Minie Ball?

[Guest]

Found what I thought was some type of old bullet head & what seemed to be a small musket ball last week. I was watching some GPX5000 vids on YouTube this morning & a bloke was using his 5000 to hunt relics on an old civil war field in the US. He pulled out a "bullet head " , the same as I found here on a NSW goldfield, then went on to say that it was a musket projectile that was packed on top of 3 small musket balls & fired? After a bit more searching I found that these bullet like projectiles are actually Minie Balls as per below.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minié_ball

When I get my ute back from the diesel doctor this arvo I'll post some pics but was wondering how common/rare these are to find in Australia. I had never seen or heard of them before but not doubt black powder shooting enthusiasts would have.

Interesting find either way.

 

[Ben78]

I got a musket ball at Hargreaves and have found some pretty big lead balls. Got some huge pistol type slugs too, like what you see on the civil war relic sites

 

[Guest]

 

[Ben78]

Yep, looks like it
here is a pic of some different projectiles

The musket ball I have is like a sinker only without a hole through it, came from a rough mold with a sprue.

 

[Ben78]

And this is what they did to a bloke... just a link cos some people are squeamish, its a civil war period skull but still....

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/visibleproofs/media/detailed/ii_a_103e.jpg

 

[Guest]

Yeah there a mean projectile alright. Heres a femur after being hit.
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/galleries/technologies/patterns_image_4.html

The musket ball I had found was like a medium sized sinker without the hole too. Had rough area around the centre from what I assume being molded. Unfortunately it is now somewhere on my front lawn. Dropped it last night after getting it out of the ute :lol: