Colliding bullets....civil war?

Civil war or post civil war?

  • Civil war

    Votes: 2 18.2%
  • Post civil war

    Votes: 9 81.8%

  • Total voters
    11

MrMarineG

Cadet
Joined
Oct 30, 2016
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Hello, I bought what I thought was very interesting at a yard sale. The gentleman that sold them it to me said it was dug up in Georgia. I am not expert on bullets or anything but any idea on how to properly identify them? Here are a few pictures. They may or may not be civil war but who knows. I also took a caliper to them so you can see the diameters of the base of the bullets. One is slightly bigger than the other.

Any input would be great!
 
Is that a display of modern bullets? And when you mean "moder", that's up to year 2016? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the terminology.

The display is of Minie bullets fired in the battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863.

I'd say "modern" for ammunition would be that which uses a smokeless propellant. In the United States you could ball park that as from about 1900 to the present. The same is true for shotgun slugs. Yours look to me more likely fairly recent; likely no older than the 1980s (just a rough guess).
 
The display is of Minie bullets fired in the battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863.

I'd say "modern" for ammunition would be that which uses a smokeless propellant. In the United States you could ball park that as from about 1900 to the present. The same is true for shotgun slugs. Yours look to me more likely fairly recent; likely no older than the 1980s (just a rough guess).


Dang, well I should start doing my own research before I go buying things! Haha..
 
I wonder if someone just tried to replicate a relic or something.
Almost impossible to replicate without very strict testing conditions, they did the colliding bullet test on Myth Busters, it took many attempts to get the timing right. What they found was that in order for two bullets to collide, they would have to be fired at exactly the same time down to the millisecond, both weapons would have to have the same amount of powder and the two weapons would need to be held at exactly the same angle. The Myth busters used lasers to align the weapons but even then they struggled. Myth Busters tested the theory in the episode Firearms Folklore.
 
View attachment 113951 View attachment 113952 View attachment 113953 View attachment 113954 View attachment 113951 View attachment 113952 Hello, I bought what I thought was very interesting at a yard sale. The gentleman that sold them it to me said it was dug up in Georgia. I am not expert on bullets or anything but any idea on how to properly identify them? Here are a few pictures. They may or may not be civil war but who knows. I also took a caliper to them so you can see the diameters of the base of the bullets. One is slightly bigger than the other.

Any input would be great!
They look identical to the two fused bullets from the Myth Buster show.
 
It does pose an interesting question as to how the fusion occurred, especially when they look to be identical types of slug. Given the relative close ranges at which slugs are used in hunting I rather doubt two people were shooting in each others' direction (I really hope not anyway !). They could have been gathered at a range or some place where people go to shoot and sight in rifles I suppose. In that case one would have simply struck another previously-fired slug that was in the backdrop material. It is an interesting little curiosity.
 
Almost impossible to replicate without very strict testing conditions, they did the colliding bullet test on Myth Busters, it took many attempts to get the timing right. What they found was that in order for two bullets to collide, they would have to be fired at exactly the same time down to the millisecond, both weapons would have to have the same amount of powder and the two weapons would need to be held at exactly the same angle. The Myth busters used lasers to align the weapons but even then they struggled. Myth Busters tested the theory in the episode Firearms Folklore.

If I remember right from Myth Busters they never got it right and never got both weapons to fire at the same time. Part of this was because that both weapons were mounted just a few feet apart, so if one fired even a fraction of a second before the other then you get it wrong. In the field you have hundreds/thousands of round firing at the same time and from much greater distance, so while they chance that two specific rounds would collide is low the chance that any two might collide is greater.

From what I recall what Myth Buster finally did was to suspend a bullet in a harness so that it was lightly resting and pointed in the direction of the other muzzle. Then they basically fired a weapon at a stationary bullet. The results look convincingly like the Gettysburg display (and ones at other battlefields).
 
I just don't see any way to replicate this unless as John says, it was at a firing range and one was a spent round and hit head on during training, There were quite a few WWII training bases in Georgia, that have been subsequently shuttered and these two look to have been in the ground for some time?
 
That's what I was thinking, maybe it is possible for someone to replicate this, but why!? And if the myth busters couldn't actually replicate it, how could an individual do so? Like I stated earlier, I have no idea as to the legitimacy of these two grounds, but it is really cool I think! Any idea what it would be worth to a collector? Would anyone be willing to make an offer? Lol, if it's not worth much, then I spent way too much for it knowing how much a civil war bullet cost individually, but I honestly thought it was really cool! And telling by the responses and cool scenarios in which this could have happened really makes it worth while. I mean two bullets colliding!? Surely these guys weren't shooting at each other just playing around!
 
I just don't see any way to replicate this unless as John says, it was at a firing range and one was a spent round and hit head on during training, There were quite a few WWII training bases in Georgia, that have been subsequently shuttered and these two look to have been in the ground for some time?


It does look like they were in the round for some time. Almost looks like the rounds are petrified! Is that what rounds look like after some years in the ground? Or does a take a set number of years to look like that?
 
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