Back in the 40s they used the area as training grounds for the Army and Air Force. People find old .50 rounds and cases washed up all the time. Have found 3 separate cases and one full round over the years going down there. Cool find

thank you for the info, that’s very interesting

agree. Found a whole .50 round with material like that pictured on it on the Atlantic City beach. Later learned that there was quite a bit of military activity there during WWII.

That's what it looks like to me and I was wondering if the area around this beach saw any aerial action or training during WW2.

Bullet in coral maybe? Rounds usually deform on impact and that looks neat. Rolled around a while, coral grew and washed up on shore?

that does seem like the most reasonable answer. and my dad also mentioned that it would be deformed if it had actually hit something. look at my other comment with the second picture attached

Apparently copper kills coral so I don’t think this coral growth. I think it’s leeching the steel core to make a conglomerate of whatever was on the bottom of the ocean around it.

Medical professional here. I've Seen lots of bullets on x-ray. The only ones that don't break apart or deform are ones that glide under the skin and follow the path of least resistance. Early in my career I do remember a silver/aluminum colored (not made of it, but it looked brushed like and aluminum colored.) looking bullet that had just made it through both side of a person's skull. It was stuck in their hair and I wasn't sure what it was until I moved it, realizing it was the bullet. I'll never forget the booming voice at the door that asked, "Who found the bullet!" As the person was still technically alive, but not for long. It was a police officer/investigator. I remember feeling a turd poke out of my butt there.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the tip would be more mashed if it hit a living thing. It probably hit water and had stuff grow on it afterwards.

Hit water probably. Then sea life made their homes around it. Maybe a 50 cal AA round? Neat

Yeah, judging from the size of the fingers, I agree 50-cal is most likely.

Bullets have too mcuh velocity and would deform when hitting salt water. (usually)

this

It's not likely to be bone.

Weird, but you can definitely tell it has been through a barrel due to rifling marks.

My, uneducated, guess is that was a steel core round from a 50 BMG that the iron in the steel has leached out of and bound the surrounding environment to itself. This can be seen in civil war era relics on Aquachigger’s YouTube account if you go looking. This would explain why the conglomerate is only found around the bottom of the round (where the opening to the steel core is). From what I understand, copper kills coral so I doubt it’s corral growth and is more likely just stuff that was laying on the bottom when the lead started to leech.

This is the correct answer.

Can I ask what beach? Be interesting to figure out where people are finding washed up rifle rounds

we’re staying on don pedro island, very weird find

Since you’re curious - I found both a bullet and a fired shell at Holden Beach, NC this past weekend (pictures in my post history). They’re dredging fresh sand up for beach nourishment, so lots of stuff is being found.

St George island in Florida was used as a training location. I've found hundreds of 50 cal rounds.

Fun Fact: A bullet can't penetrate more than a few inches of water without losing velocity. A .50 Cal with armored piercing round fired into water will not harm you after 14 inches.

Best guess it was shot into the water, grew/collected foreign junk and eventually washed to shore. Cool find!

Where'd you find it? Could be a round fired from a ship during training.

don pedro island

That’s easily a .50 cal round. Idk where you live but I can guarantee a .50 isn’t going to be stuck in bone.

There's rifling marks so it was definitely fired.

That’s a large bullet

.50BMG corroded. Used to pick these up by the 5gal bucket. They used the creek behind the beach for target practice in WW2

you mean the inland part behind the island? if so that’s pretty sweet, thanks for the info

Well that is coral, and shellstone. The bullet has been fired and it did hit something hard when it was not quite spent. Shellstone is a concretion of coral and broken up pieces of shell. Bullet gets fired and ends up in some muck that hardens into this, then erodes out in chunks. Cool find. :)

It’s a .50BMG that’s grown coral on it the Navy does some live fire events out at sea and they wash up occasionally, I’ve found a few over the years

So first its a .50 call at least, idk how much deforming would go on with it being so large and heavy if it hit bone since they are designed to penetrate heavy armor. The next thing id say is bone will shatter when hit with a bullet (deer hunter I’ve seen it many times) so I can’t imagine it would become lodged in bone especially again with it being such a large and heave round. I’m gonna say that’s probably coral thats grown on the bullet some very large bullets were used in the pacific and Atlantic theater in world war 2 just depends on where you are and where that bullet washed up.

whatisthisthing

free boolit

Send it!

It has rifling marks. Best guess is it was fired from a m2 machine gun on either a war time related naval use long ago or by the coast guard. Both have ship mounted m2 machine guns in 50 caliber. But that’s definitely m2 ball.

When bullets hit bone, they fragment or deform. This just looks like a bullet that loosened from its brass case and found itself on a piece of coral

Aren’t those scratches at the bottom the rifling?

I see you’ve found another magic bullet. I remember hearing about one that showed up in 1963.

Tyrannosaurus kill.

Wel it's definitely a bullet, but it's probably just got sea stuff built up around it

There was a boy scout camp I went to while I was growing up that was near some sand dunes. Back in the 30s and 40s the dunes had been used by the nearby army and air force bases as a shooting range. It was common to find corroded old bullets and casings surfacing from the shifting sands every once and a while and they often looked like that. They usually had weird "growths" on them that I suspect were caused by the corroded metals fusing with the sand particles.

Definitely a large caliber bullet you can still see the riffing, but as a beach comber I’d say that’s either natural ocean “muck”, or concrete that’s been in the sea too long.

That round definitely never hit bone, it would be all mashed up. But that’s a reeeally sweet find. Cool mantle or bookshelf piece

Jaws… that’s the bullet that killed Jaws.

I have one just like it actually, from Outer Banks. There were so many Navy ships and training and bases during WWII and such that the rounds fired just hit or fall into the water and sink. From there, they collect stuff just like anything else in the sea. Just an old round with sea life/junk attached. They are cool finds

It looks like a .50 bullet, probably stray from a military exercise

“Bullets and Barnacles” was my high school band name.

It has definitely been fired because of the visible rifling marks. However due to the lack of deformation I believe some idiot just shot it into the sky and it landed in the water. Some coral grew on it and it washed up.

This is the best answer

That doesnt even look like it was shot

If you look close there is rifling scoring on the bullet. Most definitely went down a barrel.

It was look at the rifling from traveling through the barrel

Bullet is not deformed, so I doubt it has been shot. Probably someone dropped one and with time it lost the case

You can see rifling grooves on the jacket. It hasn't impacted anything or it would have been deformed, but it could have been fired into the air and slowed down sufficiently before hitting the water that it wouldn't deform.

It looks like a horse’s tooth. And the bullet, it’s a war relic, it could be valuable. I don’t know what the hell happened down there, some sort of horse massacre?

Not sure what it is surrounded by but really damn cool find OP

I'm going with bullet in coral. Perhaps was fired in water, wouldn't deform on impact. Landed in coral or something formed on it. Maybe got loosned by a storm and washed a shore?

Doesn't copper turn green with salt water? I've seen copper jackets start the process

The sands might scrub it in the waves.

Seems like a bullet was shot in the water and formed on the coral. Didn’t deform or split at all

That's a big a$$ bullet. Measure its diameter for us.

Betting it is about .50"

It’s looks unfired, or if it was fired hit something so soft yet firm it kept it shape.

Like sand?

The bullet may have been laying in the sand, in an area that was hit by lightening. I had a piece of sand that was hit by lightening and it formed what looked like sedimentary rock like this. The metal may have been conducting the electricity.

I’m in SC don’t know where you found this

No way a bullet that size staying inside a bone

[удалено]

don pedro island florida

whatisthis

Concretion maybe…

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=concretion+sea&t=iphone&iar=images&iax=images&ia=image

More likely coral or pulverized shells. Many beaches are sights for artillery testing. They just lob rounds out into the water.

We have these in South Carolina on Shell Island. The b-52 bombers used to test guns on island and would shoot directly into soil. Apparently by some ocean magic, the shells get lodged into whatever it is that encompasses them

It's not.

Coral. Looks like it's some coral and bits of shell fused together.

Unicorn rock. Very cool find OP!!!!

It’s a bullet but it never hit anything

The bullet that killed sponge Bob

Coral

Not an impact shot. That's a large caliber round "prob .50 Cal." that does not appear to have met resistance of any physical kind with the exception of water. Newer looking in fact. Minimal oxidation.

In a bone?

i now realize how stupid that sounds but

It is making a

Looks like a .50 call.

Looks like the shooter missed and the bullet went into the sea, then corals grew over it.

It's the bullet that killed Jaws

Unless someone shot a whale that isn’t bone

It looks too intact to have gone through bone

It’s coral around the bullet

It's the old barnacle bullet

alright first of all, thank you to everyone who gave me answers and some very interesting information, i can see now that it was most definitely not lodged in a bone. a lot of people mentioned how this could be from test firing/firing during WWII, my question is how did the copper not oxidize/corrode while being in the water for so long?

Were you headed to the twilight zone?

Someone had some fun with their gun chambered in .50 BMG

where did you find this??

That’s a shell from the space force’s door gun. It forms like a small meteor before impact.

One of a bazillion rounds that landed in the ocean and got some coral growing on it.

That’s a big mf bullet

It’s building calcium around the bullet which eventually turned into coral. Nice score I’d put it in a case

It's a round and some coral or whatever those creeps are grew around it. Because if it was a bullet lodged in bone, it would be deformed.

You uhhh..gonna reload that, son?

The crabs are building military-grade weaponry, now is the time to strike before they rise up

I doubt it was ever fired based on the condition of the projectile

That’s whale shit son

you Should give it to the police

Nothing they could do

This is the dumbest thing I’ve heard all year

Rule one, tell the cops nothing.

No deformation, no rifling, that bullet has not been fired.

whatisthisthing

Yep, bullet in bone sounds correct to me! You can say “REDDIT” said so. Will be an awesome story your kids will tell your grandkids 🙌🙌🙌

I think the location of the beach miiight just maybe narrow it down

Not sure but it could be a bullet that hit sand and the heat crystalized the sand on the hottest part of the bullet but I could be wrong