Silver bullet - fact or fiction?

G

Gabe

New member
Alright, I always wanted to ask this one. Did people actutally make bullets with silver, and were they more accurate?
 
A friend of mine has a few in 44 Mag. From what I have heard, you can get them as bullet only, not as a cartridge. I can't say for sure on the accuracy but I hear that they can do one heck of a number in a werewolf.
 
Some years ago, one of the gun rags did an article on this subject.

For starters, they borrowed a nickle-plated Firest Generation SAA from Jock Mahoney, the TV and movie actor who played Tarzan and Yancey Derringer. Then they had to cast the bullets. That was a pain in the butt because silver requires nearly 2000 degrees to melt. Then they shrunk smaller than bore size.

Accuracy varied from mediocre to crummy. On top of that, the reloads caused the plating to start peeling off the revolver.

In earlier, more superstitious times, it was not uncommon for people to actually keep silver or gold bullets to dispatch supernatural critters or people allegedly in league with the Devil.

Doc
 
I have never spoken to a werewolf who survived a silver bullet.:)
 
I assume you're referring to pure Silver. Don't know much about such things except as heard in legends.

FWIW, Oregon Trail Bullets out of Baker City, OR makes hardcasts they call their "Silver Bullets." They're predominantly lead but contain traces of seven other elements including Silver. Have tried their 158 gr. SWC and found that they shoot no better or worse than other hardcasts but tend to be a bit more expensive.

http://www.laser-cast.com/


Sub

[Edited by Sub MOA on 02-06-2001 at 03:39 PM]
 
For broad spectrum personal defence one could use hollow point silver bullets with garlic soaked wooden insert and crucifix stamped into the base.

Sam.....my favorite 9mm is the 9X32R
 
Speer's "flying ashtray load is a bet shallow for this purpose but pro load and hyrda shocks have a cavity deep enough to hold a sufficient amount of holy water to dispatch the average undead zombie biker mutant. Seal the tips with high temperature ski wax. Alternate them in the cylinder with silver bullets when walking in undead country or under the full moon. (I remember an ad for "wooden blanks" in the shotgun news in 7.62 by 39.. imagine an anti-vampire AK!!!!)

Wow.. lasercast contains silver?? Damn.. guess i have around 2000 silver bullets laying around.

I recall a frriend swearing that silvertips by winchester contained real silver. ;)
 
After researching the issue of anti-werewolf defensive loads as a 12-year old, I came to the following conclusion:

Casting silver bullets and loading them into metal casings is not practical because of the combination of high melting point for the Ag and its tendency to shrink to sub-bore size when it cools off. If you have something that can melt silver, you're better off using existing hollowpoints with large HP cavities and filling the cavity up with molten silver. (How's a Speer Silver/Gold Dot sound?)

An alternative would be to cast round or Minie bullets out of silver and use a muzzleloader to shoot them with, as the required patch takes care of the sub-caliber issue.

But the best thing my young brain came up with was the following: take a 12-gauge buckshot shell, open the crimp and remove the lead shot. Then fill the shell up with any and all silver you can find: chopped-up silver dimes, mom's earrings, pieces from a silver dollar, etc...and reclose the crimp. Instant anti-werewolf ammo, no casting required, easily done in the privacy of your home without expensive tools. :)
 
Not to get too technical on such a wacky subject, but silver's physical properties are well known, including the amount it contracts when it cools. If you wanted a .45 caliber bullet, it's quite possible to determine how big the mold needs to be. Using an estimated linear expansion coefficient of 20 x 10^-6 per Celsius degree, about average for metals in that part of the periodic chart, you should expect the diameter of the cast bullet to shrink by a little less than 4 per cent. That means the mold would have to be approximately .468 caliber.
Let me get my handbook and slide rule and we can refine this calculation a lot more....
 
I've always perfered crossbows with silver tipped arrows that have been washed in holy water, blessed by monks and have garlic drenched feathers (or is it vanes?). Dennis
 
Being a Baptist preacher and carrying a 5.5" 44 Special, when I shoot, werewolves, vampires and hobgoblins pay attention. But I have Divine backup.
 
I don't know about the silver part, but I do have a few semi-psycho who get hollow-points, fill them with arsnic, and then epoxy the top. I'm sure that effects the flight of the bullet, but his comment was "If the bullet don't get ya, the arsnic will..."

That I'm more inclined to be scared of, albit you can get silver poisoning from pure silver...

Albert
 
Some years ago I remember seeing an article on an unusual firearm. It was a muzzleloading pistol that was shaped like a crucifix with about a .45 caliber smooth bore barrel. There was a mold to cast bullets (maybe silver was the intended material) with a crucifix cast into the ball. To make it even more effective against all things less than holy, the ramrod doubled as a wooden stake to apply the finishing touches to the unholy beast.
 
Alex: I remember that article too. Think it might have been in American Handgunner, maybe 3 - 4 years ago. Dennis
 
The bag limit here in Mississippi is pretty generous on werewolves, I took three last year, all with Federal 150 grain ballistic tip silver bullets from my 7mm Mag. I swear by 'em.
 
I remember one company (whose name escapes me) actually selling silver bullets in the shape of Dracula's head! :rolleyes: They were in .45 Long Colt and .44 Magnum (and yes, I said LONG Colt, doggone it!)
 
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