A friend of mine just got this ball from a guy that found it about 10 yrs. ago while the guy was working on a road building crew at Grand Gulf, MS. The guy that found it is not a relic hunter and said it rolled out a pile of dirt and he assumed it was a cannon ball based on where he found it and has kept it the last 10 yrs. My friend cleaned the ball and it weighed in at 10 lbs. and using a string to get the circumference came up with 4.170 diameter.
On Jack Melton's site there is a chart that is listed as "Shot and Shell, 1/4 pound to 50 pounds" and there is a listing of a 10 lb. ball with a 4.211 radius.
First of all, do you iron heads think this is a 10 lb. solid shot cannon ball and secondly, could the rusting, pitting, and crude string measure account for the difference in the diameter? Unfortunately, my friend only sent me one picture which I've attached. Any info. would be appreciated, thanks.