I'm asking this for a friend.
Do you think it would be possible to cast up a silver bullet with the equipment we normally use? I know a Lee lead pot wouldn't have enough heat but a torch would. And would a steel mold be able to handle the heat? And if you did make one, would it hurt the barrel? I'm thinking you could easily get very high pressures. And would you use black powder or smokeless? (Mercuric primers or modern?)
Thoughts?
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I have some experience brazing with silver and copper/silver alloys in commercial applications. Silver has about the same density as lead so weights would be similar. Melting point is close to that of aluminum so you definitely want an iron mold. Hardness would be between a cast bullet and a jacketed bullet. Getting the mold hot enough to cast well and getting the silver melted might be a problem. I say go for it. If you have the silver laying around what is there to loose? Lord knows we have time on our hands.
On the other hand, why not gold? Higher density so a bullet from the same mold would weigh more, therefore have more energy and buck the wind better, assuming the same velocity. Let me know where and when you are going to shoot them, I want to dig thru the berm.
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Hi Max,
Silver melts at 1760 F and iron melts at 1810. It might be possible in an iron mold, provided it's yours.
I looked this up years ago and then knew the Lone Ranger was a fake. No way he made those silver bullets over a campfire.
Sorry Kemo sabe another youngsters ideal crushed,
Steve
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Ah Ha! The Lone Ranger was from East Texas and he used German Silver. Alloy of nickel, tin and zinc with a melting point of only 1200 degrees F.
You must be thinking of the vampire killing bullets that have to be pure silver metal.
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No, know folks who tried it. ugh
Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.
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I have read an article some years back, along similar lines but definitely for werewolf hunting, not vampires ( a stick through the heart will do).
The issue that the writer had was that the moulds available dropped projectiles smaller than could be used in and cartridge. From memory he was trying to cast for a 357, unfortunately they came out of the mould undersized and would literally bounce down the barrel.
So first you need an oversized mould, someone elses gun, certainly not having them go down mine 
. Maybe paperpatch them?
Sounds like someone needs to write this one up. I'll try to find that article.
cheers
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Not the article I was after, but just as interesting.
Once the bullets had been cast and the crew had had sufficient time to recover from this particular ordeal, the silver slugs had been turned over to Cotterman, who had complained that he would have to resize them. They had been cast in a 240-grain mold, but when he started measuring he found that the silver bullets only weighed 225 grains each and that instead of measuring .454, the size of the mold, the bullets had shrunk in their making, thus measured only .450.
This presented some minor problems. They were going to fit a bit loosely in the barrel, and in doing the loading, Superdan had to put one hell of a crimp in the case even to hold these bullets. Used were Winchester .45 caliber Long Colt cases and CCI magnum pistol primers.
"Tonto digging for fired slugs. At three bucks a bullet, this was the most profitable operation."
We then loaded up the Peacemaker with the loads carrying the commercial black powder offered by Hodgdon's and let fly at the chronograph screens. The time the bullet made its way out of the barrel ahead of the 40 grains of FFFG. We found that it was being propelled along at 804 feet per second. We fired several of these three-dollar bullets and came up with an average of 802 fps on the shots that didn't louse up the chronograph with black powder percussion. Then, for comparison, we fired a modern swaged hollow point bullet, this one of lead and weighed 200 grains. It tracked through the screens at 733 fps.
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Let's say you wanted a dummy bullet to sit on your workbench as a curio. Maybe you could forge up a small billet of silver then turn it on a lathe? I've got this old spoon and it has got me to thinking. Pretty sure its German Silver.
One day when I was a kid we were watching The Lone Ranger. It was a Sunday and my uncle Don and his family had come over for a visit. Part way through the show uncle Don said, "He's not the Lone Ranger. He's got Tonto." So he wasn't really a loner and he didn't have real silver bullets. What's this world coming to?
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He WAS The Lone Ranger, because he never rode/worked with any other Rangers.
Nah, Nah, Nah
Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.
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I agree with bigman54, he was the lone ranger not the lonely ranger.
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One riot, One Ranger!
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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In the early 1960's there was a gun mag article on casting silver bullets. Can be done. Not easy.
A few years ago I cast some pure TIN bullets for a fellow who wanted some silver-looking bullets for display.
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He WAS The Lone Ranger, because he never rode/worked with any other Rangers.
In the television series, the premier episode explained that he was one of six rangers riding to apprehend the bandit who had murdered his brother. He was wounded when the rangers were ambushed and was the lone survivor. Tonto found him, recognized him from some earlier meeting (I think), and he and Tonto put up at his dead brother's cabin while he was healing. There, he found the vein of silver and pledged to avenge his brother's murder. You know the rest of the story.
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If I remember correctly,the article about casting bullets out of silver was not a huge success.Besides of being way undersized,it was more wrinkled than a 102year old lady...or man.The experimenter never could keep the mould hot enough to make nice smooth bullets which is to be expected considering the high melting point of silver.
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They lied to us kids. I'll never see a silver bullet. There's no such thing. It's like Santa Claus and the Easter bunny.
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I have made casting of silver, gold, jewelers bronze and nickle. The technique is quite different from what we do to make lead alloy bullets.
First, make a wax replica of the bullet, then encase it in molding stuff (can't remember the name of the material). When the mold is hard heat it in a furnace to remove the wax. Place the mold on the inertial casting machine-- a big round thingy that spins at a high rate of rpm--wind up the arm and heat the crucible until the metal is molten. Let the arm go (spin) and close the lid. The centripital force will force the molten metal of your choice into the temporary mold. When the arm stops remove the mold and drop it into a pan of water which will make the molding material fall apart. Clean up the casting cut off the sprue lines and polish. This will give you your silver (or whatever) bullet cast to the same size as the wax dummy with all the intended marks and imperfections. It is slow, but they look good.
B.E.Brickey
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Ok. Now I know what Tonto did during the week.
Seriously, thanks for that explanation.
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The process that Brodie describes above has been used at least since Roman times. It is known as the "lost wax process" or "investment casting". It is what Ruger uses for a lot of their parts including receivers. TC also used it for the Contender and Encore, as well as small components in their muzzle loaders. Plaster of Paris can be used as the molding material.
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A machinist shooter friend and I thought about this. He opinioned it would be easier to buy or cast silver rod and then turn out the bullets on the tracer lathe. The plan was to melt down some coins, back then we had REAL silver coins.
The plan never went anywhere as we could not find any werewolves to test them on.
Steve
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It's a great fairy tale. Silver makes a horrible bullet as it's too hard to be rifled going down the bore. Very inaccurate to say the least, and expensive to boot. Stick with lead, or even plastic.
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