Musket ball?

[Buddie11]

Found this ball metal detecting in older playground. It appears to be pretty old. My location is Alberta Canada,kind of strange place to find a musket ball! Any thoughts? Oh,5/8 diameter in imperial

[Rauville]

Looks like maybe someone lost their "steelie" shooting marbles.
http://www.landofmarbles.com/pc/steelie/loose-playing-marbles.html

[bigwull]

its only a musket ball if its lead....may i suggest you scrape it a little with a sharp knife...if its lead it will scrape easily...and it should be very malleable

[Buddie11]

Yup it's steel,I think the man with the big book is right. Bought the metal detector about 2 months ago,500$ later and I think I have made about 6 bucks in pennies. Did find a 1940 50 cent piece though! With that kind of weathering what age do you think it is? Just curious

[mart]

Looks like maybe someone lost their "steelie" shooting marbles.
http://www.landofmarbles.com/pc/steelie/loose-playing-marbles.html

Indeed they did !!  Every kid used to have one of those !!

[bigwull]

if its steel, then its not a musket ball....as for age....what does it matter....it has no value....

[Buddie11]

I'm no gun expert bigwull ,I know bullets are lead shot,any gun took steel shot?

[bigwull]

I'm no gun expert bigwull ,I know bullets are lead shot,any gun took steel shot?

you,re asking the wrong person....i,m very anti-gun....better asking Mart....she,s an expert by all accounts....

[mart]

Not on muskets !!  But I think they would fire anything small enough to fit in the barrel !! They used powder charge and wadding so "bullets" could be rocks, nails or anything !! They were the early equivalent to a sawed off shotgun !!

[Buddie11]

Marble!! Oh this is the coin I found,6 inches under.

[mart]

Not a bad coin !! Have you looked it up ??

[Buddie11]

Well ,mart it is worth more than 50 cents in silver. 12-15 bucks in silver is what I came up with according to the Internet , which is always right!!!!!??

[cogar]

I know bullets are lead shot, any gun took steel shot?

US Federal Law now mandates the use of steel shot for hunting any type waterfowl.

And like Mart said, bout anything they could drop down the barrel.

This was especially true in the late 18th and the 19th century when they were using 2 gage, 4 gage and 6 gage shotguns for shooting ducks, geese and Passenger Pigeons ..... to send to "market" in the big cities.

During migration periods they would ship those birds "by the barrel full" to the big hotels, etc.

The skies were literally black for days when the Passenger Pigeons were migrating south for the winter. But they shot all of them but 1 .... and it died of old age while in captivity..

[bigwull]

I know bullets are lead shot, any gun took steel shot?

US Federal Law now mandates the use of steel shot for hunting any type waterfowl.

And like Mart said, bout anything they could drop down the barrel.

This was especially true in the late 18th and the 19th century when they were using 2 gage, 4 gage and 6 gage shotguns for shooting ducks, geese and Passenger Pigeons ..... to send to "market" in the big cities.

During migration periods they would ship those birds "by the barrel full" to the big hotels, etc.

The skies were literally black for days when the Passenger Pigeons were migrating south for the winter. But they shot all of them but 1 .... and it died of old age while in captivity..

.....over here...2 gauge shotguns were mounted on small boats...for wildfowling they were called punt guns....btw...a gage...over here is a type of fruit..i.e. greengage

[cogar]

I was looking for a picture like that one but couldn't find one. I forgot what they were called.