Silver Bullets

Kelly Green

Kelly Green

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I was thinking back to the days of yesteryear when I would watch the Lone Ranger on TV. He shot silver bullets. Can you shoot silver bullets form a handgun? Since silver is harder than copper or lead, wouldn’t shooting silver bullets eventually destroy your gun? Just wondering.
 
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Years back American Rifleman did a test with silver bullets.
I don't remember the exact problems but the results were not satisfactory. They didn't seem to have problems with the handguns used.
 
i remember watching the movie "Silver Bullet" as a teenager. what model S&W did gary busey use on the werewolf?
 
The other night when I had that werewolf coming at me, I wasn't worried if the silver bullets would hurt my model 66.
 
60's GUNS

Howdy,
I have an old GUN WORLD magazine from the early 60's and in it they dress up in Lone Ranger and Tonto costumes and tried the silver bullet thing.
They said silver had a high melting temp (1700F I think) and they poured some pretty ugly bullets and wrecked a set of moulds but eventually got some decent bullets. Said L.R. and T surley did not cast them around a campfire.
It's a fun article.
Thanks
Mike
 
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Silver is harder than lead, so it probably wouldn't grip the rifling the way lead does.

Not to mention a LOT more expensive.

I don't believe the Lone Ranger "shot" silver bullets. He left them like calling cards. At least that was the impression I always got.
 
The subject comes up every now and again, usually in relation to werewolves these days.

Back in the 80s, a company offered a line of precast silver bullets molded to look like Dracula's face. Circa 1986 or so Guns magazine featured these along with a special customized Colt Detective Special in a vampire killing kit. Wonder what ever happened to that gun....

If you google the subject, you'll find one author and her husband - that writes paranormal stuff - did some experiments. Other people have done experiments over the years too.

From memory - silver dimes don't work very well in a shotgun.

If you are plagued by werewolves, you can take silver salts and use them to fill the cavity of a hollowpoint - silver nitrate etc - and then seal it with epoxy if all else fails. You can also cut a sliver out of an old coin and epoxy it in place. This alters your bullet weight and stability so is a close range proposition. And the downside with the silver nitrate bullets if that if you are caught with them, you risk being prosecuted for having poison tipped bullets.

Anyway, while silver is harder than lead, it still isn't as hard as the steel used to make the weapon.

Getting some plastic sabots or enclosing the silver in a jacket of something else - bronze might work well - would solve the problem.

All that is on the theory of course that asking about the Lone Ranger is just a cover for your werewolf related fears, as it is for most people.

There are several custom ammunition makers that you can contact if you want some made up. If you provide the silver and the cash, I'm sure that you can find someone to accomodate making a batch.

We're fortunate, given the price of silver these days, that werewolves are less of a problem than zombies, and of course zombies can be killed (well re-killed I suppose, given that they are already dead) with regular bullets.

As for the Lone Ranger, it was always my impression that he did indeed shoot people - or rather the guns out of their hands - with silver bullets.

Someone remind me later and we can discuss why gold, when used as a projectile - does some interesting things and how you can make tank killer rounds out of it.

Presumably the idea of silver bullets - sometimes blessed by a priest - stems from the idea that silver is a cleansing agent. Folks used to throw a coin into a cask of water to purify it. There seems to have been some truth to this idea.
 
mstuhr said:
Howdy,
I have an old GUNS magazine from the early 60's and in it they dress up in Lone Ranger and Tonto costumes and tried the silver bullet thing.
They said silver had a high melting temp (1700F I think) and they poured some pretty ugly bullets and wrecked a set of moulds but eventually got some decent bullets. Said L.R. and T surley did not cast them around a campfire.
It's a fun article.
Thanks
Mike
Click to expand...

Lone Ranger, Go Away
 
Guns magazine featured these along with a special customized Colt Detective Special in a vampire killing kit. Wonder what ever happened to that gun....


If it's the same one.. It sitting in the NRA Museum under the care of Jim Supica.. I saw it two weeks ago.:D

From the NRA website

NRANews wanted to do something special to kick off Curator's Corner during the month of Halloween. With a touch of input from National Firearms Museum Senior Curator Phil Schreier, they settled on the Colt .38 Special Vampire Gun.
Now we're not only talking about a vampire gun, we're talking about an entire vampire hunting kit. That kit comes in a coffin-shaped ebony case which holds (in addition to the sliver-plated gun) a container for holy water, a wooden stake, a mirror to check your prey's reflection, and silver bullets cast in the shape of miniature vampire heads.
When inspecting the Detective Special, one finds two bats stamped on the grip – leaving one to wonder if two vamps have already been dispatched with this wonderful piece of Halloween protection.
The gun itself is a .38 Special Detective Special. First produced during the 1920s, the Detective Special was revolution in the field of concealed firearms. Carrying a high power (for the time) cartridge and a shortened frame, the Colt ran through four issues over a period of 68 years. Changes included variations in the ejector-rod, grip design,



PH2010100100158.jpg
 
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Thanks Alpo

Thanks Alpo,
That saves me from digging it up. That's the one.
There is a little shop in Hannibal MO that has an old magazine rack full of these old gun mags. I get there once a year and spend 20-30 dollars and stock up on the old magazines.
Thanks
Mike
 
ditrina said:
Guns magazine featured these along with a special customized Colt Detective Special in a vampire killing kit. Wonder what ever happened to that gun....


If it's the same one.. It sitting in the NRA Museum under the care of Jim Supica.. I saw it two weeks ago.:D

From the NRA website

NRANews wanted to do something special to kick off Curator's Corner during the month of Halloween. With a touch of input from National Firearms Museum Senior Curator Phil Schreier, they settled on the Colt .38 Special Vampire Gun.
Now we're not only talking about a vampire gun, we're talking about an entire vampire hunting kit. That kit comes in a coffin-shaped ebony case which holds (in addition to the sliver-plated gun) a container for holy water, a wooden stake, a mirror to check your prey's reflection, and silver bullets cast in the shape of miniature vampire heads.
When inspecting the Detective Special, one finds two bats stamped on the grip – leaving one to wonder if two vamps have already been dispatched with this wonderful piece of Halloween protection.
The gun itself is a .38 Special Detective Special. First produced during the 1920s, the Detective Special was revolution in the field of concealed firearms. Carrying a high power (for the time) cartridge and a shortened frame, the Colt ran through four issues over a period of 68 years. Changes included variations in the ejector-rod, grip design,



PH2010100100158.jpg
Click to expand...

Do you own one of those too???? :D:p
 
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