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Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets (Read 6644 times)
CodeMaker
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Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Feb 15th, 2015 at 2:24pm
 
Tungsten is one of the most dense materials in the world, and tungsten alloys can be amazingly strong. So tungsten sling bullets would do a lot more damage than even lead.

I've emailed a handful of companies asking about pricing, so we'll see what they say! Don't get your hopes up though, 'cause it'll probably be too expensive to be worth trying.

Here are various materials in order of density so you can get an idea of why this could be so much fun:

Ice - 0.92g/mL
Sand - 1.54g/mL
Clay - 2g/mL
Granite - 2.7g/mL
Aluminum - 2.7g/mL
Zinc - 7.14g/mL
Aluminum Bronze - 7.3g/mL
Iron - 7.87g/mL
Copper - 8.96g/mL
Lead - 11.34g/mL
Depleted Uranium - 19.1g/mL
Tungsten - 19.3g/mL
Iridium - 22.56g/mL
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"Out of all these troops, the best 700 were left-handed. Each could sling a stone at a hair and not miss" - Judges, 20:16&&&&for all you right handed suckers out there Tongue
 
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Thearos
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #1 - Feb 15th, 2015 at 2:37pm
 
How about gold ?
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Jenrick
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #2 - Feb 15th, 2015 at 3:47pm
 
Gold is about the same as Tungsten.

My wife is a jeweler and if anyone REALLY wanted a precious metal glandes she can make them.  Even the raw materials are going to cost though:

Gold is approximately $40/ or 36 Euro per gram (so a 25 gram glandes would run about $1222 or 1075 Euro)

Silver is much better with a 25 gram glandes running about $18 or 15 Euro.  It is however about half as dense as gold.

If anyone is interested shoot me a PM and I can get you pricing on precious metal glandes as gifts, keepsakes, or the world's most expensive sling ammo. 

-Jenrick
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Thearos
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #3 - Feb 15th, 2015 at 4:10pm
 
It's interesting that you make lead bullets for density, but not hardness. Gold would be the same. I assume tungsten is super-hard as well as being dense ?
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« Last Edit: Feb 15th, 2015 at 9:22pm by Thearos »  
 
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timpa
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #4 - Feb 15th, 2015 at 4:22pm
 
Very heavy!

Between Lead and Tungsten the ranks: Tungsten Carbide= 14.5 g/mL

Here, I slinging Tungsten Carbide through the 0.8mm/0.03inch sheet metal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtUs1HRF7iw

And here, how to manufacture TC ammunition quickly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOxtdcgNDXI
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MatthewMachinist
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #5 - Feb 15th, 2015 at 5:22pm
 
At my company we have a process called Jet Kote HVOF, you can use this process to coat something with tungsten carbide, basically its spray on tungsten carbide, the idea would be to take a hardened lead glande and then spray it with Jet Kote, you would have a very hard surface and a cheap lead core.

HOWEVER... this process is still not cheap and the coating would probably shatter after a couple of uses.

Cheaper than gold though.

Another idea I had was to take a tungsten tig welders tungsten, sharpen it both ends, then cast a lead glande around it. This would give you tungsten core ammunition.
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #6 - Feb 15th, 2015 at 5:48pm
 
Yes Thearos, the advantage of tungsten over gold is that tungsten is very strong. A gold projectile would deform after one throw, while a tungsten projectile would be reusable and cheaper. I'm hoping to get my hands on a copper-tungsten alloy, which would look a lot like gold when polished.

Over the past 2 days I optimized my "gold look-alike" aluminum bronze alloy, which I intend on making 70g projectiles out of soon (more to make myself feel rich than anything else  Grin ). I might try selling a few if anyone's interested. My aluminum bronze has a density of about 7.3g/mL, so it's nothing compared to gold or tungsten, but it's extremely strong and the bright color makes it easy to find in the grass after you sling it, so it's actually pretty practical ammo for target slinging. Here's an image of a little 75g heart I cast out of it for my girlfriend as a valentine's day gift:

...

Matthew, those are interesting ideas! let us know how they turn out if you get around to trying them.
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"Out of all these troops, the best 700 were left-handed. Each could sling a stone at a hair and not miss" - Judges, 20:16&&&&for all you right handed suckers out there Tongue
 
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timpa
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #7 - Feb 15th, 2015 at 6:05pm
 
MatthewMachinist wrote on Feb 15th, 2015 at 5:22pm:
At my company we have a process called Jet Kote HVOF, .


Interestingly! You work at Kennametal?
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #8 - Feb 16th, 2015 at 7:38am
 
looking forward to some tungsten prices, but i think it's out of my budget...Some time ago i've seen some tungsten ball prices..they were EXPENSIVE

I've cast some lead in 8g No2 cartridges. This yielded some FMJ 130 gram ammo. Heavy ass hard coat bullets for cheap or even free with a little work and searching. The only problem is that they're too long and won't stabilize, but i have a plan to make them more egg shaped.
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #9 - Feb 16th, 2015 at 7:37pm
 
Why don't you take platinum? That has even a higher density than gold.  Or uranium or plutonium, of similar density as gold. Grin
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #10 - Feb 17th, 2015 at 6:42pm
 
Thearos wrote on Feb 15th, 2015 at 4:10pm:
It's interesting that you make lead bullets for density, but not hardness. Gold would be the same. I assume tungsten is super-hard as well as being dense ?

It has that reputation, but that's mostly because the compound tungsten carbide is abbreviated as just tungsten in advertising. It's comparable to mild steel when pure, harder than most metals but can be cut with tool steel.
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Pikåru wrote on Nov 19th, 2013 at 6:59pm:
Massi - WTF? It's called a sling. You use it to throw rocks farther and faster than you could otherwise. That's all. 
~Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily avialable, they will create their own problems.~
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #11 - Feb 23rd, 2015 at 2:16am
 
So iridium is denser than DU? That makes sense. I was able to handle a bar of it once and at first I thought it was some type of magnet because it didn't budge when I tried to pick it up off a bandsaw table. I wonder how far a world record irridium gland throw could go?
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #12 - Feb 23rd, 2015 at 2:09pm
 
Correct, iridium is considered the densest material known to man. There is some debate though on whether or not osmium is actually more dense. I wish I could get my hands on a chunk of it to play with.
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"Out of all these troops, the best 700 were left-handed. Each could sling a stone at a hair and not miss" - Judges, 20:16&&&&for all you right handed suckers out there Tongue
 
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #13 - Feb 23rd, 2015 at 8:54pm
 
From my time here in slinging.org it seems like slinging is a poor man's sport. Not that there's anything wrong with that but overall the general audience here does not like to spend money, not even on material as cheap and abundant as lead. I'd be interested in seeing some results though. timpa would be my go-to man for anything machined. His work is awesome.
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Re: Overkill with Tungsten-Alloy Bullets
Reply #14 - Feb 25th, 2015 at 6:12pm
 
Thanks Pikåru! Smiley
I happened to be a good opportunity to do all kinds.
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