Can anyone identify this bullet for me?

straightpostal

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Apr 29, 2014
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I don't know a lot on bullets. Wondering if anyone knows what this is. Thanks in advance!
 

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Just from that one image I couldn't say for sure but it looks modern to me. It looks like there's a different type of metal at the base just below the rings; is that right ?

Perhaps if you could get two other clear images, one looking straight on at each end, we might get a better idea.
 
I thought it looked like a cleaner too but how did it get so perfectly mashed? It's so symmetrically flattened. Wouldn't it be pancaked and more deformed if it had been fired into something?
 
It could well have hit something but it also might have been damaged and discarded. I have a couple smooth side minies I've shot from my Enfield that didn't deform too much as I used a light charge. It also could have been at the end of it's flight and pretty much spent.
 
It could well have hit something but it also might have been damaged and discarded. I have a couple smooth side minies I've shot from my Enfield that didn't deform too much as I used a light charge. It also could have been at the end of it's flight and pretty much spent.

I wondered about it being spent but then wouldn't it have tumbled? The nose just seems so perfectly tapped down. Maybe he used a light charge for the cleaner and shot it straight into something at short range? I just always wonder about the story with a spent one.
 
I can play "hypothetical" - Our subject for this story, "Billy", was assigned to his turn at guard duty at a Pickett Post. Because the soldiers didn't really care whether they fired a Minie Ball, or a Williams Cleaner, the next cartridge out of "Billy's" cartridge box just happened to be a Williams Cleaner. As our dutiful guard loaded his musket he looked at the bullet and thought "Oh well, it's just another bullet to me!" After a peaceful night on pickett duty, with nothing other than a few cat-calls from the other side, "Hey, are you Boys still over there?"' Billy exchanged pleasantries with his replacement and told him the Rebel with the high-pitched squeaky voice was still teasing them. Upon return to camp the gate sentry reminded Billy, whose eyelids were now thick with thoughts of impending sleep, that he had to unload his musket before entering camp. There were two choices, either draw the ball and dump the powder out, or fire it into a huge pile of sawdust left by the Engineers when the built the fortified front of the camp. It didn't take Billy long to decide that he'd fire into the sawdust and clean his musket later, rather than take the time to draw the ball. The pile of sawdust was twice head high, so Billy shouldered his musket and fired straight into the pile, "BANG!", nodded to the guard, and went straight to his tent where sweet dreams of his girl friend back home awaited his much needed slumber. The Williams Cleaner, being fired straight into the soft pile of sawdust, merely flattened the nose. Said bullet lay in the sawdust pile long after the Armies moved on until it decayed into the ground, where it was discovered some 150 years later. When, upon being added to a collection of bullets, it became the subject of much discussion on how it came to be so slightly deformed!
J.
 
I thought it looked like a cleaner too but how did it get so perfectly mashed? It's so symmetrically flattened. Wouldn't it be pancaked and more deformed if it had been fired into something?

The flat nose and perfect taper (i.e. not like it was mashed) is what made me initially think this might be a more modern round although a cleaner was the second thing to come to mind. It is odd isn't it ?
 
I've found a number of these and most were unfired. I get the idea that they fouled so many weapons most were just tossed on the ground. It took me some time to figure out what they were 30 years ago. They seem to be pretty commonly found today though.
 
Hey, how bout this? Maybe it was never fired at all. Doesn't it look like the top was just cut or worn away rather than being mashed on impact? In a pinch, wouldn't the soft lead serve well to, say, write a quick sign on a wall or something? Why not use the cleaner bullet for that and then toss it aside?

All mine are old and crusty. Anyone have a fresh one to try it with?
 
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At Stones River, the rangers say they find these all the time on the battlefield. Apparently soldiers discarded them as useless or did not want to waste the time on a projectile which was not going to be effective as counter-fire.
 
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