In part 1, I started discussing the problems that may be inherent in developing an anti-vampire bullet.
There has been some research on a similar round for killing werewolves (and guns). The problems in casting silver bullets may be trivial compared to the development of an anti-vampire bullet.
Here's one reason: Wood has a very low density.
Imagine, if you will, one-cubic meter block of material. If that block was pure lead, it would weigh 11,353 kilograms, or just about 25,000 pounds. A block of pure silver would weigh 10,500 kg or 23,100 lbs. A block of lignum vitae would weigh 1,280 kg, or 2,816 lbs.
Do the math and it seems that lignum vitae is 11.3% as dense as lead. In looking at the bullets for reloading a .45-70, the heaviest cast lead bullet is about 500 grains. An equivalent bullet in lignum vitae would weigh 56 grains, or about as much as a bullet from a .223. That might require a custom barrel with different rifling. I also am somewhat skeptical that a bullet of that size and weighting so little (a tenth of an ounce) may be too sensitive to wind and there might be some lack of penetration issues.
Assuming that any amount of wood driven into the heart of a vampire is fatal, we may have to consider swaging a lignum vitae nose to a lead core with a copper jacket to hold the assembly in one piece.
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Friday, May 8, 2009
5 comments:
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Interesting.
ReplyDelete7.62 x 39mm 5gr wood bullets.
http://ammoprice.com/rifle.7.62x39mm_Russian.html
Used as blanks and for launching grenades. Disintegrated by the time they leave the barrel, so I read.
Here's a thought; what about a speargun with a hardened wood business end, at close range?
Or if holy water supposedly does the job, how about the old saw from spy flicks? An ice bullet of holy water?
ReplyDeleteThe speargun with wood spears does sound more fun, tho'!
Dennis, the idea is to avoid close range combat. A speargun would not be an improvement over a crossbow.
ReplyDeleteLabrys6, I think small amounts of holy water tend to piss them off and, anyway, I doubt if a bullet made of ice would stand the stresses and heat of being shot from a gun.
But that does raise the question of whether delivering a dose of holy water to a vampire's heart would be fatal and, if so, how do we accomplish that.
I was thinking about what you want and the point is with a standoff weapon like a gun that the projectile is so fast that the target cannot duck or get out of the way. (i.e. groundhogs never see/hear the varmint bullet that gets them....). Anyway to put some numbers to this assuming that vampires are way faster than humans (nominal reaction time say 200 ms) we assume they have times like 100 down to 10 ms. With that in mind you get:
ReplyDelete50 ms reaction time 200 fps at 10' range
10 ms reaction time 1000 fps at 10' range
I know nothing about bullets,reloading etc, but wouldn't this get vampires wearing kevlar vests ?
Since there is still going to be a weight issue since the bullet is still a combination of wood and lead, how about replacing the lead with depleted uranium.
ReplyDeleteAs a side benefit, would there be a possibility that the bullet can be used to track the bloodsucker if the bullet misses the heart but remains lodged in its body? I know the used a radioactive isotope to track "them" in Heroes.