Silver bullets

So, I've been re-reading my various Patricia Briggs werewolf books, and one of the recurring micro-themes is various characters whining about what a crappy material silver is for bullets, because it's too hard.

So -- has anyone who's done reloading also handled pure silver, that hasn't been alloyed with whatever to make it hard enough for jewelery or silverware? Is it really too hard to make decent ammunition from? Would a hollow-point silver round fail to fragment nicely?

(I'm not going to have silver bullets in my survivalist kit -- I'm just wondering, from a practical standpoint, if the claim about silver being too hard is really true, or just un-educated author bullsh**).

Reply to
Tim Wescott
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I do reload , but never considered silver .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Tim Wescott on Thu, 13 Aug 2015 10:45:39 -0500 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Silver is a much harder metal than lead. Which means it does not 'grab' the rifling in a barrel. Secondly, it has a much higher melting temp, which makes casting bullets more difficult (you'll need a much hotter fire). Now, for taking werewolves, you might want to use a lead bullet as a sort of sabot for a silver penetrater.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

I was thinking along those lines myself. I don't know how hard it would be to cast or fabricate the silver pieces, but if there's a serious werewolf infestation in the Pacific Northwest that's probably what I'd want to do.

This has the additional advantage that you can start with jewelery-grade silver, which will be easier to come by until it becomes obvious that said werewolf infestation is truly an issue.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

You really need to know what the LD100 is. If it was small enough, you could just mix silver powder in bullet lead before casting. Without knowing it, even jewelry silver might not do the job. And for pure silver it would determine the size of the bullet. The devil is in the details, even here.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

Check the link I poated above in reference to hardness and ability to engage rifling .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

Silver is harder than lead, but pure silver is softer than copper and we have no trouble pushing that down a bore.

Sterling silver is about as hard as copper, and casts a lot better than fine silver. You could probably cast it in a steel bullet mold (preheated to about 650 f) but you would probably warp the mold.

A better bet would be to turn blanks of machinable casting wax and give then to a jeweler to investment cast. Trust me, you won't be the first guy to ask him.

Good luck with that werewolf infestation.

Paul K. Dickman

Reply to
Paul K. Dickman

I've made them for a friend of a friend, charged him out the wazoo! Forget casting them unless you have a lost wax set-up and a centrifugal caster. I made them on the lathe, nicest material to turn EVER! They would shoot just fine, rifling will engrave them just fine and not harm your tube in any way. The deformation of hollow points will depend on velocity.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Nah. A katana with a monomolecular edge is perfect for beheading werewolves, killing vamps, and just plain fun on Saturday night.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Five is right out. Amen!

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Wait a minute. That's a bunny bomb. We're talkin' werewolves here, son.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Read that after I posted. Interesting "details".

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

It had fangs and attacked because it was a were-rabbit. They are real, you know:

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"This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster. ..."

There's something unusual running loose around here. The description is all black, bigger and thinner than a raccoon, with a long snout, narrow tail and hind legs longer than the front ones. I just missed seeing it the other day when a neighbor called to me from too far away as I was going into the house. He said it was alert and cautious like a wild animal, not oblivious like an escaped exotic pet. Maybe a Chupacabra?

-jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

No, not a were. Just "nasty, big, pointy teeth".

That's no monster. _Bun-bun_ (ka-click) was a monster.

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Of course, he was also a kickass SheVa tank.

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Break out the silver-loaded 12ga, boy. And be quick about it!

Reply to
Larry Jaques

In the event, then, I guess we'll have to experiment. You can take the

14-carat stuff, I'll go with the 24.
Reply to
Tim Wescott
[..]

Tim,

In light of your original post mentioning the Patricia Briggs werewolf books, I was surprised that nobody posted this URL that my brother Carlton passed on to me:

Patricia Briggs went thru a serious development process to determine how to create silver ammunition for her characters. The development process and results are available on her website at

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For anyone who hasn't already seen it, the 1964 reprint from Gun World about the Lone Ranger is a must-read, sort of a "Top Gear meets Mythbusters".

Enjoy...

Frank McKenney

Reply to
Frnak McKenney

On 8/15/2015 9:44 AM, Frnak McKenney wrote: ...

There you go, Tim - everything you could want to know about making silver bullets.

My conclusion is that the author had way too much time and money on his hands.

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

Cool site, thanks.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Guns are good for shooting unarmed civilians. However, The NRA says that we need to be sure. When we shoot people,they need to be unarmed, but it's OK if they're werewolf's. That's why Wolfman Jack owned guns.

Reply to
Hok Chow Lee

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