At the risk of confirming my nerd-dom to the forum members, I spent some of my morning cutting plywood bottoms for milk crates so shells wouldn't make them bulge out when stacked. The bottoms are a little under 12" across so unless all things being bigger in Texas applies to common milk crates too, then the interior dimensions of the crate are less than 13".
So, that makes this one appear closer to an 8-inch ball than a 10-inch ball. Thats just a guess and it could be another size or not even a cannon ball. As Pete would say, your friend needs to do a precise measurement of the ball's diameter and ideally weight also.
There is a cannon ball ID link written by Pete and Nemo of this forum off of the main bulletandshell.com site. That info would help your buddy. Also, if he is close to where any of us are or will be, we can check it out in person.
I cannot see a fuse hole so presumably its a solid shot. If it is a cannonball in those sizes, its not going to make him rich as the sheer weight makes those a lot of trouble to deal with so many guys shy away from them. I have had to dump a few of those heavy monsters lately and finding someone to take it is not easy. They are cool though, but just a pain in the neck!
