I have noticed that there has been an influx of so called experimental explosve bullets on ebay accompanied by several cavity marked enfields. These bullets tend to have three to four grooves. They also have solid noses and hollow tips. The type of cavity plug may also vary from wood, iron, fired clay, and ceramic material.
These bullets were not used during the American Civil War Period. They are post war bullets for the 1866 British Mark I Snider Enfield. They tend to show up in sites including Africa, New Zealand, Prince Edward Island, Nepal, and of course England. There are many variations of this .577 bullet due to the number of trials they had with different patterns. They are all post war! Some feel that the hollow tips were made to fit an explosive compound. The hollow tips were actually made for an experiment that failed. At the time they thought that the hollow tip would increase stability. Once they found this was incorrect the noses were capped and rolled over with lead.
Sorry to ramble but I thought some of you might like to know a little more about these.
