Ammunition needed.

[Joe Smith]

1/8th inch thickness is easy to make, and purity stays well over 95% with the process I have come up with.

For you shotgun loaders, just buy bag silver right from the mines smelters. Its 99.9% or better purity and comes out of the smelter as little balls of silver. They are not all uniform size, but in a shotgun, I don't see that being an issue. It just means a little more scatter on an already close range weapon.

Bag silver is also cheaper than bar silver and you can buy it directly from the few remaining open silver mines in the southwest. It even comes up on ebay from time to time!

The design life cycle on my stuff is posted above, materials, testing, and even the manufacture process has been discussed. I have nothing to hide and my product can stand on its own.

[Joe Smith]

I am back up and running at the new shop - so I start taking orders again.

Sorry to those who inquired when I was moving.

[Professor Ali]

Mister Smith,

I own a Soviet 7.62mm Simonov self-loading rifle. I brought it with me from the old country. What ammunitions would you recommend for my weapon?

[Ron Caliburn]

Stay away from that Russian steel cored ammo, Yuogslav ammo has much better terminal effects and less corrosive primers.

There are a few makers of hunting rounds if you are willing to stop worrying about being fully jacketed.

Speaking of fully jacketed, a silver round needs a soft metal jacket or it'll rip up the rifling in your Simonov and possibly force metal filings into the gas system. An unjacketed nose is still necessary, for some reason it doesn't work like a silver bullet if the silver doesn't strike the target first.

Also you'll find silver rounds don't group quite as tight as lead ones.

A shotgun doesn't have that sort of thing to worry about.

[Joe Smith]

You don't see too many SKS's anymore.

If you de-gas the silver before casting with a copper jacket, I have found that the grouping up to very long ranges to be just as good as lead. Silver casts with dissolved gases usually, which leads to imbalance in the bullets if you don't de-gas it. I use the vacumn method with an exposed silver tip.

I also use CCI powders and primers mostly, and CCI or federal brass unless the round is not available in those makes. All the brass I use, uses non corrosive Boxer primers, which makes the brass reloadable. The actual brass alloy is better than the milspec stuff also since its designed to be reused.. All that european military stuff uses corrosive berdan primers.

For a 7.62mmx54, there is a ton of options. From hunting rounds made by Winchester, Remmington, CCI, etc, to surplus military hardball, to the custom rounds I make.

Its ballistic performance is pretty much identical to the 30-06.

[Ron Caliburn]

Too bad the SKS fires 7.62 M1943

[Joe Smith]

Yup, you are right....brain fart on my part. Its a 7.63x39. I had to look it up.

I was getting it mixed up with the AVS, which is the older version and uses the 7.63x54.

[Professor Ali]

Thank you both for the advice. My SKS was something I was keeping mostly for sentimental value or possibly for home protection in a pinch. I brought it with me when I moved to the United States a few years ago. Recent events have made me think that it's a good time to take the rifle off the shelf and give it a good cleaning. It's probably considered an antique my now. I haven't had to shoot anything yet, but it may only be a matter of time.

The jacket isn't as important to me as knowing that the gun is ready for us when I need it. I think I will first get some of that hunting ammo. I've seen what these guns can do to flesh. I've even treated some of the wounded. It's plenty deadly enough.

The jacketed Yugoslavian bullets and the silver core bullets are interesting. I will consider getting some of those sometime later. Unless, you men think that I need something like that now.

[Ron Caliburn]

Better to have it when you need it than need it when you don't have it.

I'd say no need to rush for silver, unless you suspect something strange is in your neighbourhood, but definitely get some decent ammo for the SKS and spend some time shooting it. It's really easy to loose your touch for a particular weapon if you leave it on the shelf for a while.

[Joe Smith]

If you are just plinking with it, buy the military surplus stuff. Its under $100 for a thousand rounds. If you look around you can find it on SKS stripper clips so you don't have to load it onto them yourself.

[RAVEN]

I've been using my P5 Walther for many years, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I would like some of that silver bullets, please -- but only if you are using real sterling silver. Walther won't settle for inferior materials.

[Ron Caliburn]

Gotta be real silver anyway, or it won't work.

[Joe Smith]

I don't use sterling silver, I use fine silver.

Sterling is 92.5% pure silver alloyed with copper usually. The copper makes it much harder, which is why sterling silver filigree is somewhat brittle. Fine silver is 99% or better purity and softer. I get bag silver from a mine in the southwest and cast it myself.

Your P5 is 9mm, right? I actually have a few hundred 9mm bullets cast, and would just have to load them up. The 9mm's are real popular.

I can load them for standard vel or subsonic.

[finder_fee]

Hey Joe, if you want to do a full balistics test on your rounds, just give me a call. You know me, I know a guy. I'd be interested in seeing differences in soft tissue dammage between the standard and non standard rounds.

Also, I've heard rumors of people using a silver hollow point round, any idea how well it mushrooms? or does it react more like brass?

Fi

[RAVEN]

Joe, I've decided. I'll take a hundred rounds for Walther right now. Yes, he is 9 millimeters of attitude. If I like what I see, I'll order some more. Tell me your price and payment preference.

[Joe Smith]

RAVEN - PM'd.

The silver hollow points don't deform nearly as well as a soft lead bullet, but does deform ok. I cast them as round nose soft points with a copper jacket. A lot of automatics won't fire reliably with any other type of bullet - they will jam a lot in the feed. Seems most people are using auto's.

I do have some .357 and .44's cast up in a jacketed HP's but I haven't loaded them yet.

On the brinell scale for example - Fine silver (the softest silver by far) comes in at about a 25 hardness when annealed - as I do. Its still about twice as hard as typical lead bullets. Lead comes in at about a 5 with most bullets alloys are in the a 9-12 range.

Lead and copper have excellent lubricity, while silver's is poor. This is really the big reason a copper jacket on the silver bullets or it will wear out the barrel quickly.

[RAVEN]

Joe, I took the 9mm bullets out to a firing range yesterday. You are an artisan. These bullets worked perfectly with no jamming. I was actually impressed by their penetration.

There is one problem. These bullets are, well, ugly. I thought that silver bullets would be shiney and smooth and reminisent of the Lone Ranger. These bullets are dull and mostly covered in copper. I can't be seen loading ugly bullets in Walther in front of my employees or fans. Can't we do anything about this?

[Kelly]

Yeah, stop using silver bullets.

[Joe Smith]

Well, I guess it comes down to function over form. I could drop the next batch into the media polisher and make them all shiny, but they will still have the copper jacket with the exposed silver tip.

I will take function over form any day.

[finder_fee]

Is it possible to make a few "mockup bullets" for him? ones that he can load infront of his clients?

I know, it sounds silly, but just for form.

also, there are other shiney silvery metals that one can use to make a casing out of, aren't there? I'm sure 90% of the people who are hiring him don't can't actualy tell the difference between silver and another alloy.

Fi

[Joe Smith]

lol - fake silver bullets? That cold be done...

[RAVEN]

It seems like a good suggestion to me. Thank you, Fee of the Finder. Could the casing be cast in aluminium? That would provide an adequate match for the silver color, can be polished nicely, and it has a tensile strength which is actually superior to copper.

[Joe Smith]

Poor lubricity. One of the various alloys of white metal would probably work better.

[RAVEN]

Very well then, let's throw this plan against a wall and see if it sticks. I'll take another hundred rounds, if you please.

[Joe Smith]

I am currently in florida, but I start looking at alloys as soon as I get back.

[RAVEN]

I'm am in no desperate and timely need. Take your time. If you take over some island nation during your vacay, remember to name a holiday after me.

[Joe Smith]

I have my assistant on it right now. Take a week or so to get them all polished up nice and loaded. She's going to be casting the bullets out of lead and doing a nice thick silver plate on the lead bullets. A little polishing and you should be good to go. She's making 1 box of 50.

She wants to know if you want the flat nose rounds with the little cathilic cross on the nose, and the lone ranger style round nose. I have moulds for both.

[finder_fee]

Heh, Mockup silver bullets with a cross on the tip... Yep, you work for the movie industry all right...

Fi

[Joe Smith]

If you pay attention in a couple of bad monster movies, you can see bullets that came from the "cross" mould!

[Ron Caliburn]

"Pretty" bullets for the clients . . . I can only shake my head.