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Storytime: How did this happen?


PSchleis

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Ok, clearly this isn't a fossil. I'm not a weapons person, but it looks like a bullet. So how about ideas on what happened here?  How did it get in this compilation of geological and shell material, was it the heat of friction that caused the "sleeve" of debris part way down, is that a military bullet (and if so, what would it be doing on the East Coast - practice at a military base), etc.

 

Anyway, just found washed up on Myrtle Beach.

 

-- PaulaP1110866.thumb.JPG.71d9c0c5c1cc9ce3f44213ed42e4881f.JPGP1110868.thumb.JPG.3fc0debc6c1e4326e9d844f4cf1cccd3.JPGP1110870.thumb.JPG.65782f1046954cc542dbd83f94f1c0d3.JPG

 

 

 

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Military ammunition is steel so it's possible that concretion formed in an area where the jacket was compromised.

@ynot Has already beat me to the more likely option though.  

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24 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

Military ammunition is steel

:headscratch:

None of the ammunition I have seen had any steel used to make it. The shell casing is brass or aluminum and the projectile is copper (and maybe some bronze).

When a projectile is shot out of a gun it is moving faster than the speed of sound and will be marked and deformed when it hits something. 

There is no indications of high speed collision or deformations in this object.

If the blob around this was from oxidation of a cartridge why is it not shaped more like a cylinder?

Why does the "bullet" not show any sign of oxidation?

 

One last observation, it would have to be a very high caliber for a bullet that big.  To small for a 30mm machine gun and too big for a 50 caliber rifle. Was someone hunting elephants on the beach?

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Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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44 minutes ago, ynot said:

Looks like a pyrite replacement of a belemnite with a concretion around it.

I have never heard of belemnites or cretaceous in general from myrtle beach

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1 minute ago, Wolf89 said:

I have never heard of belemnites or cretaceous in general from myrtle beach

Then it is probably not a belemnite, but it is not a bullet either.

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Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, ynot said:

None of the ammunition I have seen had any steel used to make it.

They are referred to as steel cased. I noticed the material is listed as bimetal copper. I would take that to mean copper coated steel coating.

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7 minutes ago, Wolf89 said:

I have never heard of belemnites or cretaceous in general from myrtle beach

Cretaceous sediments provided by the corp of engineers. Offshore dredging. :)

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1 minute ago, Rockwood said:

They are referred to as steel cased. I noticed the material is listed as bimetal copper. I would take that to mean copper coated steel coating.

I worked in cobra helicopter armaments, and saw all sorts of ammunition, but never saw a steel casing on a bullet. Some armor piercing bullets do have a steel tip on the projectile part.

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Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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Ok here are a couple more closeups I was able to get of the tip, if it helps. Maybe it's not a bullet, but I have high confidence it's manmade. Maybe the decorate tip of something?

tip.thumb.JPG.b5dbb99ed50dc200f366eb364115d92c.JPGtip2.thumb.JPG.8e585923c0435ee030b35f78edd3ffe4.JPGtip3.thumb.JPG.929b5ea0d80479ce5aae9dbcf3e2baa4.JPG

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13 minutes ago, ynot said:

I worked in cobra helicopter armaments, and saw all sorts of ammunition, but never saw a steel casing on a bullet. Some armor piercing bullets do have a steel tip on the projectile part.

It's what my grandfather called the surplus shells I used target practicing as a teenager. 

I found this on line to back it up.  military classic

Looking more bullet like by the way.

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I did a quick internet search and found several mentions of people finding 50 caliber bullets on Myrtle Beach. The area was used for military training in the past. Not sure the time frame for the 50 caliber rounds at Myrtle Beach.

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Thanks for the additional pics!

The tip is clearly made of a somewhat ductile metal. It looks like a bullet, but I don´t know if it is on. But the tip is clearly a man-made object.

Franz Bernhard

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37 minutes ago, ynot said:

There is no indications of high speed collision or deformations in this object.

A bullet fired up would only come down at terminal velocity. That wouldn't cause as much deformation as handling would in water would it ?

 

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6 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

I just found this Youtube video of a guy finding 50 caliber bullets and casings at Holden Beach NC. At 7:30 in the video he shows all his finds which includes several bullets in concretions. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P6o4JMkoZ9k

That's awesome!!

 

 

Thanks, everyone. Just when I thought I'd seen it all on this beach....

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I have never seen anywhere described or commented why the concretions are formed at the base of the bullets and not around the pointed end.

I have two speculative ideas, but I'm curious about your opinions regarding to the phenomenon.

 

Question: All of the bullets found in the same location have concretions or just some of them, considering they all are from the same historical time and have the same caliber?

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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3 hours ago, Wolf89 said:

I have never heard of belemnites or cretaceous in general from myrtle beach

 

I absolutely have and saw evidence of it just last weekend.

 

We were in MB, SC, last weekend walking along the beach and found numerous Exogyra deposited with the dredge spoils. Clearly, they dredged through portions of the Cretaceous Pee Dee Formation during their beach renourishment efforts.

 

There are also several known Pee Dee outcrops on the ICW around MB.

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Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about science books.........

Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World

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40 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

I have never seen anywhere described or commented why the concretions are formed at the base of the bullets and not around the pointed end.

I have two speculative ideas, but I'm curious about your opinions regarding to the phenomenon.

 

Question: All of the bullets found in the same location have concretions or just some of them, considering they all are from the same historical time and have the same caliber?

The bullets may never have been fired. The powder advancing corrosion on the base end. 

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12 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

The bullets may never have been fired. The powder advancing corrosion on the base end. 

So, you think the cartridges are still attached to the bullets?

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

My Library

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