Hi, I've been metal detecting the school yard at my kids school here in England and I found this. It's a huge chunk of lead about 7/8 inch in diameter and it really gets the imagination going. The property was a stable for the "queens horses" in the 1700's so maybe it was shot then? Anyway, I'll bet it's one of the very few bullets like this surviving from that era. Not a gold coin but I'm still happy with the find

Cool find.

Now you are sure you haven't broken some antiquities law.

No laws broken! But thanks for asking, as long as its not gold or more than 300 years old I'm fine.

quote:

as long as its not gold

Then I am sure the goverment would want their share

As it appears to be a bullet, not a round ball, it's not 1700s. have you measured/weighed it ?
Probably a .577 Enfield MZ or cartridge bullet.

This may help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.577_Snider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_1853_Enfield

The latter also saw a lot of use over here in the War of Northern Aggression 1861-65.

It's 1054 grains, 1 1/8" long and about 11/16 diameter, unfortunately I don't have callipers here. In my uninformed opinion it looks like a muzzleloaded bullet as its so blunt, it does have rifling though and .577 did go through my mind.

Thanks for the links

That's about 69 caliber.

If it is a miltary bullet, it should be here:

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/...aspx/294/1/BOOK-BMFR

I own and hunt with a Baker, 61 caliber with a custom 1.2 ounce pure lead cast bullet. Works quite well.

Holy frogs, .45-70, you've been hunting with a Baker and you haven't said anything?
BAD FORM, SIR!

Calgary, that is a nice find. Which detector are you running? I have a Minelab Xterra 705. You're lucky that England is so detector friendly.

Sorry it's been on other threads and sites.
Cheating with an ancient SAKO peep sight (the one with the 100,200 & 300 yard detents), a fiber optic front (old and blind) and a special 1.2 oz bullet I designed and Lee made me a custom mold for.
A few more pics:

That's a pretty nice muzzleloader!! I've got two detectors my trusty ace250 and an XP Deus. I've only been detecting for about 6 months but the laws are pretty good here,although it does have to be on private land with permission. The guys in my detecting club have some fantastic finds under their belt.

At somewhere around 7/8" diameter, perhaps the 'bullet' is from a 10 bore rifle cartridge instead of a muzzle loader projectile.
That'd put it around the .80 caliber mark.
Many were paper patched, smooth lead projectiles for loading,,the paper long gone now of course.
The rifling only lightly imprinting the lead bullet if at all when paper patched depending on the bbl & rifling type.

Not something I'd guess would be popular for hunting there, but I'm certainly not one to comment about things like that.

Just a guess of course.
Nice find what ever the origin turns out to be.

Something I've always wanted to do but just never found the time,,, metal detecting.

Nice Baker Rifle too!