I found these strange bullets

[fastfire]

The small one mesures .355 and weighs 80.2gr
large one mesures .430 and weighs 134gr.
There are (very slight) rifling marks, wondering if there was a jacket of some kind on them?
They appear to be aluminum wire.


120985120986

[GRUMPA]

Those look to be wrapped like high power line wire. Maybe someone cut them down to use in sabot rounds?

[dondiego]

Were they found at a shooting range.......or under a telephone pole?

[fastfire]

Were they found at a shooting range.......or under a telephone pole?

In the berm while mining

[bnelson06]

Lead or steel?

[Janoosh]

Do your research. Wire wrapped, lead core bullets pre date or as old as jaxketed bullets. Making jaxketed was not an exact science in the beginning, same as brass cases. Took some doing to get it right. Some people thought wire wrapped was the way to go. Shame about those bullets, probably worth some cash.

[Janoosh]

You know...I believe I'm wrong.
I think Grumpa has nailed it. Looking again it does resemble what he described.
Apologies.

[ReloaderEd]

Were they found at a shooting range.......or under a telephone pole?
Amazing bht no

[fastfire]

Lead or steel?

They appear to be aluminum. I found the biggest one yesterday and the others last fall.

[fastfire]

Do your research. Wire wrapped, lead core bullets pre date or as old as jaxketed bullets. Making jaxketed was not an exact science in the beginning, same as brass cases. Took some doing to get it right. Some people thought wire wrapped was the way to go. Shame about those bullets, probably worth some cash.


The wire in the center is the same material as the outside wrapping wire, aluminum.

[GoodOlBoy]

That is just odd.... never seen anything like it. Grumpa's explanation seems to make the most sense, even though I can't imagine shooting even a sabot-ed hunk of aluminum down one of my bores.

GoodOlBoy

[44man]

Very interesting anyway, sounds like a very poor person wanting something to shoot!

[bnelson06]

Sounds like alum cable to me

[dondiego]

If the twist was opposite the wire twist they could unwind after leaving the bore. If the twist was reversed, they would tighten up as they went down the bore. If you had two firearms with opposite twists..........what would you do?

[fouronesix]

I'd guess someone was just screwing around with sections of alum cable. Could have been shot from ether smoothbore or rifle. No way accurate out of either at any distance, but the purpose for this type experimentation is a little worrisome. Poor accuracy and ballistics. Short range fragmenting or flechette type concoction??

Looks like something you'd find in third world, rural, really poor area. Rural Africa comes to mind, where local smiths make muzzleloaders out of scrap metal and steel tubing and use any available projectile (scavenged lead from batteries, sections of rebar, sections of iron rod, worn out ball bearings, etc.) for poaching or whatever.

[Got-R-Did]

Federal used to load zinc or aluminum cored jacketed ammunition for L.E. Departments to use in their indoor range facilities. This ammo also used lead free primers and case headstamps were marked with an "NT" for non-toxic. Our Dept's ammo was the 100 gr load in 9MM, was fairly accurate and cases were super clean inside and out after firing. Still have lots of the cases.

http://le.atk.com/ammunition/federal/handgun/details.aspx?id=551
http://le.atk.com/ammunition/speer/handgun/default.aspx

Offered in multiple calibers.

Got-R-Did.

[MtGun44]

How about someone experimenting swaging boolits from aluminum wire. Do the
cut and wrap routine then run through a swager to get the final shape.

Bill

[leadman]

There was a company in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the late 1800's that made wire wrapped bullets commercially. I think these were copper wire though.
Many years ago I used to mine berms in the desert and would find 9mm/38 bullets with an aluminum jacket and lead core.

[Got-R-Did]

Typically, the .380, and .32 cal JHPs by Winchester were aluminum jacketed. I might be mistaken, but I thought I recalled some 110 gr JHPs in .38 Spl. with the same construction by Winchester under the Silvertip brand.
Got-R-Did.

[MtGun44]

Yes, aluminum jackets made relatively recently would be Silvertips.

Bill

[BAGTIC]

Long ago there was a company in Napa, California that made wire wrapped bullets.