford mint Civil War crown dropped by one of the Cavaliers.

Bob

Easylife wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:20 am It would be pretty cool if you found a cannon!

A whole cannon? Cool possibly but ain’t going to happen. Sick of iron buckles and bits of pewter spoons and tombac and other similar buttons. Luckily there’s also medieval stuff though too

bob79 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:24 am Nice lot of finds there Cath, how about a nice Oxford mint Civil War crown dropped by one of the Cavaliers.

Bob

Yes please

Oxgirl36 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 8:06 am

Distorted bullets with firing marks - possibly from being rammed too hard into the gun

Great finds, i think it's 6th photo down, the ball on the left looks to have rifling marks?

Really nice.

The ones that have a band around them are for the Brunswick rifle, early 19th C. The conical Minie will be much later, 1850 onwards.
The ones that looked chewed appear to have been miscast. I cast my own lead balls for my .44 revolver that’s on my licence, when the mould isn’t hot enough when casting, they look like prunes.

Great finds,

Simon

MilitaryMetalMagnut wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 11:13 am
The ones that looked chewed appear to have been miscast. I cast my own lead balls for my .44 revolver that’s on my licence, when the mould isn’t hot enough when casting, they look like prunes.

Great finds,

Simon

Hi Simon

Thank you for the other info, that’s really helpful .

Interestingly on the ‘chewed’ ones you said the same as a friend of mine that does a lot of re-enactments etc. So I brought the two in that I added in the photo above. After handling them he was pretty sure one was burred and the other shows clear teeth marks. It’s hard to photograph them well enough to show that . These two are now used by a guy who does talks in schools about the civil war.

I do have at least a couple of miscast ones somewhere in the box and they would photograph similarly I guess, but feel and look different in the hand.