Cast silver?

[halodub]

Anyone here try to run some silver through a mold? I have been thinking about making a few silver boolits to load as a novelty sort of thing, and I'm just curious if anyone has ever done this before. Any extra precautions to take with something like this? I know silver's melt temp is quite a bit higher than lead's, so would a different type of mold be needed? Perhaps a clay mold modeled after a cast lead boolit?

[Beagle333]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/google.php?cx=partner-pub-6216953551359885%3A1942134700&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=casting+silver&siteurl=castboolits.gunloads.com%2Fforumdisplay.ph p%3F18-Swappin-amp-Sellin&ref=&ss=3720j2063296j16&sa.x=0&sa.y=0

The search bar is your friend.
Good luck with your quest!

[country gent]

I believe you might need a different flux than wood chips / wax for silver also. For gold arsenic is used a lot to get it to cast clean and shiny. A steel mould should be okay an aluminum may be iffy due to the higher melt temp of silver. I believe silver melts around 1400*F. You will want the mould good and clean, and up to temp to start out as the sprues on a cold mould will be much harder to cut. What you might try is a small amount of silver added to a semi hard alloy and blended together. This should give the good fill out and nice shiny bullets at a lower temp. You wont really need tin in the alloy as silver does the same thing. I had some oldtimers years ago tell me they added a silver dime to their pots (10-20 lb) and used it to improve fill out and looks.

[Digital Dan]

Same effect without the hassle or expense can be had with tin.

[iomskp]

Many years ago there was an article in Guns and Ammo I think about making silver bullets, the idea was to prove or disprove the Lone Ranger myth about silver bullets shooting better than lead ones, from memory they could not buy pure silver for some reason so they purchased hallmarked silver jewellery, they did not mention any problems casting the projectiles but the end result was it chewed the rifling out of the revolver they used.

Regards Trevor

[Moonie]

This actually comes up about once a year, lots of discussion, simply put it cannot be done the way Lead/tin/zinc can be done.

[halodub]

Thanks for all the info everyone! I suppose I could've searched before asking; slipped my mind honestly lol.

[Sasquatch-1]

Try solid Pewter. With a little attention pewter can look just like silver. Something like a Blitz cloth to wipe down when it starts getting dull.

[rintinglen]

It has been done, but it ain't easy. Silver melts at about 1300 degrees, far beyond anything you will be dong with lead. You need to use special fluxes to inhibit oxidation and preheat molds to the cherry red zone--steel or iron only--aluminum need not apply. Mold cavities need to be larger than than for lead due to the difference in shrinkage.There is a thread somewhere here that gives a link to an author who did some research on this. Jack Lewis and the guys at Gun World did a tongue in cheek attempt at making silver bullets a la Lone Ranger back around 1966.
I have a brother who has been a jeweler who says that you could make them in ceramic molds via a lost wax technique, but you got me--I never lost any wax nor found any werewolves.

[.22-10-45]

Harry Pope once cast some bullets of pure Gold for his schuetzen rifle...target placed over old stump for recovery. Said they didn't shoot any better than his regular lead ones.

[blackthorn]

To the OP--- If all you want is ornamental bullets for show, check out the thread in this section on aluminum cases. The OP in that thread comments on jewelry made from aluminum cases that polish up "like silver". This just might be an alternative to casting silver bullets?

[NoAngel]

Too much risk to my molds. Years ago I loaded a few sterling silver bullets in some polished nickel cases. Instead of potentially destroying my mold I forge welded some scrap into a round bar and lathe turned them. Never shot them. I'm saving them for lycanthropes or shape shifters.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you are NOT looking for 99.9% silver bullets.

Is 64% silver enough?
some Japanese manufacturers use these lead free alloys for reflow.
from wikipedia
18/64/14/4 Tin-Silver-Copper-Zinc (Sn-Ag-Cu-Zn) (melting range of 217–220 ˚C) and 18/64/16/2 Tin-Silver-Copper-Manganese (Sn-Ag-Cu-Mn) (melting range of 211–215 ˚C).

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Try solid Pewter. With a little attention pewter can look just like silver. Something like a Blitz cloth to wipe down when it starts getting dull.

I have a small project, rolling around in the back of my head, casting some Pewter-only (Lead free) boolits for decorative purposes...or maybe casting something else with that?

[lightman]

I think I remember that article in the gun magazine from years ago. Either that one or another. If I remember correctly they were not successful. Seems like the silver did not get hot enough to flow and they ended up ruining a mold. When I was working I would save the silver from electrical contacts and tried to cast an ingot in my Lyman ingot mold. I put the mold on my propane cooker to preheat it, getting it hotter than I really wanted, and used an acetylene torch on the silver. Silver melts at over 1700º and I would not want any nice bullet mold to get that hot!

[lightman]

I have a small project, rolling around in the back of my head, casting some Pewter-only (Lead free) boolits for decorative purposes...or maybe casting something else with that?

Those would look nice. Zinc probably would to. You could chuck the case up in a drill and spin it against a cloth with some polishing compound and make it really chine. Silver is intriguing but I would hate to get a nice mold hot enough to fill out well.

[cpileri]

if you are just looking for ornamental silver bullets, maybe these:
https://store.nwtmint.com/Signature_Silver_Bullets_/
although, they also include the 'case" so not just a bullet. not sure if it meets your needs.
C-

[cpileri]

if you are just looking for ornamental silver bullets, maybe these:
https://store.nwtmint.com/Signature_Silver_Bullets_/
although, they also include the 'case" so not just a bullet. not sure if it meets your needs.
C-

[NoAngel]

If it were just for looking fancy, I bet a fella could turn some from aluminum, undersized and put them in some copper half jackets. Some jewelers rouge and a muslin wheel can make aluminum look like chrome in a very short time.

[tucumcari_kid]

Carl Kolchak used to make silver bullets out of police officers' buttons to kill werewolves ... Night Stalker (http://www.scififreaksite.com/shows/kolchak/page.html)

[45-70 Chevroner]

The melting temp of silver is a little over 1700 degrees, look it up.

[Sasquatch-1]

My LGS has a defense round, that is very light compared to a normal lead or jacketed round, the bullet is silver in color and I believe it is polished aluminum. I did a quick search and couldn't find them.

[smilin jack]

Bridget solder for copper water pipes is mostly silver. I save the melted overflow scraps to throw some in each batch of wheel weights. It's probably not enough to bother hardness, but surely enough for werewolves?

Have been using these Lee 452-230TC on bowling pin competitions for years. Not much winning, but sure lots of idle chatting about silver boolits.

Dave

[Shiloh]

Borax for flux. Available at grocery store in the washing detergent aisle.
You will ruin your mold so get it right the first time.

Shiloh

[M-Tecs]

Pure silver melts at 1761 F. Need different methods than what is used for casting lead.

[GONRA]

lightman - GONRA remembers that article.
Should (?) have it in my Guns & Ammo Magazine junque pyle.

[Thumbcocker]

The article I read in the late 70's or early 80's involved using a regular boolit wrapped in stove cement and placed base down on a piece of glass. When the stove cement cured it was heated until the boolit melted. Molten silver (torch in a ladle IIRC) was poured into the cavity. The stove cement was chipped off when the sliver cooled and the boolit polished.

[Bama]

Check with any of the bigger jewelery stores. The lost wax method mentioned earlier in this thread was right on. That is the way custom rings are frequently made. Check with jewler, there are several places that are set up with specialized equipment to make duplicates of almost anything you send them. A friend had a pine bur cast in silver for a presentation gift for CEO of company using lost wax process.