I thought all CW Rifles were smooth bore? Well anyway I found this .58 Minnie with what appears to be rifling marks? But the marks are dead strait....... There are 7 marks. The wider areas measure .150" and the narrow area is .100" wide. I'm going to link my video at the time of the find. Thanks for any help. [youtube.com]

I'm not an expert but that's a minie for sure. Civil War Era rifles were indeed rifled and that's one big reason the Civil War was our deadliest conflict. Equipment effectiveness surpassed the military tactics of the day. They were still use to standing in columns and firing point blank at one another. Smoothbore rifles might be accurate out to 75 yards...rifled muskets with minie balls increased that to 300+ yards. Thus by the late War they had transitioned to trench warfare.

Daniel Tn Wrote:
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> I'm not an expert but that's a minie for sure. Ci
> vil War Era rifles were indeed rifled and that's o
> ne big reason the Civil War was our deadliest conf
> lict. Equipment effectiveness surpassed the milit
> ary tactics of the day. They were still use to st
> anding in columns and firing point blank at one an
> other. Smoothbore rifles might be accurate out to
> 75 yards...rifled muskets with minie balls increas
> ed that to 300+ yards. Thus by the late War they
> had transitioned to trench warfare.
Thank you for the information. I don't remember any rifling marks on any of my other minnies. Maybe they were all dropped?

Not sure where you are but out here in the West we can tell what rifle fired a bullet by the number of riflings on the bullet. We had a lot of pre-civil war camps here that we find many bullets in. US rifle model 1841 came in both .54 and .58 caliber. And many were converted to new model 1855 by changing out the barrel. If the bullet has 7 riflings it was fired from a model 1841. If it has 3 it was fired from a converted model 1855. That may or may not help you.

Yes. 7 grooves. Thanks you guys for the education!

The Confederate favorite,model 1853 British Enfield,had 3 lands&grooves.The smooth sided .577 bullet with 3 grooves is a beautiful relic.