E 10 E C bullet

[tennesseelead]

Here's a bullet recently recovered from the Lick Creek Valley of NE Tenn.  A Mason & McKee 644.
Thanks for lookin'.
kp

[emike123]

Welcome KP!  Glad to see you here and active.

Almost looks like they re-used the Gardner mold -- other than the bottom of the skirt and cavity, how does it compare in profile, etc?

[Pete George]

  Noting the cavity's shape, and especially, the extreme thickness of the base-rim, I believe it is Gardner whose base was cut off.

Regards,
Pete

[Tom Stelma]

Hello Pete, Ken, Emike and all,

After looking at the base I agree with Pete that it is a cut-off Gardner but only Ken can tell looking at the base with a magnifying glass up close.

The form of the bullet looks like a 2 wide groove Gardner similar to SCWB2-06-133.

Just my humble opinion on the bullet.

Tom Stelma

[tennesseelead]

Hi Mike & all,
     Sorry to be slow replying. This not a cut off Gardner bullet at all. I see the similarities you are talking about but believe me this is a seperate bullet variety. M&M calls this a "Macon & Augusta labs" & on that point I will default to their knowledge base. In 20 years of looking for bullets I have seen 2 others of this bullet type dug here.
kp

[Ghost of Mac Mason]

Boo!

[Ghost of Mac Mason]

...cannot overcome the file size restrictions on this site

[acwbullets]

Isn't the bullet on the right the baby Macon with the conical cavity. I always thought they were different from the MM644/645.

[emike123]

You don't mean MM305 do you?  That one has a fatter middle band and a deeper cone cavity.  The .50 one not in our esteemed ghost's book is flat bottomed. 

All 4 are similar and purportedly from the Macon Arsenal.

Here are MM305 and the unlisted flat bottomed, smaller caliber type

[emike123]

bottom view

[acwbullets]

I thought it was the .50 variant with the pointed conical cavity . Now I am confused

[coonboy]

Which one is the C.S. Gardner?  In these photos, they are all C.S. Gardners                         Coonboy

[emike123]

Yours are CS Gardners, Terry.  The one in the ghost's post on the left looks to be a .54 Gardner.  Some of us think that KP's bullet at the beginning of this post is a Gardner with the bottom trimmed off, but this is still under debate.  The others (right one posted by the ghost and the two I show) are various bullets listed by McKee and Mason as Macon Arsenal bullets

[ETEX]

Ian, Being confused isn't always a bad thing 

[Jim T]

I have to throw my vote in with Mike, Pete, and TomS......   I believe it to be a cut off Gardner.