Here is an interesting three ringer....

[acwbullets]

Here are the measurements D .612  L 1.120 C N/A

Here is a neat little four ringer. The bottom rings on these are always faint. This bullets all have solid bases and are found in only one Confederate Camp that was used during the Antietam Campaign.

This bullet appears to be a regular three ringer that was cast without the cavity plug in the mold. The caliber is what gets me. It may be hard to say what type of gun this bullet was used for as they used almost every kind of gun they could at Antietam.

Does anyone else have any opinions on this bullet? Do you have one in your collection?

[emike123]

I don't see a picture.  Now usually thats because folks aren't logged in and they send me an eMail, but I am logged in so either there is a snafu with the forum s/w in this case or you left the picture off, Ian.

[PIA]

No pix here either. 

[acwbullets]

Trying to upload pictures from a phone is a pain. Now that I am home lets try it again.

[acwbullets]

here is the base. Does anyone else have three ringers in the .60/.61 range. At one time there were quite a few of these found in one small area.

[tom buckley]

Ian,
Since this bullet has a solid base, I am assuming that it was intended for a breech-loader. If so, possibly .58 to .61 caliber.
Firearms of the Confederacy by Fuller and Steuart on page 198-199 has a short description of a "Confederate swinging-barrel carbine" which is .61 caliber and smoothbore. The example they illustrate has the initials A. H. B. and 4th Tex. carved on the stock.
Any Texas connection to that Confederate camp?
This is just a possibility. It is the only .61 breech-loader I could think of.

[ETEX]

Ian, can't help you on identification but what I can do is pay you the postage and you ship me the bullet. I will place it in my collection and keep it safe for you.

[Jim T]

Ian, I believe you have a .58 cal. for an early Gatling.  Not actually a 3-ringer, it's a 2-ringer with a crimp mark.  Sorry I cut the description off while scanning, but these were .609-inch with 2 grooves, solid base.  The pic is from Hoyam's "History and Development of Small Arms Ammunition," Vol One.

[acwbullets]

Jim,

I thought of that at first but these were used with a paper cartridge. I know of one bullet that still was partially encased. There are actually four rings on this bullet. The bottom appears to slant inward but that is due to the edges being pushed a little on the two sides. All of them have come out of Lee's headquarters area near Frederick used during the 1862 campaign.

[acwbullets]

I was able to finally get the second one of these from an old collection. The measurements on this one are D .600 L 1.118. Both of these bullets were recovered from the Monocacy battlefield many moons ago. This one has a nice knife mark on it where the cartridge was trimmed. I still have no idea what this bullet was used in.

[ETEX]

Ian, hopefully someone can identify the bullet, it's a great looking bullet.

[acwbullets]

I learned that there are three. One more was found on the Best Farm on the Monocacy battlefield in 2002 on a dig for the park.

[dlw1610]

Ian sold me one a couple years back.  I have it tagged as being found on the Lost Order Field, Best Farm, Monocacy, Maryland with possible use in Swing Barrel carbine (M&M pg 190).  It is a dandy with the faint 4th ring.

[dlw1610]

Mine also has the nicely trimmed attributes mentioned by Ian.