Shooting Silver as a Projectile

[webrx]

Electroplating, or silver plating. I have had 6 bullets .451" set aside for about 10 years
now to have them silver plated & then I will - was goanna- might- put them in 45 colt .452"
with no powder & a dead primer. Just for show.
Then a Werewolf showed up & bit me.

See you should have had powder and primers in those, that'll teach ya

 

[Ryden]

Probably silver tipped wooden shaft arrows and a crossbow would be a better solution.

Those will handle vampires as well.

I looked through a couple of natural documentaries from Hollywood Geographic and it seems like many of these threatened species (these species are really rare, should we be hunting them at all?) explode in a dust cloud on contact with silver, so what about a super soaker filled with silver nitrate solution?

Try to find the Norwegian movie Troll Hunter and make some pop corn.

It's low budget but really hilarious, it's about some kids doing a school project film about what they think is a poaching operation which turns out to be a game warden trying to cope with an outbreak of rabies in the local troll population in northern Norway

 

[AJumbo]

Looks like a small crucible, cinder block, and blowtorch will be necessary. Not to mention appropriately rated gloves. That Lone Ranger sure went lengths for justice.

Casting bullets and driving the buckboard into town were Tonto's areas of responsibility.

 

[APG]

What is the consensus about casting metals other than lead for shooting through a rifled barrel? I’m particularly interested in casting silver roundball out of some old bullion, but I’d rather not damage my rifling over a goofy Halloween experiment.

Are there werewolves in your area? Or is that for Vampires?

 

[gtrgy888]

Are there werewolves in your area? Or is that for Vampires?

Either, but Skinwalkers and revenants are a bigger problem in my neck of the woods.

 

[JohnKSa]

Silver hardness is about 24.5 BHN compared to 20-22 BHN for Linotype, so from that perspective it wouldn't be a bad choice. It should take the rifling nicely and isn't hard enough to cause problems.

Silver density is about 10.5gm/cc compared to 11.3gm/cc for lead. About 7% less dense than lead. Not enough difference to be worried about.

What is a problem is that the thermal coefficient of expansion of Silver is 26% to 34% different than that of the lead and the lead alloys used for bullets. Also the melting point is significantly different. So if you're going to cast your own silver bullets, you will have to use specially made molds. If you use the same molds you use for lead, the Silver bullets will be the wrong size.

 

[Jim Watson]

Assumes pure silver. Common sterling and coin silver are a good bit harder.
A mold with "lube grooves" or lathe turned relief grooves like bronze DGR bullets might be necessary.

 

[JohnKSa]

Yup. You can alloy lead really hard too if you picked the right ingredients but it wouldn't make sense if you want to make bullets.

Let's say you do want to use a silver alloy instead of pure silver--that makes sense. Use lead as the alloying agent instead of copper or nickel and you can actually make your life a lot easier.