# I found small metal ball in the pasture, any clues?



## Katesrider011

I found this around the barn, it doesn't look anything that would come from a horse accessory, any ideas of what it could be? It almost looks like a musket-ball, but I'm not gonna come to that conclusion yet. Sorry I don't know if this is in the right thread. I just found it on the farm, so I put it in the farm thread.


----------



## ShutUpJoe

I believe it is a musket ball : ) Looks like one.


----------



## farmpony84

I think it's some type of bullet or musket ball. civil war era?


----------



## Katesrider011

That's what i'm wondering, it's old I know that much, I just don't want to call it from the civil war yet, cause people hunted back then too, and If there was any kind of war skirmish here I would find more bullets. It could be from the era though.


----------



## Katesrider011

But to add, there was a battle 10 miles north of here


----------



## Juniper

That's pretty neat. Let us know if you find out for sure what it is.


----------



## Katesrider011

I will


----------



## ShannonSevenfold

My boyfriend says that it looks too big to be a musket ball and they also never made musket balls out of metal that rusts.

Don't know if that's true or not. That's just what he said. lol


----------



## Katesrider011

I have no clue. It feels heavy, and I do believe musketballs rust. And I've looked on pictures it doesn't look any bigger than on the pics and looked at some pics of musket balls and they were rusted so...


----------



## apachiedragon

If you google image "musket ball" it looks exactly like the pictures that pop up. Size, shape everything... very cool find.


----------



## mooney

It is a musket ball, or it is identical to the 20 or so I got, it looks to be a slightly larger one. Most of mine are rusted, but the mostly came from a old barn caught in the floor boards. the ones that were used are pitted and more rusted.


----------



## kevinshorses

If it is steel or iron then it is NOT a musket ball. Musket balls were made of lead. Because lead is soft and bullets usually hit something hard before they stop it is actually quite rare to find a musket ball that has been fired and is still round. Ball bearings however are very common on farm machinery and they ARE made out of steel. The easiest way to tell if it's steel is to touch it to a magnet and see if it sticks. Lead is NOT attracted to a magnet. I would say that if you found 20 "musket balls" caught in the floor boards of a barn and they were pitted and covered with rust what you actually found was where a bearing failed and spilled all the balls onto the floor of a barn.


----------



## mooney

Yeah, it would make sence. But the barn that they were found in has nothing to do with animals or farming. It was small 1800s town house someone was restoring. Only about half of them were found in the floor boards. And they are more misshapen than dented, these ones I do know are lead. The others came from my dad with his great great grandfathers gun ( I know nothing about them), and these most are lead or not magnic metal. For the rust it is more of a grey/green? with red through out, I have no pictures don't have a scanner. You're probably right though them don't have the same "rust" as mine. Oops. Sorry


----------



## Katesrider011

Yeah I don't think this one is, oh well. And yeah Kevin it's hard to find fired ones still around, cause I have another one that I know for sure is a mini ball. I found it at Vicksburg battlefield and it's been chewed up.


----------



## Maverick101

May I chime in and suggest that it could be a ball bearing that fell off a tractor at some point? They come in all sizes, and they do rust over time.


----------



## PintoTess

Maybe it is a piece of spacecraft from an alien abduction!! Jokes, Jokes!
wow this is very interesting! let us know what it is when you find out. My guess is that it is some kind of ball bearing. but i would scout around and see what else you can find. on my farm we found 100's of old clydie shoes and all kinds of metal bits and pieces from years and years before we moved here.. very cool!!


----------

