Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Anti-Vampire ammunition, mk.2

So it seems that Friday's post has stirred up more interest and discussion than I expected, and some excellent suggestions were made by Lurking Readers. Having digested these, I now present the Anti-Vampire shell, Mark 2 (it deserves a proper name, but I'm not quite sure what to call it. I could go with the Latin Excruciato but then people will assume I'm ripping off Harry Potter.)
  • 12 gauge shotgun shell, of course
  • First layer (and first out the barrel): double-ought buckshot, but made from iron instead of lead. The harder metal will have increased penetration (but also less spread at range, so you'll need to be a slightly better shooter -- unless you intend to saw it off) for shattering undead ribcages, and the properties of cold iron might prove useful against other beasties like fae, demons, etc.
  • Second Layer: a blessed communion wafer.
  • Third layer: Rosary beads made from a variety of woods reputed to be effective against the supernatural: rowan, white oak, ash, hawthorn, etc. Since most rosary beads tend to average 7mm in diameter, this quite nicely equates to #2 buckshot.
And there you go. The only potential drawback I can see to this assembly is that in order to accommodate such an unusual payload, the casing may need to be longer than is usual, which could potentially jam a magazine-fed shotgun. You'll have to kick it old-school style with a break-action and manually load the shells. Of course, this means that you can also use the amazingly dangerous Dragon's Breath rounds, so that's always a plus.

Or you could just use this beast:That's the Manville 27mm rotary launcher, originally a police riot gun manufactured in nineteen hundred and thirty-fucking-six.


PS: If you intend to fight werewolves, I suggest using Hatton cartridges, substituting silver powder for the lead or zinc.


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Now playing: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Happiness Is A Warm Gun [live]
via FoxyTunes

5 comments:

  1. Nice.

    Seen Hellboy?

    The film has some nice Anti-Demon Ammo.

    Also, according to a handful of sources, iron to the head hurts vampires, so, that's something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course I saw Hellboy! It's a wonderful flick.

    Alas, not all hunters of the supernatural can cart around highly specific anti-boojum ammunition that's been blessed by a pope, a rabbi, and an imam.

    This is your basic, all-purpose, bargain basement sort of vampire killer.

    I think I'll call them "Travelling Salesmen." Has a certain secular zing to it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Hellboy animated cartoons are pretty damn good, too.

    Cartoons with John friggin' Hurt as a voice actor! Kee-rist!

    We're living in a Golden Age, my friends...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glazer rounds, replacing the teflon suspension with holy water, and iron shot replacing the lead (or silver replacing the lead for lycanthropes), would provide some supernatural stopping power to a standard hand gun as well. They're available at least in 9mm, .357, .44, and .45 calibers if I recall correctly. And hand guns have the advantage of being a hell of a lot more concealable then breachloading shotguns. Plus...you could load a sub-machine gun, and many assault rifles with them as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry, they are spelled Glaser, not Glazer. And they are available not only in the traditional pistol calibers, but also in many rifle claibers as well. Including the ever popular .223 and .308 calibers.

    ReplyDelete

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