Found river bed tx/ok border

[GPW]

Found in river bed, red river, tx side, dont know what it is help to identify.   Looks like a mushroom,  stubby end, cap, dimples in cap.  Unlikely, but help identifying is appreciated

[Darktooth]

Take a pic of the top view and another from the bottom. Multiple views can help get a proper ID.

[Auspex]

Just based on this one image, my sense is that it is of neither organic nor geologic origin. This leaves man-made, but I feel no spark of recognition.

More pictures could help.

[ynot]

10 hours ago, GPW said:

  Looks like a mushroom,  

Welcome to TFF!

I wonder if it is a dehydrated mushroom.

More pictures will definitely help with an ID.

[GPW]

[KimTexan]

The first pic almost looks like some metal alloy. Does it have a metallic sound to it if tapped with something hard?

Do you have a brass or wire brush? That may help remove some of the surface material to give a better view.

If you are having trouble uploading more pics you can email them as a group to yourself and when it asks what size to send choose something less than 3.9 mb. There is a 3.95 mb limit on a single upload.

[ynot]

Thanks for the additional picture. Well, it is not a dried mushroom (or fossil).

Could use pictures from all sides.

[GPW]

no metal sound when tapped, rock sound, dull, its heavy over 1# 

[GPW]

After cleanup with wire brush.  Feels like stone, doesn't have metallic ring to it

[ynot]

I am thinking it is a concretion, but wonder if it could be a sponge.

Anybody else think it could be a sponge?

[RickNC]

It certainly looks like a mushroom. Perhaps it is a mushroom lawn ornament? 

[Auspex]

To my eye, it is completely unnatural.

I think it could be a cement-filled cast of a void in a timber or something, a relic from a construction project.

Doesn't the form of "cap" look like a dented metal hemisphere?

[Walt]

The rolled under part of the cap is so thin...if not metal, would be very brittle and fragile right?  Can't think of any material other than metal that would be that thin and survive intact like that. Someone has suggested testing with magnet?

[GPW]

No part of it seems to be fragile,  used a wire brush for cleaning, it seems to be stone, magnets are not attracted to it.  

[Walt]

1 minute ago, GPW said:

No part of it seems to be fragile,  used a wire brush for cleaning, it seems to be stone, magnets are not attracted to it.  

Well then I am stumped.  Someone else may still come on with an idea, but I sure don't know what it could be.

[goatinformationist]

Honestly, what I see is a spent 50cal.  Maybe a 20mm impacted round filled with dirt. It is really heavy huh?

[Walt]

12 minutes ago, goatinformationist said:

Honestly, what I see is a spent 50cal.  Maybe a 20mm impacted round filled with dirt. It is really heavy huh?

Oh my gosh...I thought the same thing but didn't feel I should say it being new and all!

[minnbuckeye]

1 hour ago, Walt said:

 being new and all!

@Walt443 posts qualifies you as progressing way past the newbie stage, at least in my opinion. Let the world hear what you have to say, unless it is about me and it isn't nice.

 

Mike

[Plax]

too big for a 50cal but maybe some earlier artillery round with a flechetted base? Oxydized lead would still have a metallic sheen when filed.

  I also like ynot's suggestion of a sponge but have never seen one like this object.

[Walt]

Bear with me on this.... but I think @goatinformationist is on the right track.

There was a huge variety of bullets and artillery used during the civil war.  But regardless of size, they all tended to look like this when the mushroomed.  Note, not all the pics I found on google images had concave ends.  Some were solid.  But the below pic best represented the mushrooming.

Also, the OP photo looks to have the same ridges at the end of the "bullet"

Granted the proportions are a bit off but that is the best I've come up with.   @GPW  I think you should do a test for lead.  take a knife and see if you can flake off a piece.

[digit]

If it is lead it should be quite heavy for its size. Agreed, that a slice with a knife or an attempt to use coarse sandpaper to sand off the crusty patina to see what is underneath should be informative. If it reveals a soft shiny metallic composition then I think we have solved this mystery.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[daves64]

I was thinking mushroomed bullet or artillery shell as well, and lead wouldn't have a metallic sound when hit with something. So I guess in a way, ynot would be 1/2 right. 

[goatinformationist]

No Cu02, non jacketed round with solid base, so older maybe early 1900's?  Maybe a 8 or 10 gauge shotgun sabot?