Tutorial on making silver bullets

[Shawn Merrow]

Was looking at the site of an author I like and found a very interesting tutorial on making silver bullets.

Silver Bullets

[glitterboy2098]

i prefer the idea of electroplating silver over a normal bullet. less fragile (silver is pretty soft, and thus easy to deform), and cheaper (uses much less silver per bullet)

might do a bit less damage (depends on how your GM runs silver bullets) from the reduced silver amount, but should still be effective.

[Jefffar]

Actually you want bullets to be soft and deformable, otherwise they punch nice clean holes in things rather than make big ragged cavities.

The problem with silver isn't that' it's soft, it's actually quite hard. Remember the "Silver doesn't tumble worht a damn." comment from Nightbane World Book 1 - quite accurate. A silver round will have poor terminal ballistics inside a human body - not that a human ody is the preffered target of silver rounds - but you never really know what you're up against.

Electroplating silver rounds may or may not allow the round to penetrate, but it may leave some interesting residues inside the barrel.

Silver is also expensve, too expensive to waste a lot of it in things like bullets.

So that's why Ron Caliburn makes rounds with a small core of silver exposed at the tip, sort of like these. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and check out the SJ ESC rounds. Just replace the steel component with a silver one. Agaisnt a non-resistant tage these rounds would end up acting like normal bullets. On a resistant target vulnerable to silver they would act like AP rounds.

[mrloucifer]

Interesting.

[Amberjack]

Why not make Silver glasser style rounds, I have read some where that they do a pretty high amount of internal damage to target, so against those vulnerable to silver they should be very ugly. Although they would most likely be incredibly expensive to manufacturer and/or purchase.

[Jefffar]

They also would go splat on anything solid instead of penetrating. That's why Ron uses the combo rounds. Works against silver vulnerable creatures, works against creatures that aren't

[Shawn Merrow]

Seems like an easy way to make silver bullets would be 12 gauge slugs. The molds should be simpler and you would be putting a larger chunk of silver into your target.

[Jefffar]

That's also the problem, more silver = more expense.

[mrloucifer]

That's also the problem, more silver = more expense.

Not to mention good solid Silver can be hard to acquire even if you get the cash. In my Sunday game, I have a player who likes to rob the villains of any silver jewelry he finds to melt down for weaponry. he considers their items as "Being confiscated for the good of the community".

[Jefffar]

Other than the dangers of stepping into melee with a supernatural creature, silver edged weapons are probably a more economical choice than bullets. Yes you need more silver at start up, but you get to keep it after the battle.

[Lord Z]

That article raised the issue of silver nitrate bullets. The article didn't recommend them because they wouldn't work as well, but surely some players will try this sooner or later. Would it even work? Gamemasters, how would you rule on this issue.

Personally, I'm thinking that it would have no effect on supernatural creatures vulnerable to silver. Silver nitrate is chemically different than pure silver. They have about as much in common as pure water and hydrogen peroxide.

[Jefffar]

Agreed. Ususal figure we see for silver to be effective is 80% pure or better. A chemical concoction just isn't going to do it even if silver is an ingredient.

[mrloucifer]

That article raised the issue of silver nitrate bullets. The article didn't recommend them because they wouldn't work as well, but surely some players will try this sooner or later. Would it even work? Gamemasters, how would you rule on this issue.

Personally, I'm thinking that it would have no effect on supernatural creatures vulnerable to silver. Silver nitrate is chemically different than pure silver. They have about as much in common as pure water and hydrogen peroxide.

I have some crafty players who deal with werebeasts on a regular basis. To help deal with them a player has created specialized tranq darts, including using silver tipped needles to penetrate the skin, and a large dose of barbituates along with Silver Nitrate in the mix. The Nitrate is supposed to weaken their system so the drugs have a chance to take effect. The beast has to roll save vs. non lethal as normal (and all 1-4 rolls means auto failure in my game) and if they fail the drug starts to fully affect them within 3D6 minutes.

I didnt know about the nitrate being so different, but I admite my players ingenuity and tactics of non lethal measures against the supernatural so I'll probrably keep it