TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Best Anti-Vampire Weapon EVER!!!... if the laws of physics let it work

Go To

deadpool616 Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Wanna dance with somebody
#1: Feb 16th 2014 at 3:43:00 AM

Hollow point bullets with garlic in the hole in the round, kept there by a strong adhesive. Good idea?

BestOf FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC! from Finland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
#2: Feb 17th 2014 at 6:36:19 AM

This thread might be better suited for YF but I won't move it if it starts getting replies here.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#3: Feb 17th 2014 at 6:42:06 AM

[up]

Or World Building?

I could well be incorrect, but the garlic might ruin the aerodynamic profile of the hollowpoint round, limiting it's accuracy. It could also just fall off and gum up the mechanism of the weapon. You could ask in the Gun Thread, which is a veritable cornucopia of firearms knowledge; I think Tuefel Hunden used to be an armorer or something like that in the US Marines, he'll probably know.

Schild und Schwert der Partei
Know-age Since: May, 2010
#4: Feb 17th 2014 at 7:36:44 AM

That's nowhere near the best anti vampire weapon, you should look into sunlasers or something. They have the added bonus of not stinking up the battlefield.

Kayeka (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#5: Feb 17th 2014 at 9:12:14 AM

I'm pretty sure that, according to the "usual" lore (for as far as there is such a thing concerning vampires), garlic isn't actually dangerous to vampires. They just really, really don't like it. Such bullets would probably annoy them, but hardly a kill.

joesolo Indiana Solo Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Indiana Solo
#6: Feb 17th 2014 at 9:15:16 AM

@deadpool "The titular character of Hellboy fights most demonic creatures using a big honking gun (forged from a church bell, no less) with ammunition comprising of glass bullets filled with "holy water, clover leaf, silver shavings, white oak... the works." "

I think he's got you beat, so long as the white oak counts for staking. tongue

edited 17th Feb '14 9:15:43 AM by joesolo

I'm baaaaaaack
pagad Sneering Imperialist from perfidious Albion Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
Sneering Imperialist
#7: Feb 17th 2014 at 9:36:38 AM

I saw Only Lovers Left Alive on Friday, in which a vampire commissions a bullet made out of super-dense wood in a regular brass case (I forget the specific wood in question, but it would be dense enough to sink in water). No idea if it'd actually work.

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.
tricksterson Never Trust from Behind you with an icepick Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Never Trust
#8: Feb 17th 2014 at 9:43:41 AM

It's been done I believe although I forget by whom.

Trump delenda est
Pykrete NOT THE BEES from Viridian Forest Since: Sep, 2009
NOT THE BEES
#9: Feb 17th 2014 at 3:59:05 PM

There's always Underworld's sunlight bulletsPFFFHAHAHAHA [lol]

Oh God I can't even type that with a straight face.

TuefelHundenIV Night Clerk of the Apocalypse from Doomsday Facility Corner Store. Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Night Clerk of the Apocalypse
#10: Feb 17th 2014 at 4:43:11 PM

The op mentioned bullet could work. There are a number of options.

You would likely need a hardwood like say Iron Wood for example.

The Garlic content could be done any number of ways. A blob of garlic paste under polymer seal.

Garlic powder with a binder agent injected into the cavity.

You could soak the interior of the cavity in garlic oil or even seal some up behind a polymer cap.

Now the real problem happens when you start to consider the power of the cartridge overall. Wood isn't going to take a lot of abuse from high power loads without a risk of the bullet fragmenting in the barrel and/or causing a jam or barrel stoppage. There were some hollow wooden rounds made for the 6.5mm Mauser rifle but they are meant for very close range use.

So you are unlikely to see magnum loads, high power rifle, high power shotgun etc. The bullet will suffer a lot of friction, heat, and pressure as it goes down the barrel and I would dare say it would increase the carbon deposit in the barrel from the surfaces being rapidly heated by the powder and friction with the barrel.

The other problem is even the most dense woods are rather very light compared to an all metal bullet and will be more prone to cross winds and deflection. Even light body armor will be sufficient to stop wooden bullets. They would break up rather easily. Heavy or hard body armor will laugh off wood bullets. Even most light cover will stop the bullets or cause their effectiveness to drop dramatically. The rounds will have poor kinetic energy compared to metal bullets.

Black powder cartridges and most modern pistol cartridges should work ok but don't expect great performance.

A possible alternative would be a wood ballistic cap on a metal hollow point similar to polymer caps with just a little space under the base of the cap for your chosen form of garlic. The rest of the bullet would be metal. It would have better ballistics and higher power cartridges would work better. The tip would still break up easily but the metal body behind it would likely smash the tip material into the target.

Who watches the watchmen?
Rem Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
#11: Feb 17th 2014 at 5:30:00 PM

I hate to be that guy, but wouldn't the garlic/holy water/whatever be unnecessary? Seeing as how you're shooting the sucker?

Granted, depending on the canon this might not actually be lethal, but it's not exactly something one shrugs off.

Fire, air, water, earth...legend has it that when these four elements are gathered, they will form the fifth element...boron.
TuefelHundenIV Night Clerk of the Apocalypse from Doomsday Facility Corner Store. Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Night Clerk of the Apocalypse
#12: Feb 17th 2014 at 5:33:08 PM

I'd imagine the reason to include it would be a make sure. If the initial wound itself isn't severe enough the addition of the toxin can only make things worse.

Kind of like using poisoned arrows. It may make a difference. It would also depend on how garlic affects said vampire.

Who watches the watchmen?
tricksterson Never Trust from Behind you with an icepick Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Never Trust
#13: Feb 17th 2014 at 7:42:38 PM

Doesn't Hellboy's gun have loads like this?

Btw, why "if the laws of physic let it work"? We're talking frikkin' vampires! The laws of physics (or at least of biology) are already bent out of whack.

Trump delenda est
Nohbody "In distress", my ass. from Somewhere in Dixie Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
"In distress", my ass.
#14: Feb 17th 2014 at 7:58:54 PM

I hate to be that guy, but wouldn't the garlic/holy water/whatever be unnecessary? Seeing as how you're shooting the sucker?

One of the common characteristics of vampires in general is that they can take an enormous amount of damage from conventional weaponry. Rounds that somehow incorporate silver, wood, or garlic (or any combination thereof) are more likely to do effective damage than plain old FMJ or regular hollow point rounds.

All your safe space are belong to Trump
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#15: Feb 17th 2014 at 8:02:50 PM

If you're really hunting vampires, wouldn't you be better off with phosphorous rounds, or those 'dragon's breath' shotgun rounds? Fire is traditionally a major weak point to vampires.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Euodiachloris Since: Oct, 2010
#16: Feb 17th 2014 at 8:07:33 PM

Or, you know... invest in a good crossbow. Automatic stake, coat in garlic: Bob's your uncle.

demarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#17: Feb 17th 2014 at 8:11:31 PM

Seems to me if garlic is a vampire game-changer, it would be way more effective to just make a vaccine out of it, and save yourself the trouble of shooting them all. It would be like the March of Dimes, except for Vampires.

edited 17th Feb '14 8:11:48 PM by demarquis

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
drunkscriblerian Street Writing Man from Castle Geekhaven Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: In season
Street Writing Man
#18: Feb 17th 2014 at 8:17:52 PM

@wood bullets: the only wood I know that is likely tough enough to be fired from a gun is lignum vitae. You could make a spitzer bullet (the pointy rifle kind) from that stuff and give it a lead core so it'd fly straight. Load the cartridge with a subsonic charge (make sure there's enough oomph left to work the bolt!) and hey presto, a fully automatic vampire killer.

@stuffed hollowpoints: I researched this for one of my novel projects and apparently stuffed hollowpoints are kinda unreliable; people have tried this with a lot of different substances and gotten wildly varying results. If you write a world where vampires are vulnerable to garlic, a better delivery system might be garlic oil in an industrial spray-system; the coverage of a flamethrower without the legal headaches.

Just my two pennies here.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~
RadicalTaoist scratching at .8, just hopin' from the #GUniverse Since: Jan, 2001
scratching at .8, just hopin'
#19: Feb 17th 2014 at 11:51:54 PM

I'm gonna have to second white phosphorus, as well as explosive rounds in general. If I shoot you in the chest with a copper-tipped shell from a Mossberg 500 Persuader shotgun, your lungs and heart, as well as most of your spinal cord, are going to be on the opposite wall behind you. In the room behind you. Though you'll still be able to see them through the hole in the wall this room just got.

Vampire immunities are amazing in a medieval setting, but in the days of .50 cal machine guns and C4 they're not that much to write home about. Big enough kaboom kills anything.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.
pagad Sneering Imperialist from perfidious Albion Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
Sneering Imperialist
#20: Feb 18th 2014 at 12:49:53 AM

the only wood I know that is likely tough enough to be fired from a gun is lignum vitae.

I think that's the one, actually.

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.
betaalpha betaalpha from England Since: Jan, 2001
betaalpha
#21: Feb 18th 2014 at 2:14:35 AM

Sounds like something the Shadowrun folks would have written entire sourcebooks about :)

[up][up]Very true, though the DM (or storyteller or whatever) can just blanket decide that vampires are either completely unharmed by conventional rounds and even nuclear explosions, or just heal from everything including outright disintegration in seconds. Similarly, technological advantages can be balanced out in that the more 'processed' the weapon is, the less damage it does. So stakes and whole medieval-farmed garlic cloves stuffed in the mouth will instakill a vampire, arrows and minced garlic do markedly less damage, while wood or garlic-filled FMJ rounds do scratch damage. I'm sure there's a trope for that :)

edited 18th Feb '14 3:13:54 AM by betaalpha

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#22: Feb 18th 2014 at 7:38:17 AM

I find the idea of Depleted Phlebotinum Shells used to deal with supernatural creatures to cheapen the impact of them in your world. You have to either escalate the creatures' powers and capabilities to respond to the firepower deployed against them, or turn them into a Zerg Rush.

edited 18th Feb '14 7:39:00 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#23: Feb 18th 2014 at 8:00:22 AM

garlic oil in an industrial spray-system; the coverage of a flamethrower without the legal headaches. - Drunkie
That sounds like an awesome idea. Wonder why no one's ever used it before? Though it is a little target-specific; a wooden bolt/bullet will also work on the vamp's pets, while garlic spray won't.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Elfive (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#24: Feb 18th 2014 at 8:03:01 AM

Garlic's not all that common a weakness these days, for some reason.

Know-age Since: May, 2010
#25: Feb 18th 2014 at 8:33:05 AM

Probably because its seriously kind of lame. Other vampire weaknesses are things like "a stake through the heart" or "being set on fire" that would kill a human anyway.


Total posts: 57
Top