Delete comment from: Boston 1775
I doubt the British on their march to or from Concord would have left a ball mould along the way. Since they carried cartridges already, they most likely weren't making ammunition as they went along. The mould is probably from a rubbish pile, or dropped by a hunter.
The ball size is for a pistol of the time, probably .62 calibre or smaller, is smaller than the .69 nominal size for musket ball in cartridges. (Of course, the muskets commonly used were about .75 in bore size, but the balls had wrapped heavy paper around them as part of paper cartridges which were loaded down the barrel to make the guns fire.)
The mould also looks, from its proportions, rather small; if the ball size is 38 cal. or smaller, it might not be pistol shot, but rather, buckshot. Buckshot is/was used for the odd deer still roaming these parts. (Yes, fowling pieces and muskets could be used as deer guns, too.)
Such single-chamber moulds are still being made, and look much the same as they did 200+ years ago. Buckshot would have more commonly been made, however, in so-called "gang moulds", which made several ball at each pouring of molten lead into the mould. Individual casting of each ball could also be done, too, using a single-chamber mould, but it was just more time-consuming.
As for the numerous musket or pistol balls found in the exacvation, it is quite possible that they came from the battle, but some could also have come from hunters, since hunting also went on in the area up until the 1940s, when the air base came in.
Round ball ammunition would have been long obsolete, but hunting with flintlock and caplock went on into the 19th century in this area. Constant ploughing of the land mixes up the levels in which these artifacts can be found, too.
Aug 24, 2011, 2:52:46 PM
Posted to Archeological Findings along Battle Road