A stone bullet of rounded pebble was found in excavation of a Kuznetsk ostrog house of XVII century, to the north-east of the building of former Ueszd Treasury. It is light-brown and resembles a walnut in shape. Such bullets were used in firearms. They were replaced by iron ones, and later, by the improved lead ones.

As the throwing weapons developed, the besiegers and the besieged required special warehouses for stone shells of various weight and size: depending on the throwing capacities of the weapons. The availability of such warehouses was only natural: fabrication of large numbers of stone shells was very labor intensive and time-consuming — such shells were spared, especially in a situation of frequent sieges of the cities of military and strategic importance.

However the rate of fire was often so high that the shell stock did not last long. Many messages remain about the fortress battles in China in XI–XIII centuries when the artillery shelling from one or the other part could continue days or even weeks without a break. In such cases the shell stock had to be urgently replenished during the battle.