Derek's Hotchkiss Shell?

[Derek shane]

Hello,I'm new to this place and I'm hoping for some info on a big bullet I found in a creek.i know very little about civil war artifacts,but from what I've read think I might have found a bullet from a 3" hotchkiss.can anyone tell me anything about it or what it's worth

[emike123]

Welcome Derek.  Can you post a photograph of it?  If you are unable to post one here on this website, you can email it to me at cwbullet@hotmail.com and I will post it for you.

If you cannot even take a digital photograph, you will have to describe it, but estimating it's value will be very difficult to do without a photo.

[Derek shane]

I'm gonna try to get the wife to get u a pic it might take me a limitless while but I'm workin on the pic

[Derek shane]

Sorry dang auto correct(a little while)

[emike123]

I split the topic because this was attached to the end of a thread about something else.  Here is a picture of the projectile Derek's wife sent me.  It looks like a 3inch Hotchkiss bolt (solid projectile for smashing vs. a shell for exploding) to me which is what I titled the picture when I edited it for posting:

[emike123]

3inch Hotchkiss shells are very common, but 3inch Hotchkiss bolts not so common.  The reference book says only 15,040 of them were purchased.  There are more that went into surplus stocks and were sold by Bannerman's but this one appears to be a used one from the field.  The lead sabot is a bit messed up, but the iron looks good.

We have a mint one on our commercial website for $900

http://www.bulletandshell.com/Items/item.php?id=A00424

which has had some attention, but not much and been up there a while.  So for all that, yours Derek is clearly worth quite a bit less than $900.  I am guessing $500?  Others can add their opinions of course.

Can you share the battle it was used at without giving too much away?

[Derek shane]

Someone told me there wasn't a battle in Morgan county,MO. But that's where this one was,we've had a lot of rain and where the creek banks eroded was where it was laying.thanks for all the info

[Pete George]

  The width of the lead band on your 3"-caliber Hotchkiss Bolt (cylindrical solid-shot projectile) indicates it is has not been fired.  Where you find one unfired artillery shell, there will often be more unfired ones at the same spot.  You might want to borrow a metal detector, or at least do some "deep" probing in the dirt at that exact spot with a long steel rod.  (The rod should be at least 24-inches long, and only about 1/4-inch thick.)

Regards,
Pete

[Derek shane]

If anyone is interested I would take 500$ for the hotchkiss bolt