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.69 calibre Minie ball.?????

C

christhurston

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Hello All,
A recent addition to my collection appears to be a Minie ball in a somewhat larger calibre than normally seen.It is unfired and looks to have been dug up somewhere,it has three cannelures and a conical hollow in it's base.It's about 32mm long and almost 18mm in diameter,the only reference I can find to anything that may have fired a Minie ball of that kind of calibre is the M1842 Springfield .69 cal rifled musket.Is that a possibility,or might it be for something else???
Regards Chris.
 
US musket 1842

I think you are right on Chris. The US musket 1842 smooth bore rifle fired .69 caliber balls. The muskets were later modified with rifleing and a few other mods....Dano
 
Minie

The early Royal Navy Minie rifle was I believe .701" calibre. I am not sure of the Pattern, but it followed the rifled Pattern 1842 musket.

If it was found in your part of the world that is a more likely connection that the US military.

Regards
TonyE
 
Many thanks for your thoughts on this chaps,I've no idea where it was found,but it does look as if it may have come out of the sea.So the RN connection suggested by Tony does seem more likely,either way,it will make an ideal centrepiece for a small collection of early projectiles.
Regards Chris.
 
I have a few dug .69s in my collection, both round ball and conical...there are some that are bigger!!
 
Hi CampX,I expect that these things are quite common in your part of the world,even more so,in the States.I seem to recall reading somewhere that 3 tons of lead had been fired off for every casualty during the ACW.There must be a great many still to be found,and numerous different types amongst them.Until this Minie ball inspired me to read up on the period,I had never heard,for example,of the smooth sided Pritchett ball used by the British army,and also apparently supplied to the Confederacy.I may be able to persuade one or two of our members on that side of the pond to send me some different examples.I'm not too sure that such things are often found over here.
Regards Chris.
 
Hello Chris..I have a book kicking around here that lists over 2500 diffrerant types of ACW ammo...most of the examples shown are dug....many differances are very minor.

At the begining of the War, both sides sent buyers to every Country in Europe..and many Countries sold off older usless weapons and ammo.

That is way so many types of weapons and differant types of ammo are found in Campsites and on Battlefields.

Many differant types of British Weapons were imported to the States, including Tranters, Beaumonts ect.
It is acutally a very interesting study.

Dean
 
The .58 caliber minnie ball was the most common round of the American Civil War. The North which had the regular US army used a hodge podge of weapons, but the south (conferdates) were a less organized force to begin with, used anything and everything. Like campX said the different types of bullets fired number beyond imagination. Civil war bullets can be found at gun shows over here cheap, and are even offered in a fancy display box showing several different rounds and these are not so cheap...Dano
 
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