I have collected doppies from the day I started hunting, I have cases that were last manufactured in 1892 ? Kynock #2 musket all the way through to weird and wonderful wildcats.
The bullets though, the missed shots, the through and through shots, I have never found a spent bullet. Two hunts back, I found two, one damaged badly by corrosion and one in perfect condition, like unfired.
I wonder how it coame to be there undamaged, I theory it was a wounding and being FMJ caused a delayed death after doing a muscle penetration. The animal died and the bullet was freed as it decayed? I can not thing of any other way the bullet ended its flight without damage.
But ! I finally found one, 30 years later.
20250827_152801 by David Frank Allen, on Flickr
20250827_152820 by David Frank Allen, on Flickr