A couple pics of old school boolits

[labradigger1]

I am an avid metal detectorist and love to dig civil war relics. I went out yesterday to a new place I just obtained permission to hunt and found some .69's, one pulled .69' two high impacted and one enfield and one teardrop pistol boolit.
I thought some of you may want to see our "roots" so to speak.
Mods, I am not sure where this belongs so please move if necessary.
Dime for size comparison. No wonder so many amputees during the civil war with them big honkin 69 Harpers ferry boolits flying around.
Lab

[Love Life]

Thank you for the photos! That tear drop pistol bullet is neat and I have never seen or heard of them before. Time to do some research.

[Ihsarah]

Fantastic finds! I used to live near some civil war battlefields and would occasionally find miniballs similar to those, mostly surface ones but I'm sure if I were using a metal detector I would have been swimming in them. Always cool to find a piece of history just under the ground.

[shooter93]

One of the most impressive things I've seen on my trips to Gettysburg battle field was two bullets fused together nose to nose from hitting in midair. One coming from the Union and one from the Confederates.....that's a pile of lead in the air.

[websterz]

A guy I used to detect with has a 69 caliber bullet that is fused into a piece of bone. From the curvature of the fragment it is almost certainly a human femur. Creepy!!

[higgins]

labradigger1-Is the piece you're calling a teardrop pistol bullet possibly something else? Is it made of lead? I found something very much like that made of a brass alloy on a campground a long time ago and never knew what it was until I either saw a photo of a bayonet scabbard, or saw a scabbard in a display that had a "plug" in the end of it that looked very much like the item I found, and the piece in your photo.

[labradigger1]

labradigger1-Is the piece you're calling a teardrop pistol bullet possibly something else? Is it made of lead? I found something very much like that made of a brass alloy on a campground a long time ago and never knew what it was until I either saw a photo of a bayonet scabbard, or saw a scabbard in a display that had a "plug" in the end of it that looked very much like the item I found, and the piece in your photo.

Yep, it's lead. I cannot recall the caliber and I'm at work now but I beleive it was .36.
What you may have found you are referring to could be a finial from a flag pole or a sword scabbard tip. Maybe post a pic of it.
Lab

[bedbugbilly]

shooter93 - your post reminds me of the rifled musket I saw many years ago - at least 50 - and unfortunately I can't remember in which museum it is housed. Anyway . . . if I remember correctly, it was an 1861 and as the ball was leaving the barrel, one fired by the confederates entered the muzzle precisely and the two met part way down the barrel. Results - where they met the top of the barrel was blown open. It may be in the West Point Museum but not sure.

labradigger1 - you certainly had some nice finds! Great photos! Thanks for sharing.

I know this is a cast boolit site . . . but I have often thought that it would be nice if a forum was added on here for "antique/collectible cartridges and bullets". A lot of folks are interested in such things - it would be a great place to share what you did here as well as being able to show and ask questions about antique and old cartridges where a person is seeking information on them. A while back, I had some old 38 copper casing rimfire cartridges as well as several smaller copper cased rimfire cartridges that I need help identifying. I didn't know where to post them so I posted them on the BP Cartridge section and was finally able to clear up what they are. Maybe there wouldn't be enough interest or posts - I'm not sure - but a lot of folks sure enjoy seeing threads like this one and see the photos.

Thanks for sharing . . . enjoyed it all! I have a metal detector that my wife got for me a number of years ago - don't live near any historical battle sites, etc. but have had fun going around old houses and house foundations. I have found some pretty nice roofing nails if that counts!? LOL

[popper]

Bedbug - find the front or kitchen door, look for fence post or tree nearby & search there. Also along the rafters in 2 story or loft building. Buried treasure next to a close landmark or easy to reach but out of the way cubby hole. Had a gal bring in a mason jar full of gold & silver coins found in the loft rafters by the stairs.

[bedbugbilly]

labridigger1 - looking at what you call a "tear drop bullet" - what I think you have there is a lead "acorn finial" used on cartridge boxes and cap boxes to secure the flap strap. The Confederates, due to the shortage of brass utilized for other war needs, often used lead "acorn finial" or "studs" on the manufacture of the cartridge boxes and cap boxes. The groove on the narrow waisted portion is where it ws positioned in the hole punched in the leather. This was an extremely crude way of doing it but it worked and the lead construction allowed for the peening on the inside to hold it (just as a rivet is "set"). If you have the opportunity to hold this up to a brass acorn stud on either an original or report cartridge box or cap box, I think you'll find it is pretty much a "match". Don't compare it to the "round ball brass studs" used on the cheaper reproduction leather work from India, etc. Those studs are incorrect and are of a latter "Sam Brown" style stud.

I collected Civil War artifacts for over 50 years and have had the opportunity to examine original Confederate leather work pieces that utilized these lead studs. To be honest, the bullets are a great find for sure but personally, I'd be more thrilled to find one of these lead studs! On original pieces, I've seen these studs attached by two methods. 1. Placed through the punched hole and then "peened" in place and 2. Placed through the punched hole with a copper or zinc "washer' (like a saddleer's copper rivet) and then "peened" over.

[lightman]

Congrats on the nice finds, and Thanks for posting them! A friend found a hospital site and has some bullets with teeth marks in them!

[RED333]

Thanks for sharing the pics.
My house has a log cabin in the middle of it, was told it is close to 180 years old.
I did a bit of metal detector work on the land, all I found was cans and junk.

[pworley1]

Good find.

[ascast]

nice find ! what is the bullet with the hole out the point?

[labradigger1]

nice find ! what is the bullet with the hole out the point?

It has been pulled with a screw on a ramrod

[BCB]

nice find ! what is the bullet with the hole out the point?

I wondered if it was some type of hollow point...

But, it appears that labradigger1 may know what it is...

Neat stuff for sure...

Good-luck...BCB

[newton]

That tear drop boolit is very interesting. There is a guy on here that goes by johnson1942, he had a mold made that almost looked just like that boolit in your picture. Before he had the mold made, he was taking a round ball and screwing it to a conical if memory serves me right. I'll have to make mention of this to him. Maybe he can chime in on it.

[johnson1942]

thanks newton, if any one has a faster twist muzzle loader the bullet with a round ball base works very very good. it just proves that you can never think of any thing new. my bullet is a bore rider with a roundball on the back of it. the roundball back is .493 diam. and the front is .498 diam. i knarl up the front to .505 or their abouts, and lube with alox. i patch the roundball part with a tight weave linen patch. you can knarl up a bullet fine by running it back and forth between two flat files that are large and clean. newton and i have a little hand crank knarler but the files work just as good. i place the bullet over the patch and tap it into the bore useing a starter and a small rubber mallet. once it is in the bore it goes down as easy as a roundball. my bullet weighs 535 grains and works in a 1/28 twist .50 cal. and is as accurate as far as your eyes let you shoot and hits like a freight train. i will put a picture of the open mold on this post if one of you pms me your email and i can send a picture to your email and you can post it for me. i cant figure out the way to put pictures on castboolits but my wife can easily send pictures of the mold to emails by her phone. again it is a great way to turn your faster twist muzzle loader into a real freight train coming a 70 miles an hour. i honestly think if more shooters saw this type of bullet that they would want to hunt with it in their inlines. you could even go to alaska and get bigger game than deer and a 535 grain .50 cal bullet with 80 to 90 grains of powder behind it is as powerful as a 50/90 sharps. the mold was made to my design by steeve brooks out of montana. thanks again newton.

[oldpapps]

That or those are good finds.

Best I've done is when a kid, I found a 58 cal Minne in the gravel on the James River just up stream from where the Wilson's Creek comes in. Wilson's Creek Battle Field, SW Missouri. I musta been 8 or 9 at the time (had a great grandfather who was on KP during the battle, southern boy).
Where I live now, I did find a 3 inch solid. Live on the old road (more of a trail) from Harrisonville to La Cygnes , see 'Order Number 11, Border skirmishes along the Missouri / Kansas state line'. There is a 'turn-stile' up on the ridge and it would cover the South Fork of the Grand River. The entire County was called 'The Burnt District of Missouri'. (What a waste.)

Bag and tag each one, list all that is known and what is believed along with when, where and who made the find. Otherwise, they will just be some old piece of lead to be melted down.

Enjoy,

OSOK

P.S.
Look at my avatar. I'm the little boy with red hair standing next to my grandfather. His father was in the Missouri Guard (Union) and was a scout. During the Battle of Pea Ridge, he spend the main battle day at his brother's home, he was a scout for the Southerner. Brothers on both sides.

OSOK

[Duster340]

Neat! Thanks for sharing.

[FLHTC]

Whew, I'd be in handcuffs if I took my Tesoro to Gettysburg but I'd love to. The park rangers have infrared goggles and theres no escaping those. You can't even be on the property with one.

[labradigger1]

Whew, I'd be in handcuffs if I took my Tesoro to Gettysburg but I'd love to. The park rangers have infrared goggles and theres no escaping those. You can't even be on the property with one.
State parks and battlefields are strictly forbidden. It is illegal to even pick up an artifact man,ade or natural. No way I would risk my whites machines for that.

[newton]

Here is the picture of the mold that Johnson had made. It just is interesting to me that someone was thinking the same type of way back in those days.

129620

[higgins]

129626129627Here's photos of the pieces I found about 50 years ago on what was a confederate bivouac area for some length of time. I don't know if Union troops camped there too; if they didn't, looks like some pieces of captured Union equipment were discarded or lost. This is a high percentage of finials, which stands to reason for a bivouac area.

The two on the left are made of a copper alloy, and the one on the right was apparently whittled from a Williams bullet.
On the whittled one, you can't see it in the photo but the hump is visible on the nose of it where the base plug stem came through, and the nose contour matches a Williams bullet I have that I found on the same site.

[johnson1942]

i sure they were long range rifles and it is too bad we dont have any info on the guns that shot those bullets. i had a thompson hawken rebarreled in 1/28 .50 cal. 36 inches long oregon rifle barrel co. barrel. rebuilt it to look diff somewhat from the thompson one. put dozeens of brass tacks on it very carefully. looks like a real mountain mans gun. a sleeper, as it shoot a 535 grain backpatched bullet from the mold above. will be able to drop a elk moose or buffalo if i could ever afford to hunt them. put it right through the center of a bucket at 130 yards last fall.