forum Question for people who understand guns (OR metalworking)
tune

people_alt 57 followers

@Young-Dusty-the-Monarch-of-Dusteria group

What are bullets made of? Are iron bullets a thing? If no, any idea whether they could be?
Also, what about silver bullets? I'm asking because the magical race in my story needs a kryptonite-style weakness and it works best for it to be a type of metal. Preferably a common, not-too-expensive metal that can be made into bullets, knives, handcuffs etc. Any advice would be appreciated!

@ElderGod-Icefire

The only thing I know is that technically, silver is too soft a metal to make bullets out of, since they'd deform before they even left the barrel of the gun. However, I believe silver plated bullets would work

@srhoag

Lead is always going to be your best bet as it will conform to the "rifling" of barrel which is the twist that gives the projectile a spin which provides gyroscopic stability. Silver would be to hard to gain the benefit of the rifling. Silver is also a lower density, so you would not get the kinetic transfer on impact. Steel is used in making shot for shotguns. Used for hunting water fowl as lead balls are banned in most states due to polluting the waters. Iron balls were of course used in muskets back in the day, but to make an iron bullet would be like the silver and not take on the rifling advantage. Enough rounds would most likely damage the barrel. You see "jacketed" rounds which use a copper coating over the lead because copper is still soft enough to work with the barrels rifling. You might be able to due a silver core bullet with lead around it.