Odd Civil War minie ball

Another theory on why it needed pulling. After a hard rain in the field, it was SOP to pull your load and recharge.
ahenry: the ogive,IIRC is the point at which the curvature of the bullet point reaches the diameter of the bore. It's the first part of the bullet to contact the rifling.
 
Jim,

I'm not certain that I can buy that a worm would cause the kind of very deep yet very smooth and even deformation of the bullet that this one shows...
 
Hi, Mike,

That was my best guess, based on having seen several of those balls which were dug into by worms. If the worm points are not sharp, they will scrape lead but not dig in enough to grip the ball. Of course, that ball has a lot of corrosion and it is hard to tell if there are any marks like that or not.

I agree that many things could have caused the odd shape, the worm was just the first I thought of.

Jim
 
In my humble opinion, the hollow point, to borrow modern terminology, was created by a worm. It looks exactly like a screw has been driven into it. Examine the minie and you'll see the concentric ring on the outside which is below the top of the bullet. That appears to have been made by the ramrod when the solider tried to pound the minie down the barrel. Also look at the skirt and you'll see that it wasn't fired...the skirt hasn't been expanded.

Of course, this is just my worthless opinion and I'll defer to a forensics expert.
 
Hi, 4v50 Gary, and others,

(forgive me if this is a double post - something went wrong)

Take a look above for discussion on ball screw vs. worm.

You could well be correct on the ramrod, though. If a tulip head rod was pounded down hard enough it could leave a shape something like that. I agree the ball has not been fired.

Glad, as always, to have your ideas as you usually have good ones.

Jim
 
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Opps!

Hey Jim, you're right. It's a stuck ball remover (screw) that made the hole and I got my terminology mixed up. Considering that I've taughted quite a few folks blackpowder rifle shooting (with proper terminology) shame on me!
 
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