Ammo modified for vampires

[Bones]

I've got a character that wants to go vampire hunting. I have a pistol and a shotgun. I want to put wooden ammo in the pistol and silver buckshot in the shotgun. I can't find the stats for vampire hunting ammo anywhere. Specifically, I want to know what's the damage and how much does it cost?

Also, with the wooden ammo, does the whole bullet have to be wood for it to work or just the tip?

[Warwolf]

I've got a character that wants to go vampire hunting. I have a pistol and a shotgun. I want to put wooden ammo in the pistol and silver buckshot in the shotgun. I can't find the prices for vampire hunting ammo anywhere.

Also, with the wooden ammo, does the whole bullet have to be wood for it to work or just the tip?

You know, I don't know that "wooden" ammo actually exists given the inconsistency in its makeup and its tendency to combust. As far as silver ammo? I'd simply research how much an ounce or two of silver costs and then double or triple that to cover the costs of the person actually making the ammo (assuming it isn't one of the characters).

[Bones]

Well, I'm sure even if it did catch on fire it wouldn't burn up in quarter of a second it takes to go from the chamber of the gun to enter the body of the vamp. Besides, if it was just the tip of the bullet that was wooden it wouldn't be anywhere near the explosion that propels it.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Maybe some sort of Frangible Ammo that uses Silver as part of the frangible composite.
Sort of like the ammo talked about in the Varmint Grenade rounds in the N&S forum.

[Shark_Force]

googled wooden bullet for you, looks like there are (or were?) practice rounds made of wood.

the bad news is that from what i can tell (again, just from googling), said practice rounds tend to be very short range, and also tend to sort of turn into a cloud of splinters.

but hey, feel free to do more research if you want

[Warwolf]

Well, I'm sure even if it did catch on fire it wouldn't burn up in quarter of a second it takes to go from the chamber of the gun to enter the body of the vamp. Besides, if it was just the tip of the bullet that was wooden it wouldn't be anywhere near the explosion that propels it.

What you have to consider is the effect any amount of combustion would have on the accuracy of said projectile, as I would say a round with a wooden tip wouldn't do more than a point of damage (it isn't a matter of penetration after all, as lead rounds will penetrate without doing damage). Of course, now that I think about the issue of inconsistent grain, etc., you could solve that in a manner similar to how they make particle board. So given the right process and bonding agent... wooden bullets MIGHT just be viable. However, as with the real versions Shark_Force looked up I'd definitely consider them close-range only, and probably only viable in the smaller calibers (say... 9 mil and below?).

[Jedrious]

Well, I'm sure even if it did catch on fire it wouldn't burn up in quarter of a second it takes to go from the chamber of the gun to enter the body of the vamp. Besides, if it was just the tip of the bullet that was wooden it wouldn't be anywhere near the explosion that propels it.

What you have to consider is the effect any amount of combustion would have on the accuracy of said projectile, as I would say a round with a wooden tip wouldn't do more than a point of damage (it isn't a matter of penetration after all, as lead rounds will penetrate without doing damage). Of course, now that I think about the issue of inconsistent grain, etc., you could solve that in a manner similar to how they make particle board. So given the right process and bonding agent... wooden bullets MIGHT just be viable. However, as with the real versions Shark_Force looked up I'd definitely consider them close-range only, and probably only viable in the smaller calibers (say... 9 mil and below?).

It would probably be more effective to just use wood tipped arrows

[Warwolf]

Well, I'm sure even if it did catch on fire it wouldn't burn up in quarter of a second it takes to go from the chamber of the gun to enter the body of the vamp. Besides, if it was just the tip of the bullet that was wooden it wouldn't be anywhere near the explosion that propels it.

What you have to consider is the effect any amount of combustion would have on the accuracy of said projectile, as I would say a round with a wooden tip wouldn't do more than a point of damage (it isn't a matter of penetration after all, as lead rounds will penetrate without doing damage). Of course, now that I think about the issue of inconsistent grain, etc., you could solve that in a manner similar to how they make particle board. So given the right process and bonding agent... wooden bullets MIGHT just be viable. However, as with the real versions Shark_Force looked up I'd definitely consider them close-range only, and probably only viable in the smaller calibers (say... 9 mil and below?).

It would probably be more effective to just use wood tipped arrows

Remember, not every character has archery skill. Also, pistols are a bit easier to conceal and walk around with than bows.

[NMI]

Might want to check: Palladium Fantasy: Western Empire or Rifts: Arzno

[Jefffar]

Not to mention Rifts: Vampire Kingdoms

[Jefffar]

I imagine glaser rounds would be very effective against vamps if the beads were silver.

The newer ones with the heavier pllets would be. Origionally Glaser rounds carried much lighter pellets, the idea being to reduce penetration (which is why they were marketed as Safety Slugs). However it was found that these pellets did not penetrate far enough into the flesh to reliably produce lethal wounds, so they chose to increase the pellet size and decrease the pellet load. The heavier pellets now have a chance to reach vital organs.

Still, silver is lighter than lead, so an even bigger pellet size might be necissary to carry the pellets into the heart. That's why my gun-bunny BTS2 character uses an exposed silver core round instead of a Glaser. On creatures without the added vulnerablity to silver, it acts like a hollow point. On creatures with a silver vulnerability, the inner silver core penetrates deeply while the outer part of the bullet just goes splat on the outside.

[Rockwolf66]

Personally i prefer the solution found in Monster Hunter International...

You take a .45 ACP round and you hollow it out and you fit a silver ball in the hole. Sort of like the old Pow-R-Ball defensive ammo. it feeds in just about any .45 handgun or SMG for that matter and it does damage to supernatural targets and in the case of a more conventional target it works like a Dum-Dum round.

Then again the guy who writes that series has spent alot of time shooting and selling firearms.

[Jefffar]

The exposed core rounds I'm talking about are fairly similar in concept, but the silver core is longer and heavier so it will penetrate deeper.

[dargo83]

or a take on the glaser there are rounds like them that instead of metal pellets they use some kind of liquid so silver outside holy water inside.

[Blackbunny2]

But silver is a pretty malleable metal, it might just become mush at "longer" ranges? I think hollow point bullets with a silver core is the way to go.. Full metal jacket would just blow right trough unless you hit a bone. Hollow point would expand on impact and spread the silver in the vamps body. Wooden bullets in a rifle would be ****.. In a gun perhaps at shorter ranges, but I kinda see the wooden bulle splintering and not having any impact/penetration power. AS a lot of energy would disappear in heat, and the fact that the bullet would splinter.. I dont really know how a vamp would react to some wood splinters in his upper layer of flesh.. Guessing it wont be fatal?

[Rallan]

Or you could just make home-made dumdum rounds by carving crosses onto them. It worked in From Dusk Til Dawn.

Also, it's easy to load your own shotgun cartridges with the right equipment, and it's just as easy to melt silver and cast it into little balls. As long as the NPC can get his hands on some silver then he should have no problems making his own anti-vampire shotgun shells.

[Rallan]

But silver is a pretty malleable metal, it might just become mush at "longer" ranges? I think hollow point bullets with a silver core is the way to go.. Full metal jacket would just blow right trough unless you hit a bone. Hollow point would expand on impact and spread the silver in the vamps body. Wooden bullets in a rifle would be ****.. In a gun perhaps at shorter ranges, but I kinda see the wooden bulle splintering and not having any impact/penetration power. AS a lot of energy would disappear in heat, and the fact that the bullet would splinter.. I dont really know how a vamp would react to some wood splinters in his upper layer of flesh.. Guessing it wont be fatal?

Lead's pretty much as malleable as silver. Lead's a little bit denser (which means it'll have a little bit more penetration) than silver, but the only noticeable drawback to using silver ammunition would be the price (lead is currently trading at a dollar a pound, silver at thirty six dollars an ounce).

[Jefffar]

Silver isn't that malleable. In fact it's pretty brittle compared to lead.

[Genhuman]

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/400-rds-762x39-mm-5-gr-wooden-bullet-ammo.aspx?a=310818

No clue on how well they perform, but there you go.

[Jefffar]

In the past wooden ammo has been used as less lethal rounds (weren't really) and training rounds.

[Blackbunny2]

Sorry my line of thinking was wrong- brainfart I say... to cause the greatest amount of flesh trauma you need a somewhat malleable bullet that transfers energy into the flesh. High penetration power will just go right through, doing less trauma to the fless. Btw, dum dum bullets is to hollow point bullets the same as a carriage is to a ferrari.

[Nightmask]

Given that there is I think some non-scented varieties of garlic couldn't one use the scent-less garlic to make an effective ointment to apply to skin, or something to apply to clothing that would make one effectively wearing 'armor of garlic'?

Come to think of it rather than fill water pistols with holy water which might be hard to come by why not fill them with garlic oil? I imagine a vampire would be in quite bad shape being doused in garlic oil. Also anyone suggest custom grenades with silver and/or garlic as part of the shrapnel design?

[Jefffar]

I suspect that garlic without scent would be garlic without effect.

In regards to water pistols, I'm not sure what effects the differences in the viscosity may have on the workings of the watergun.

Silver is rather expensive to waste in a random dispersal fashion and I don't think the garlic would survive the explosion with enough integrity to have an effect. Now one of my characters in BTS2 does have modified pepper spray grenades to use garlic

[Rallan]

Sorry my line of thinking was wrong- brainfart I say... to cause the greatest amount of flesh trauma you need a somewhat malleable bullet that transfers energy into the flesh. High penetration power will just go right through, doing less trauma to the fless. Btw, dum dum bullets is to hollow point bullets the same as a carriage is to a ferrari.

Yes, but homemade dum-dums (which are the wheelbarrow to the hollowpoint's ferrari) have a cross-shaped pattern on them, and Palladium's vampire rules are moronic and made for exploiting

[Rallan]

I suspect that garlic without scent would be garlic without effect.

In regards to water pistols, I'm not sure what effects the differences in the viscosity may have on the workings of the watergun.

Silver is rather expensive to waste in a random dispersal fashion and I don't think the garlic would survive the explosion with enough integrity to have an effect. Now one of my characters in BTS2 does have modified pepper spray grenades to use garlic

Silver is rather expensive to waste on bullets, period, but we're hunting vampires here, and Palladium's somewhat dubious weapon stats mean that guns tend to kill things way more quickly than bows or melee weapons, and shotguns do more damage per single round than pretty much anything except machineguns (which might be a little bit hard for the PCs to conceal, or even get hold of in the first place).

Plus packing shotgun cartridges is easy as pie, so virtually anyone can melt down grandma's silverware and start hunting the thirsty dead