# The Perfect Ammo



## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

Over the life of the forum, one topic that comes up often is that of ammo choice. Without a doubt the two most common types of ammo are lead and steel. Both of these have their advantages and disadvantages.

Steel ammo offers a moderate density, hard surface and almost infinite re usability. Lead offers a higher density making it more suited to hunting, provides easy casting but suffers from being soft and somewhat toxic.

What if you could have the benefits of both with none of the drawbacks ? Well you can, it's called Tungsten Carbide and is sold in the form of Grinding Media. Both round balls and satellites (round ball with band as shown in below pic) are available. It's the same stuff that is used in armour piercing rounds.

Tungsten Carbide offers you a considerably heavier ammo for a smaller size, is harder than chrome steel and much, much harder than lead. It's is reasonably corrosion resistant and is non toxic.

Density of Steel - 7.8g cm2, Lead - 11.34 g/cm2, Tungsten Carbide - 14.8g/cm2

It's not all that hard to get either, here's a few places that sell it:
http://www.unionprocess.com/grinding.html
http://www.norstoneinc.com/grinding_depot.html
http://www.glenmills.com/grinding-media/tungsten-carbide.html

Yes, it's a bit more expensive than lead or steel, but if you want the very best, this is clearly the way to go.


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## f00by (May 18, 2010)

<drool />


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## inkspot (Dec 27, 2011)

Thanks for this post Hrawk will have to find a supplier here in Canada more research love it.


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## Quercusuber (Nov 10, 2011)

Awesome topic and info!!! Thank you Hrawk!!
Who would have tought of this? Must be amazing to shoot. Do you think the metal band is bad for aerodynamics??
Cheers!!


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

Quercusuber said:


> Do you think the metal band is bad for aerodynamics??


While the ballistic coefficient may not be 100% that of a perfectly round, surface ground steel ball bearing, It's going to be pretty close.

If people can attain a good level of accuracy using hex nuts, then I would have no doubts about the accuracy potential of this ammo.

You can buy it in round ball form if this worries you, but satellites are much more common.


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## Quercusuber (Nov 10, 2011)

Hrawk said:


> Do you think the metal band is bad for aerodynamics??


While the ballistic coefficient may not be 100% that of a perfectly round, surface ground steel ball bearing, It's going to be pretty close.

If people can attain a good level of accuracy using hex nuts, then I would have no doubts about the accuracy potential of this ammo.

Thanks for the tip Hrawk!! You're right: today I was practicing target shooting and I used some river pebles...And guess what...they were the most accurate









You can buy it in round ball form if this worries you, but satellites are much more common.
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## Danny0663 (Mar 15, 2011)

Tungsten carbide as ammo .... lol


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

Danny0663 said:


> Tungsten carbide as ammo .... lol


And why not ?

If you are going to make your slingshot from something exotic like Titanium, may as well have the exotic ammo to match


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## NightKnight (Dec 16, 2009)

I've actually posted a number of times about how, in my opinion, Tungsten is the ultimate ammo. Smaller aerodynamic profile with more weigh than lead means higher sustained speeds and less susceptibility to wind deflection. It also means better penetration on contact.


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

What the heck, why not take the advice of military experts and use depleted uranium at 19.1 g/cm3. It is a bit difficult to get the stuff through regular channels, but slingers need to be resourceful!

Easier to come by, and probably cheaper than depleted uranium, is gold, at 19.3 g/cm3. I am sure your local jeweler can supply you. And gold is not radioactive and is non-toxic. Yep, it is expensive, but for real quality ammo, price should not be the determining factor.

Cheers ..... Charles


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## NightKnight (Dec 16, 2009)

Charles said:


> What the heck, why not take the advice of military experts and use depleted uranium at 19.1 g/cm3. It is a bit difficult to get the stuff through regular channels, but slingers need to be resourceful!
> 
> Easier to come by, and probably cheaper than depleted uranium, is gold, at 19.3 g/cm3. I am sure your local jeweler can supply you. And gold is not radioactive and is non-toxic. Yep, it is expensive, but for real quality ammo, price should not be the determining factor.
> 
> Cheers ..... Charles


LOL Funny guy. Tungsten is no where NEAR as expensive as those items. Tungesten is actually somewhat affordable, although more expensive than steel.


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## bkcooler (Jul 23, 2011)

CuW90 alloy, with 10% copper and 90%Tungsten , is 16.75g/cm[sup]3[/sup]
Now If I can only find someone who can cast them in .41 caliber balls.


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## Berkshire bred (Mar 4, 2012)

i personally find that steel suits all of my needs as long as you can shoot straight , it is heavy enough, it does not deform, you get plenty of different sizes, easily available, cheap. to be honest this is all that i need so why change? just my opinion.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

The increased density with a smaller size will give increased stopping power for hunting. Will shoot longer ranges with more power on impact.More pass through on bean cans ect. I noticed the density size difference when comparing tungsten and lead fishing weights. Pretty noticeable .I'm to cheap though to buy tungsten for sling shots when I have a hundred pounds of lead sitting in the garage.


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## NightKnight (Dec 16, 2009)

Berkshire bred said:


> i personally find that steel suits all of my needs as long as you can shoot straight , it is heavy enough, it does not deform, you get plenty of different sizes, easily available, cheap. to be honest this is all that i need so why change? just my opinion.


Personally, I don't shoot rocks, steel nuts, or anything that isn't a sphere anymore. I find that their trajectories are too unpredictable. That's just my opinion though.


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## Setarip (Mar 27, 2012)

I use frozen mercury. It's bizarre enough for me, plus, it's like the first planet in our solar system.

*sarcasm*

Really though, pure tungsten is denser than uranium I believe. Too bad pure tungsten balls is expensive.


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## NightKnight (Dec 16, 2009)

Setarip said:


> Really though, pure tungsten is denser than uranium I believe. Too bad pure tungsten balls is expensive.


I think the military uses uranium in certain applications because it is incendiary once it has pieced its target. Tungsten is not.


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

you guys do realize uranium has a small dose of radiation . in america we are allowed to use tungsten rods for TIG welding with 2% uranium (if i remember correctly) . i believe its not allowed in europe . id rather use lead, its not like its going to be long exposure like in the old days when every cup they drank out of was lead poisoning the beverage, every fork or spoon was lead poisoning the meal .


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## Setarip (Mar 27, 2012)

Imperial said:


> you guys do realize uranium has a small dose of radiation . in america we are allowed to use tungsten rods for TIG welding with 2% uranium (if i remember correctly) . i believe its not allowed in europe . id rather use lead, its not like its going to be long exposure like in the old days when every cup they drank out of was lead poisoning the beverage, every fork or spoon was lead poisoning the meal .


For TIG welding it's 2% thoriated tungsten.

@Aaron
As far as military use of DU over tungsten I believe its simply because the military has boatloads of the stuff built up over the years. Uranium itself is a very common metal. The densities between W and U is like .15 gram/CC difference. Tungsten also has many more real world applications than U-238.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Setarip said:


> I use frozen mercury. It's bizarre enough for me, plus, it's like the first planet in our solar system.
> 
> *sarcasm*
> 
> Really though, pure tungsten is denser than uranium I believe. Too bad pure tungsten balls is expensive.


 Now your talking out of Uranus.
*Humor*


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Guys, guys, guys!!! I was only joking about using uranium and gold.

But just for the record, the density of depleted uranium comes in at 19.1 g/cm3, while tungsten carbide is only 15.8 g/cm3. Pure tungsten comes in at 19.3 g/cm3.

Of course you could go for plutonium at 19.8 g/cm3 or better yet, platinum at 21.4 g/cm3 ...









Cheers .... Charles


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## lightgeoduck (Apr 3, 2011)

Well if anyone is interested in Charle's suggestion..

http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Ore/dp/B000796XXM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1352152683&sr=8-6&keywords=depleted+uranium

LGD


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## TimR (May 22, 2011)

It's _depleted_ uranium - what's left after the radioactive stuff is taken out.

It has some natural radioactivity, of course, just a bit less than tomatos (depends on what kind of soil the tomato was grown in).

Like any heavy metal it is toxic, about the same as lead.

I would use it without hesitation if I could get it.


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## NaturalFork (Jan 21, 2010)

Make them dimpled like a golf ball and it would probably be the worlds best slingshot ammo.


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