Pulled Bullets

[Tom Hughes]

Misfires meant worming bullets from the barrel of the musket. Here are a few different kinds that I've dug from the Vicksburg campaign area:

This first bullet isn't pulled but appears to have been fired from the musket with the ramrod attached. The iron residue is all that's left and is evident at the top of the bullet. During the chaos of battle, it's easy to see how this can happen, but the resulting missing ramrod means the musket is now useless.

This bullet is probably the result of a thin cast and the nose blew and became disfigured when fired.

The bullet was found when the Mexican restaurant on Halls Ferry Road was being constructed, so it's probably Confederate-fired. It's interesting to note that this bullet was pulled and then reloaded and fired. You can clearly see the worm in the nose as well as the riflings on the bullet itself.

A beautiful slick Enfield bullet that has a nice deep worm impression in the nose and then the soldier used the bullet to carve on its base.

Thanks for looking and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

[UCVRelics]

Thanks for the pulled bullet lesson as a lot of folks don't really understand how the were pulled.

 

[Joe Whitworth]

Lots of bullets were pulled by pickets and others coming off duty that required a loaded weapon. Simply firing off a round to unload isn't always practical not to mention firing would require the weapon to be cleaned afterwards.

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

This old thread will show new forum members the tool which is used to extract bullets.

Thing to extract a bullet? | Small Arms & Ammunition

What was the tool with the curled sharp end used to extract a bullet stuck in a barrel?

civilwartalk.com

 

[DixieRifles]

I went out to the woods late yesterday to test my latest batch of "home-made" percussion No 11 caps. I had a load in my .50 cal that I couldnt get to fire, even using factory caps. It was getting dark and I didnt want have pull that bullet. I was almost freaking out. Finally cleared it.