Opinions on this bullet?

[jagermeister]

Friend of mine was tinkering with his new bad-ass metal detector and found this bullet in his neighbor’s woods, about 10” underground. The cartridge in the pic for reference is a .38 special, I believe. What are your guy’s thoughts on this bullet? .40 caliber? Anything about it elude to whether it came from a pistol or a rifle?

 

[MoonLab]

Nice find. I have no idea. What kind of metal detector?

 

[giles]

Are we sure it’s a bullet?

Looks kinda like an old planter piece. Timing guide to be exact.

 

[jagermeister]

Nice find. I have no idea. What kind of metal detector?

Not sure on that. I could find out though!

Are we sure it’s a bullet?

Looks kinda like an old planter piece. Timing guide to be exact.

Great point. I guess I didn’t look at the pic that close. I just immediately saw flat-nose bullet with rifling grooves... but now I don’t know. Interesting thought!

 

[MoonLab]

I have been thinking about buying a metal detector at some point.

 

[Ohiosam]

I'm not sure it's a bullet either. At first glance yes but what looks like rifling is extremely deep and that groove doesn't look like any bullet I''m familiar with. Interesting find.

 

[Chass]

Depends how old it is. Rifling in old octagon barrels can be pretty extreme. The groove could be just for lube. Looks like an old SWC. I'd put a set of calipers to it and get a diameter and length first. Would at least be able to reference that across some reloading manuals to see if it could be a possible projectile.

 

[Archertl]

Is it even lead jim? If it is a bullet the only thing i could think of it being would be some kind of rifling engraved at loading muzzleloader bullet. Most target muzzleloaders do have very deep rifling. The horizontal groove is for wax lube. Even then that object just resembles a REAL bullet as all of them i have seen have multiple lube grooves.

 

[jagermeister]

All good thoughts and suggestions! I wish I had the bullet in my own hands so I could answer some of your questions! I’ll see what I can find out. For reference, it was found on Catawba Island (peninsula).

 

[Fletch]

My first thought was a Buffalo Bullet from a muzzle loader....