Some detailed info on Civil War Minies

[Stantheman86]

https://www.libertyrifles.org/research/uniforms-equipment/fouled-muskets-revisited
Here is a link to some very deeply researched info on Minie sizing, jammed Rifle-Muskets and defective bullets, for the Historically inclined shooters who love obscure info like me

 

[hawkeye2]

Very interesting, thanks for posting. In the early years of the N-SSA a lot of members were shooting original CW minies bought from Bannermans.

 

[Stantheman86]

I had never thought of the "dropped " Minies being bullets that didn't fit and were discarded

Or how prevalent "bad powder" may have been.

Wartime Production always makes for problems with ammo when production is rushed.

I'll have to re read this article today.

Also the book "Myths and Realities of the Rifled Musket" really deep dives a lot of statistics and changed my viewpoint on a lot of things.

 

[Rifleman1776]

FWIW: In the 1960's I bought a large quantity of dig-up minies from just outside the park at Gettysburg. Of course, they were, and still are white with oxidation. They are three grooves and measure .575" diameter. I gave away many over the years but still have about 100.

 

[ohio ramrod]

About forty years ago my daughter won an essay contest and the prize was a three day trip to Gettysburg. While at one of the places where they were selling items I noticed an open door to a back room where I could see two large lyman lead pots, a five gallon bucket, and a jar of muratic acid. Battle field finds?

 

[Stantheman86]

FWIW: In the 1960's I bought a large quantity of dig-up minies from just outside the park at Gettysburg. Of course, they were, and still are white with oxidation. They are three grooves and measure .575" diameter. I gave away many over the years but still have about 100.

This is why I just size all of mine to .575, they just work

 

[Stantheman86]

About forty years ago my daughter won an essay contest and the prize was a three day trip to Gettysburg. While at one of the places where they were selling items I noticed an open door to a back room where I could see two large lyman lead pots, a five gallon bucket, and a jar of muratic acid. Battle field finds?

I always suspected all these "Battlefield Finds" were just new bullets that were aged. But back in the 80s they were like a Quarter and made neat souvenirs

Someday someone will dig out the backstop of my range and find the 1000s of Minies I fired and think there was a Civil War training camp there or something

 

[kh54]

@Stantheman86, what do you shoot?

 

[TFoley]

Re Post #7 - Folks will also be wondering just what part of the ACW took place in the back of beyond rural Northamptonshire/Cambridgeshire border, where our backstops are liberally sprinkled with Miniés and the occasion hexagonal bullet obviously shot from a Whitworth....

 

[nkbj]

I can just get lost in examining photos of the various styles of hollow base bullets in use during the war.

 

[toot]

About forty years ago my daughter won an essay contest and the prize was a three day trip to Gettysburg. While at one of the places where they were selling items I noticed an open door to a back room where I could see two large lyman lead pots, a five gallon bucket, and a jar of muratic acid. Battle field finds?

some times things are made while you wait?

 

[Okie Hog]

Thanks for the link.

i have a big bunch of battle field pickup bullets. Some were hard to load.

 

[TFoley]

Thanks for the link.

i have a big bunch of battle field pickup bullets. Some were hard to load.

I see no signs of rifling - perhaps they had been fired from a musket?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I always suspected all these "Battlefield Finds" were just new bullets that were aged. But back in the 80s they were like a Quarter and made neat souvenirs

Someday someone will dig out the backstop of my range and find the 1000s of Minies I fired and think there was a Civil War training camp there or something

Somebody mentioned muriatic acid, but if you have a container that will hold a 40 lb. bag of processed manure, you can bury them in that, and left outside, at the end of the summer I'm told they are nice and white with lead oxide....

LD

 

[tenngun]

Just an aside, I recall reading that WW1 areoplane pilots would hand select machine gun ammo and Polish their ammo before a flight as there were so many bad cartridges then.
Shooting my .62 TFC with .570 ball in a paper cartridge in humid ozarks I’ve noted ramming starts becoming hard at ten shots or so, and for safety sake I swab then.
Forty shots in any sort of humidity has to become a killer, even if ammo was perfect

 

[Okie Hog]

perhaps they had been fired from a musket?

The one on the left has faint rifling marks not visible in the photo. The one on the right was surely fired from a musket.

 

[Texas Gil]

Just thinking about battlefield minies from CW. My guess is a lot of these were never fired but extra ammo dropped or thrown away after a battle. Probably they were cartridges wrapped in paper bundles. Over the decades all that’s left is the minie? Most that were fired would be deformed and show some sign of rifling

 

[springfield art]

FWIW: In the 1960's I bought a large quantity of dig-up minies from just outside the park at Gettysburg. Of course, they were, and still are white with oxidation. They are three grooves and measure .575" diameter. I gave away many over the years but still have about 100.

Those and today's minies came from 'diggers' in Northern VA and other battle areas. Digging on the federal property of Gettysburg was and is illegal. Digging on private land is another thing. Many stores had bowls with dug minies at the cash register, remember?

 

[TFoley]

Just an aside, I recall reading that WW1 areoplane pilots would hand select machine gun ammo and Polish their ammo before a flight as there were so many bad cartridges then.
Shooting my .62 TFC with .570 ball in a paper cartridge in humid ozarks I’ve noted ramming starts becoming hard at ten shots or so, and for safety sake I swab then.
Forty shots in any sort of humidity has to become a killer, even if ammo was perfect

If you shot Brett Gibbons' 'English cartridges' then you'd find that swabbing would be a bad memory. He relates having shot 160 in succession without a single swab.

 

[springfield art]

Just thinking about battlefield minies from CW. My guess is a lot of these were never fired but extra ammo dropped or thrown away after a battle. Probably they were cartridges wrapped in paper bundles. Over the decades all that’s left is the minie? Most that were fired would be deformed and show some sign of rifling

Yeah, there was a lot of 'fumbling' in the heat of action. Grabbing ctgs. from the ctg. box, many times some would spill...