Casting Silver Bullets "Gun World" magazine 1964

[RPRNY]

http://www.patriciabriggs.com/articles/silver/ranger/

Can't cut and paste the article due to technological failure.

Link goes to the website of some female fantasy writer I've never heard of, vampires and werewolves and such. The writer's husband was intrigued by a character's use of silver bullets and decided to examine the real world practicality of said projectiles. A long and intermittently boring account follows but he tracks down an April 1964 "Gun World" magazine penned by Jack Lewis entitled "Lone Ranger Go Away" in which the staff undertake the making and shooting of what they imagine would have been the Lone Ranger' s loads. As one character notes "I can tell you Tonto didn't cast those around the campfire".

A highly diverting article with plenty of factual content but a certain jiggery-pokery style sadly lacking in today's gun writing, mixed perhaps with some adult beverage consumption or recreational chemistry that we might not deem altogether safe.

Anyway, quite interesting and entertaining.

[lotech]

I read that article when it was published. "Offbeat" would be as close to a compliment as I could give.

[Hardcast416taylor]

For the past 50+ years I have heard that "Gun World" is the "COMIC BOOK" of the gun mag rags! I stopped even glancing at this rag in a store, with nothing better to do, back in the `70`s.Robert

[lotech]

GUN WORLD was never the premier firearms publication, but they did run some good technical articles and cast bullet pieces on occasion. In fact, in the '60s, it was overall a better magazine than some that are available today. The writers I remember were Dan Cotterman, Tommy Bish, Bob Zwirz, Dean Grennell, and of course the owner and publisher, Jack Lewis, but I think there were others.

[JoeH]

I actually remember reading that article back then and the Tonto reference is all I remember of it.

[vzerone]

A long time ago Guns & Ammo did an article on silver bullet referencing it to the time era the Lone Ranger would have been doing that. They summed it up as impractical and though the old metallurgy of the Colt back then might not like the higher pressure trying to push a very hard bullet down the bore.

[RPRNY]

The chap who was researching this ended up working with a boffin at Montana Tech and casting, sizing and lubing some reasonable looking BHN 24, 230 grs .430" pure silver bullets for the 444 Marlin and loading them over 4198. Groups were not good. They allegedly shot a segment on his silver bullets for Discovery.

It seems that if one wanted silver bullets, paper patched lathe turned bullets would be the way to go.

[NM156B]

... As one character notes "I can tell you Tonto didn't cast those around the campfire".Hello from Pittsburgh. New to the forum here (and fairly new to casting), but actually Tonto might have been able to do it around a campfire (though the LR would have had to fan the flames pretty hard to get to temp). I am cranking them out for my 1860 Colt using simple items just found around the house, didn't purchase any equipment, and am getting around two 44cal bullets per ounce (currently works out to $7 per round). If it works for the round ball, it will work for the conical and I will be working on those maybe next month. That said, I would like to perfect this process so would appreciate anybody who is interested in this project to contact me accordingly. Link of successful first cast : https://sites.google.com/site/vwgsilverbullet/home (https://sites.google.com/site/vwgsilverbullet/home)

[RPRNY]

There's a saying in Yorkshire that comes to mind:

"There's nowt ***** as folk"

No insult intended but to find several iterations of casting silver bullets given the element's clear unsuitability to the job is strange. However, it does no harm to anyone and clearly brings joy to some, so why not?

[NM156B]

...element's clear unsuitability to the job is strange.

Big grin, a simple rock bullet in a sling brought down a giant. At close range, I think a 44cal silver slug would be accurate and suitable enough to at least downgrade the danger, particularly when dealing with the lupine threat variety ;-)

[rollmyown]

Has anyone here actually done it? I've thought about doing one just to see how it turned out. I wondered what the fill out would be like and if the sprue would cut OK. Silver rings if you drop it - makes me think the sprue would be hard to cut?

[haynk]

I remember the original article, which was mostly tongue in cheek. My recollection is that the issue was that the melting point of silver was too high to be practical. The writer mentioned pre heating the mould with a torch and wrping it in the process, ARIC.

haynk

[Scharfschuetze]

I remember reading such and article, but I believe it was in Guns & Ammo. It's been a while, but I also remember the author had issues with getting the molds hot enough for make good boolits with silver. A friend of mine is a silver smith and he has told me that silver requires much higher temperatures than gold to cast well.

Comments on Gun World magazine are correct. It was never as serious a magazine as the NRA's Rifleman magazine which was the premier magazine back in the day. I did enjoy it from time to time though and its cast of writers usually had something of interest to write about. A while back, a member here bought a custom Luger that had been owned by Bob Zwirz.

[scattershot]

I remember reading that article when it came out, and remember a chuckle when I thought of Tonto trying to cast silver bullets around a campfire.

[RPRNY]

The Guns World chaps in the article made and fired some with very little success. The chap on the website actually made some correctly sized pure silver bullets for the 444 Marlin and had just barely acceptable accuracy. Of course shooting BHN 25 pure silver bullets in a microgroove barrel...

[Cherokee]

I also remember reading that back in '64. I thought it was an interesting oddity. They did have some good writers, especially Dan and Dean. That was when I subscribed to every gun mag I could, not so today.

[rbuck351]

I'm going to make one just because I can. I'll probably get some of the mold material made for casting silver and coat an oversized wax form. Melt the wax out and fill with melted silver then lathe turn the bullet. Actually I'm going to make 2. One for me and one for the fellow supplying the silver. Then load them in 45Colt cases without powder or primer and install a neckless ring at the primer hole.

[Shiloh]

That is the most swaybacked horse I have ever seen.

Shiloh