Of course, something to keep in mind is the type of bullet you’re using. Vampire, werewolf, freaky beast or whatever, you put a couple of hollow point exploding safety rounds through the center chest, and you’ve achieved much the same thing as a stake.
Take out most of the head and chest …
You’re looking at damage potential along with the susceptibility to any “extras.”
One of the series I got suckered into trying to read goes into some detail on silver bullets – they aren’t solid. It’s a bullet (preferably, again, something with massive potential for destruction) with a heavy silver coating instead. (FYI, Laurell Hamiliton, the Anita Blake Vampire Killer mysteries).
For the heroine’s vamp executions, she prefers a shotgun to a stake. Faster, and you don’t have to get in the face of a beast that just might decide to open its eyes.
I had some lead .357 Magnum bullets silver plated once as a curiosity. I think pure silver is too hard to properly deform in the rifling of the barrel and might get stuck with a nasty explosion. The silver plating ought to do the trick. Anybody that does silver plating ought to be able to do it.
Let me try to add what I know to several of the points:
Any oxy-acetylene torch will easily melt silver. They melt steel for cryin’ out loud! My little MAPP gas torch ($30 from Sears) will very quickly turn a steel washer into a glowing, rolling ball of molten steel. Especially if I crank the oxygen up.
You can buy silver bullets as a novelty item at most gun shows. One normally sees them in .38, .357, or .44 caliber (although I did see .223 once - thought of buying it for my Mini-14). They seem to be high - about $15 for one silver .44 round was what I remember.
Only long-term firing with a metal of silver’s hardness would likely cause problems with the gun. IMO this would only be a problem with rifle slugs, not handgun.
Note that if handgun ammunition can penetrate a protective vest, it may, and I stress may be illegal to possess under Federal Law. I used to have the book of regs from when I had an FFL, and am unsure of the exact wording and case history. I think it only applies to things like teflon-coated tungsten or something.
I would imagine any purist self-loader who casts hers or his own lead-antimony bullets could make silver bullets. You could ask at your local gun store to see if they know someone who does.
I said I would eat my previous post, and that offer still stands. Your statement hasn’t quite made me take up the knife and fork quite yet, but I have started taking a couple nibbles of it. I’ve never heard of silver affecting anything but werewolves, and one story about a wolf-like creature does not change my mind yet.
True about the vampires sucking the blood and the transformation being a long, drawn out vampire. And yes, werewolves did attack people to eat them, not turn them into werewolves. But those few werewolf victims who escaped with just a few bite marks would then become werewolves on the next full moon.
BTW, if you want some more info on vampires and werewolves spreading by biting and how that idea got started, type “vampires” or “werewolves” and “rabies” in your browser search and see what you get. I’ll do that myself in a minute and post the link I’m thinking of (although I can’t remember what it is right now).
One favorite reference to silver bullets in the fantasy genre:
In Roger Zelazny’s The Guns of Avalon, the hero arranges for the mass production of several hundred automatic rifles - I’m guessing something like a clip-fed M-16 - that fired silver bullets. He used a Swiss arms dealer and paid a few hundred thousand dollars, I think. Then again, he was also using a highly non-standard primer, so that figure may be inflated.
I believe he considered gold as well, but he wanted a more all-purpose-kill-the-undead-and-other-weird-creatures ammo.
barton: as in Barton County, Kansas? I have not read the story you mentioned, but I think the premise is very “do-able”. Oregon Trail Bullets offers bullets made from a silver alloy and these bullets can be fired in any appropriate automatic weapon. I am a reloader, but I have no experience with the ‘Laser Cast’ bullets offered by Oregon Trail Bullets. My guess would be that the cast bullets would have some restrictions on velocity and therefore pistol caliber bullets at pistol caliber velocities might be recommended. This in no way limits the use of these bullets, however. The 9mm, .357SIG, .40S&W, and .45ACP caliber sub-machineguns would prove adequate to the task of dispatching some bad otherworldly creatures.
barton: Oops, forgot to ask about the “highly non-standard primer” … what is that?
As long as we’re talking about ammunition for werewolves, and vampires and witches (oh my!), how about a wooden bullet for vampires? Like a small stake to drive into their heart? There was a spoof of this in a gun magazine last year, but wooden bullets actually exist and are, IIRC, regarded as inhumane for military and police use. But, hey, we’re talking about creatures that are inhumane, right? I would think that a very workable bullet could be made that would be devastating to the count and his minions. First, I think it would be best to use a sabot; this would set into the rifling and impart the stabilizing spin to our bullet. It would be good if the wooden bullet was lacquered or varnished to make it smooth and more aerodynamic. And I think we would need to add a metal core for weight and penetration. So, we would have a projectile with a total weight of about 230 grains (in the case of a .45ACP), and would consist of a discarding sabot and a wooden bullet with a lead core that would weigh in the neighborhood of 200 to 210 grains. If you wanted to get really fancy and make it an all-purpose bullet, I suppose the core could be silver; mavbe a silver tip, too . We might have to experiment a little to get the size-to-weight ratio right, because the magazine for the bullet will dictate maximum cartridge length. A very thin veneer of wood on a metal core might be the solution. And the pistol caliber velocity would be ideal because you would not want the bullet to completely pass through the creature. This particular bullet would work in any .45ACP pistol, a Thompson sub-gun (maximum cool look) or any of the many other firearms designed for the .45ACP round.
barton: Oops, forgot to ask about the “highly non-standard primer” … what is that?
As long as we’re talking about ammunition for werewolves, and vampires and witches (oh my!), how about a wooden bullet for vampires? Like a small stake to drive into their heart? There was a spoof of this in a gun magazine last year, but wooden bullets actually exist and are, IIRC, regarded as inhumane for military and police use. But, hey, we’re talking about creatures that are inhumane, right? I would think that a very workable bullet could be made that would be devastating to the count and his minions. First, I think it would be best to use a sabot; this would set into the rifling and impart the stabilizing spin to our bullet. It would be good if the wooden bullet was lacquered or varnished to make it smooth and more aerodynamic. And I think we would need to add a metal core for weight and penetration. So, we would have a projectile with a total weight of about 230 grains (in the case of a .45ACP), and would consist of a discarding sabot and a wooden bullet with a lead core that would weigh in the neighborhood of 200 to 210 grains. If you wanted to get really fancy and make it an all-purpose bullet, I suppose the core could be silver; mavbe a silver tip, too . We might have to experiment a little to get the size-to-weight ratio right, because the magazine for the bullet will dictate maximum cartridge length. A very thin veneer of wood on a metal core might be the solution. And the pistol caliber velocity would be ideal because you would not want the bullet to completely pass through the creature. This particular bullet would work in any .45ACP pistol, a Thompson sub-gun (maximum cool look) or any of the many other firearms designed for the .45ACP round.
barton: Oops, forgot to ask about the “highly non-standard primer” … what is that?
As long as we’re talking about ammunition for werewolves, and vampires and witches (oh my!), how about a wooden bullet for vampires? Like a small stake to drive into their heart? There was a spoof of this in a gun magazine last year, but wooden bullets actually exist and are, IIRC, regarded as inhumane for military and police use. But, hey, we’re talking about creatures that are inhumane, right? I would think that a very workable bullet could be made that would be devastating to the count and his minions. First, I think it would be best to use a sabot; this would set into the rifling and impart the stabilizing spin to our bullet. It would be good if the wooden bullet was lacquered or varnished to make it smooth and more aerodynamic. And I think we would need to add a metal core for weight and penetration. So, we would have a projectile with a total weight of about 230 grains (in the case of a .45ACP), and would consist of a discarding sabot and a wooden bullet with a lead core that would weigh in the neighborhood of 200 to 210 grains. If you wanted to get really fancy and make it an all-purpose bullet, I suppose the core could be silver; mavbe a silver tip, too . We might have to experiment a little to get the size-to-weight ratio right, because the magazine for the bullet will dictate maximum cartridge length. A very thin veneer of wood on a metal core might be the solution. And the pistol caliber velocity would be ideal because you would not want the bullet to completely pass through the creature. This particular bullet would work in any .45ACP pistol, a Thompson sub-gun (maximum cool look) or any of the many other firearms designed for the .45ACP round.
I can jump in here… It’s a fantasy series, and the guns produced were for use in a world where gunpowder isn’t explosive. It was widely believed that nothing was explosive in that world, (Amber), so nobody had ever tried making guns there before, but the main character (Corwen, I believe his name was?) discovered that there actually was some substance that would bang. I don’t recall what it was, but I think it was something normally non-explosive in our world.
Non-explosive gunpowder? … oookay. But did the concept of compressed gas exist? Like in a cylinder that could be attached to a weapon-like device? Something with a long, rifled (spirally grooved) tube through which a projectile could be driven? Work with me on this, folks …
So on Amber, there were no internal combustion engines, no rockets, no explosive devices in the traditionsal sense of the word? But an explosion is just a controlled, rapid version of the process of combustion. Here, check this out: put a lighted candle on a picnic table outside and sprinkle some baking flour around the candle; take a six foot length of tubing or hose and put one end under a coffee can that you put over the candle and flour; stand back a ways (like the six foot extension of the tubing) and blow on the tubing to stir the flour into the air - you will create an explosion with ordinary flour (or sawdust or any number of suspension materials) … Maybe I should just read the book, huh?
Sue, you are SO a genius! You not only have given me a great way to introduce the “Action” Abromiwitz charactor (Jewish Jewler = Stereotype, Jewish jeweler/survivalist = twist stereotype all around!) but you provided a better way for me to introduce the main charactor to him.
As for silver bullets…
A busy few nights of web research has taught me more than I ever wanted to know about bullets and ordinence.
I suspect the “Non-standard primer” your referring to is Nitrocellulose, the explosive used in newer “smokeless” powders. It’s cleaner burning, but Radar Ralf’s right, it still works by producing propellant gasses, and it also packs more punch per grain (it’s called +P).
The silver coating or electroplating is a more plausable idea than a solid silver bullet. Silver, even when softened in the form of a silver/tin alloy would be too hard for the compression cone of a revolver (told ya I’d been busy). However, most of the better hollow point rounds are metal jacketed anyway so as not to gunk up the barrel of the gun with the much softer lead.
Still looking up the silver Vs. supernatural history. I really like the story Dicemans pointed out and have found a book by Stephen King called Danse Macabre wich looks promising.
As far as shotgun shells go, any idiot can easily modify a shotgun shell. Simply obtain shells, saw the plastic end open, remove the pellets and replace with silver pellets or shavings, and reseal the plastic end when complete. So long as the primer/cap segment isn’t disturbed, it’ll work, and I’m fairly sure it won’t harm the gun used to fire it. You’d want to be pretty careful, though, and I’m sure the ammo makers would NOT guarantee that the shell would still work after you’d dinked with it…
You might want to pay close attention to the type of shotgun and shell, though. A 20-gauge shotgun is largely a fowling weapon… a bird gun. Shooting a human or humanoid target with the thing at any kind of range would not kill, so much as irritate. A human shot at close range with a 20-gauge would probably not die, but would possibly be seriously injured. At medium range, he would certainly not die, but would likely lose interest in screwing with YOU, choosing instead a long night at the emergency room having metal shot carefully removed from his butt by a snickering nurse with tweezers. Then again, this could be interesting, when applied to a werewolf, who is being slowly poisoned by the silver shot…
A 12-gauge, on the other hand, will tear a hole in a human big enough to put your arm through, at close range, and hydrostatic shock will kill pretty much instantly. Damage applied to a limb will either tear the limb off, or render it useless and present a very sudden danger of death by exsanguination.
An examination of damage effect could be useful here. Take vampires, for example: are they immune to damage by metal, or does damage by metal simply not affect them the way it does a human? This matters. If I shoot Dracula in the chest at close range with my 12-gauge, one of two things will happen:
(a) the blast will punch his heart out through his spine. Both will become gory confetti on the wall behind him. Without a heart, he will collapse, paralyzed, and while he’s regenerating, I hack his head off, finishing the job of killing him.
(b) the blast will shred his clothing but leave the flesh unmarked; the metal shot simply passes through him as though he wasn’t there (Stephen King does a great scene like this in “Salem’s Lot”) and the vampire grins at me big, and I am in deep doodoo…
Actually, making your own cartridges for your guns is fairly easy. All you need is some used brass and gunpowder(a survivalist would have plenty of both these items) and some fairly simple equipment that any survivalist worthy of the title would have. Then simply substitute a silver bullet for a lead one(as others have shown, making a silver bullet could be done with a $30 torch + cheap mold) and you are all set to hunt werewolves/some vampires/some other supernatural critters.
Loading the cartridges? No problem. Check the shooter’s bible for quantity, measure it out with a dope dealer’s scale, and pour it into the brass.
Capping the bullet into the brass? Eesh. THAT could be a bit tricky for an amateur, as it involves tapping the metal slug into the crimped brass, AFTER it’s loaded with gunpowder.
It’s also worth noting that black powder is NOT the same kind of “gunpowder” used in modern firearms. It generates a considerable amount of smoke and fouling, compared to modern smokeless explosives, and is NOT recommended for use in modern firearms for that reason; a revolver would likely not be too much of a problem, and a shotgun has no rifling to foul up, but any kind of automatic or semiautomatic weapon is going to have trouble if you try to use it with hand-loaded black powder cartridges for any length of time, simply due to the amount of crud left behind by the powder explosion.
It gets even worse if you’re trying to use hand-loaded cartridges in any kind of fully automatic weapon. Blazing away with an Uzi or assault rifle for more than a half dozen shots will generate enough smoke around you that you very quickly won’t be able to see what you’re shooting at … or breathe, for that matter. Black powder smoke is nasty-tasting stuff, and a lungful of it will quickly convince you that a second breath is to be avoided.
…and that’s assuming the feed mechanism doesn’t clog or the gun doesn’t jam due to the sudden, massive influx of crud from the burning black powder…