Identify this bullet

[.38 Special]

Kind of a silly article on Fox today, about a fellow who claims to have found a bullet in a bag of Cheetos.



Looks like it certainly could be a bullet, but I don't think I've ever seen one quite like it. My guess is maybe some kind of muzzleloading projectile, but that wouldn't explain what appears to be a crimping cannelure. So any ideas?

 

[Col. Harrumph]

Well, it does look like a bullet. Assuming the story is true, it probably fell out of someone's pocket and ran through the packaging machinery at the Cheetos mill. That may explain the ogive damage.

 

[.38 Special]

Well, it does look like a bullet. Assuming the story is true, it probably fell out of someone's pocket and ran through the packaging machinery at the Cheetos mill. That may explain the ogive damage.

I was thinking along the same lines. I just can't place the bullet - if that's what it is. I don't think I've seen anything exactly like it. It kind of reminds me of a "Powerbelt" style muzzleloader bullet, but again, that looks like a crimp groove.

 

[Pat Riot]

I doubt this is legitimate.

 

[Riomouse911]

I doubt this is legitimate.

They rarely are.

At first I thought it was an FTX type bullet because of the red stuff under the folded bullet jacket material. But I don’t recall the FTX having a dual cannelure, so maybe it was from a bullet designed to lock into a muzzleloader sabot as was mentioned above.

We will see if this fades away as a fraud like the shrimp tails in the cereal or the chicken beak mc nugget.

Stay safe.

 

[stonebuster]

Glad the little Weasel is ok. I see a law suit in his future.

 

[.38 Special]

The fishiest part is that the guy is from Montana and yet claims to own no guns.

 

[Poper]

Well, it does look like a bullet. Assuming the story is true, it probably fell out of someone's pocket and ran through the packaging machinery at the Cheetos mill. That may explain the ogive damage.

Agreed. The bullet material is very clean.
Looking at the photo with the bullet in the hand, judging by the scale I would guess the caliber of the bullet is very small. Perhaps a .25 cal or .22 cal.
I can't say I have loaded anything exactly like it.

I once bit into a Mickey D's Fish Fillet Sandwich (about 1987) and bit down on a copper packing staple embeded in the sandwich meat. That hurt.
I contacted the particular restaurant and the manager was incensed and called me a liar. And I just thought he would want to know about it!

Go figure...

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Maybe it's a part from the production machines.

 

[WestKentucky]

Looks like a 32 caliber bullet to me, or possibly a 30 cal rifle bullet. The strangest thing about it to me is that there is no rifling which says either it’s never been fired, or if it was fired then it was done so by use of a sabot. With the general shape I could easily get behind the 32 hollow point guess and start looking up various bullets to see what matches.

 

[.38 Special]

Another picture, from a different site. (Yes, I have nothing worth doing today.)



If not for that lower cannelure (or whatever it is) I'd think this was just another JHP. (The red stuff in the first picture apparently is just Cheeto dust.) I'm still thinking it may be a muzzleloader bullet, but I've never seen one with its skirt off. (I'm too old for that sort of thing). I also wonder if perhaps that lower cannelure was put there during manufacture of the cartridge. I can't think of any current maker who is crimping bullets into cases like that, but...

 

[RMH]

Maybe it's a part from the production machines.

That was my thought when I first saw this.

 

[BreechFace]

View attachment 990236

Goodnight! All I see are hideous fake nails.

 

[Archie]

No rifling marks (as West Kentucky said) no staining from the burning of powder; it does not look like it's been fired at all. So I doubt if the distortion of what seems to be the nose was caused by shooting it into sand, water, cream of wheat or whatever.
Size: Looks too long to be a .32 (.312 inches) bullet. Looks too short to be most any sort of rifle bullet (proportions seem wrong for .30 Carbine FMJ). And, like others, the cannelure and crease (?) are really strange to me. I would say it's possibly a .38/.357 caliber (.357 inches) bullet or possibly a .44 caliber (.429 inches) bullet. I had a passing thought the bottom crease might be where a crimp was set, but it's way too low on the bullet for that.

Being unfired, I'd go with the 'fell out of a pocket, damaged in the machine' theory. Or a plant, but then the distortion is left hanging.

 

[Riomouse911]

Goodnight! All I see are hideous fake nails.

They’re Ghettofabulous!

I’m still not buying what they’re selling. It’s far too easy to concoct something like this up to cash in on the media outrage about recent events.

With the reference size now being the fingers, and nails, it’s looking to me to be possibly .44-.45 caliber size. I’m still thinking it’s unfired and from a muzzleloader sabot style set up. Based on the damaged nose, I am suspicious about the lack of marks/damage anywhere else on the bullet body since the damage caused on the nose from a machine is enough to peel back gilding metal at that point... it should also show some marking or some damage elsewhere.

Stay safe.

 

[C.R.]

I worked in food manufacturing for a spell and everything we made had to pass through a metal detector im guessing the cheetoes probably do too

 

[WrongHanded]

Seems like the lower crimp groove (the upper is obviously a factory canelure) could have been made by a crimp die set for a very heavy crimp. Don't you think?

 

[brasscollector]

I know everyone is in agreement on the whole "never-fired" idea, but...
Am I the only one seeing these marks??

Maybe I'm just imagining things as they are not obvious (or even visible) in the first picture.
Also, I'd trust gas station sushi more than TMZ.

 

[.38 Special]

Seems like the lower crimp groove (the upper is obviously a factory canelure) could have been made by a crimp die set for a very heavy crimp. Don't you think?

Some nut with a FCD?

 

[.38 Special]

I know everyone is in agreement on the whole "never-fired" idea, but...
Am I the only one seeing these marks??View attachment 990247

Maybe I'm just imagining things as they are not obvious (or even visible) in the first picture.
Also, I'd trust gas station sushi more than TMZ.

I still can't tell if they are rifling marks or weird lighting artifacts, though I'm leaning toward rifling.

 

[troy fairweather]

Anything is possible but you can't believe anything anymore unfortunately, someone will probably turn this into a lawsuit some how. The time the guy found the mouse/rat in his monster made me stop drinking them lol, tho for the amount the guy made I'd drink a Liquefied rat lol.

 

[WrongHanded]

Some nut with a FCD?

Very possibly. I haven't adjustment any of my FCDs to that point, but perhaps it's possible to crimp much farther down the case if the die us setup just so.

I know everyone is in agreement on the whole "never-fired" idea, but...
Am I the only one seeing these marks??View attachment 990247

Maybe I'm just imagining things as they are not obvious (or even visible) in the first picture.
Also, I'd trust gas station sushi more than TMZ.

I could buy that, except it doesn't seem evident in the first photo. So it might just be a lighting effect.

 

[Electricmo]

Lie detector test required. I’m not buying the story. That might be a mouse gun load though. Mice and Cheetos go together.

 

[230RN]

Glare aside, in that first pict I thought it was rifled with a slow twist. I was thinking it reminded me of those light 110 grain .308 "Plinkers" they sold for .30 cals like .30 Carbine etc.

It could be from some kind of foreign gun and ammo with which we would not normally be familiar. That rear groove could be where a fin folded back in a tapered-bore firearm. Just a WAG guess as an example.

My default is disbelief in any of this stuff.. Like that old lady who was holding unfired cartridges claiming they hit her house,

IIRC, Hawaiian shooters had a problem with fake claims of bullets found on a hiking path a couple of years ago, Trouble is the hiking path had clear signage indicating it was closed because it was part of the impact area / backstop for a formal, regulated real rifle range. If I further remember correctly, one of the bullets held up as an example had no rifling on it.

I thought I read in an old book something about bearing false witness being bad for a spiritual component of humans.

Good little mystery, though.

Terry, 230 RN

REF (Tapered bore cartridge and projectile):
https://aws1.discourse-cdn.com/busi...2d3e9687a250b62e6b00e1d4179ded8effbcd56f.jpeg

 

[JT-AR-MG42]

Another picture, from a different site.

Don't think I'll ever eat Cheetos again after that picture.
It's not the bullet in the bag, I'd probably try to load and shoot it,
it's those nails!
Just thinking of finding one of those in the bag is making me re-think supper.

JT