A Little Help Please

[pachaplain]

I was looking over my collection and discovered two bullets which I had never labeled.   I believe they were given to me by a friend.  The first I believe to be a Gardner, but what caused the markingd around the top.  I would venture a guess that it is markings left by pulling the bullet out of the barrel.  The bullet has a diameter rangng from 0.577 to 0.582 and a length of 0.944 inches.  The second bullet is believe is a a misshapen 3 ringer, but what caused the flattening?  Especially note the one side is very flat and the rings pulled lower.  What could have caused this?  This bullets measurements are 0.544to 0.582 in diameter with a length of 1.045 inches.  If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate hearing from you.

[Pete George]

  The Gardner was pulled with a double-helix bulletworm.

  I've dug a group of unfired Minies which have a nearly-identical flattened area on one side.  So, in my humble opinion, your 3-groove Minie may have been in the lowest layer of bullets in a crate of ammo that got dropped.  The great weight of the layers of Minies above it crushed it against the crate's flat bottom, with a slight sliding movement forward at the moment of impact, due to the way the crate landed.

Regards,
Pete