Materials other than lead?

[savage1r]

Just saw this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFvik_THcNQ&NR=1&feature=endscreen) and thought it might be an ok substitute for lead (although it's probably too brittle), but I was wondering if there are any other substitutes that can be made at home that could be used besides lead. Thoughts?

[gcsteve]

Well, it sure won't expand at all on impact, just shatter. Also looks to be extremely light so no penetration to speak of, and I doubt it will engage any rifling so no accuracy. No leading though!

I think I'll stick with lead.

[.22-10-45]

When Dr. Mann was doing his experiments in the early 1900's, he writes of using 24K gold bullets...caught fired ones in old stump for recovery..said they shot well..but no better than lead alloy.

[earthling121757]

The guy in the video basically made dried cheese. Gloolets would probably be easier and more effective. I don't believe him about not being able to break that thin piece by hand, but if it's on youtube, it must be true!!

[Rangefinder]

yup--nothing more than dried out farmer's curd... I do it all the time, except I add a touch of salt, some herbs, and spread it on crackers rather than waste it like that. Goes great with a little deer sausage. Wouldn't handle chamber pressures too well and I couldn't imagine trying to scrub the stuff out of my bore.

[Sabaharr]

Depleted uranium is a possibility. Now before you go flameing me about where you gonna get that I just happen to have some. I work in industrial x-ray and x-ray tubes and gamma radiography cameras are made of the stuff. It is 100% harmless as far as radiation too. I have a few scrapped x-ray tubes that I am going to take apart for the DU shielding and see how it melts and casts. Might be interesting.

[oneokie]

I have a few scrapped x-ray tubes that I am going to take apart for the DU shielding and see how it melts and casts. Might be interesting.

You may want to do some research on the melting temperature of DU.

[aarolar]

1132*C or 2069*F good luck melting that down at home...

I personally would like to do more with zinc, I thought one member was doing some experimentation with it but I haven't seen any thing recently. Also bismuth would be a possibility but is rather pricy.

[btroj]

Zinc wouldn't make a very good hunting bullet. The low density and extreme hardness make it not real workable. No expansion and rapid loss of velocity. The low density would also make it a poor penetrator.

If something else was a viable alternative the manufacturers would be using it. Look how long it took them to find alternatives to steel shot. And look how expensive those alternatives are.