Exotic Shotgun Pellets.

[Zorro]

Been thinking about this lately but Why not Copper or Silver Shotgun Pellets instead of Steel?

Or even more exotic. Ceramic cased Tungsten?

 

[lamarw]

What would you estimate the cost of some of these exotic pellets?

I suspect this might be the issue.

 

[Zorro]

Copper or Brass should be possible.

 

[Snyper]

Copper or Brass should be possible.

Anything is "possible"

Shot needs to be heavy to be effective, soft to avoid damage to the gun, and cheap to be practical

Lead matches all those descriptions

Tungsten, Steel and Bismuth have been used for waterfowl loads, but aren't balistically as effective as lead

 

[MarkCO]

The top three answers to most questions come back to $$$, Sex or Pride. In this case, it is $$$.

 

[B.L.E.]

Tungsten is actually denser than lead, even denser than depleted uranium as a matter of fact. It's just super hard, harder than steel. That's why tungsten shot is actually a matrix of some soft material that contains small particles of tungsten to give it weight.

Comparison of densities of various metals in grams per cubic centimeter:
Osmium 22.6
Iridium 22.4
Platinum 21.45
Tungsten 19.35
Gold 19.32
Uranium 18.95
Lead 11.35
Silver 10.5
Bismuth 9.75
Copper 8.96
Iron 7.87

Soft, extremely dense, and non-toxic, gold would make the ideal shot if only an ounce of it didn't cost more than most shotguns.

 

[darkgael]

Exotic

Platinum shot....that's what we need.

 

[RJay]

The Lone Ranger tried silver shot pellets in his shotgun, but it was to difficult to cast or drop evenly, as he told Tonto, this is not a real good ideal.

 

[B.L.E.]

With pure silver needing to be heated to 1763.2 degrees F in order to melt, the Lone Ranger needed an awful hot campfire to cast his silver bullets.

 

[Virginian]

Some years ago Guns and Ammo cast some silver bullets around the campfire just to see if it could be done. It could.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

I remember that article, and you're wrong.
Having been a jeweler for many years, I can tell you that a campfire will not melt silver.

 

[Creek Henry]

Hay

I am pretty sure copper and nickle are toxic.

 

[Cheapshooter]

Well, thanks to the advanced, and possibly enhanced imagination of the advertising department at Hornady we have boolets for zombies. Why not silver shot in a shotgun for vampires?

 

[RJay]

Silver bullets are for werewolf's. I'm not sure where the ideal for silver bullets for vampires came from, I don't think it is traditional . But then again we have a lot of walking dead downtown but few vampires..

 

[hartcreek]

The word that none of you came up with is choated. Copper plated shot has been around for a long time.

 

[B.L.E.]

Non-toxic loads have already given the term "buckshot" a whole new meaning, a buck a shot.

 

[Virginian]

Top of the line tungsten matrix waterfowl loads are currently running about $4.00 a shot. Ah, the good old days of $2 a shot ammo

 

[Old_Dog]

Some of the new handgun ammo is a blend of copper and Polymer.

 

[skizzums]

I tried for hours one night trying to cast a silver bullet, then gave up and just tried to cast a silver ingot, I found quickly I have nothing hot enough to melt silver except a torch. and then I found out I don't have anything strong enough to handle heating with a torch. I now have 50 or so mildly warped grams of silver

whats wrong with lead anyway?

 

[mete]

During an excavation of a Mexican battle site they found copper cannon balls !! The Spanish went into Mexico for the silver .But copper is often found with the silver .That was removed from the silver as a waste product .Then they realized it would make good cannon balls !!