Ceramic tips and other gun stuff [Era 2 spoilers]

[Brightness Enna]

My stepdad is a US veteran, and I was trying to explain Ranette's Hazekiller rounds, specifically the Coinshot ones, to him. He had a few questions that I'm hoping somebody may be able to explain:

• How does the ceramic tip thing work exactly, like the mechanics? If the ceramic is attatched too loosely, it would fall apart inside the gun, but too tight and it would follow the bullet when it was Pushed away. 

• Aluminum shouldn't work for bullets. They are using some sort of Allomantically-inert alloy, right?

• Why don't they use half-ceramic buckshot or ceramic bullets, or even every third bullet aluminum as those have already been proven? What's the point of just making the tip different?

I know that the last one has a fairly easy answer, that Coinshots can't sense aluminum or ceramic and would know to get out of the way, but I think my dad's point was more about alternating materials rather than making complicated bullets. 

Thank you!!

[Samaldin]

1. I don´t think it´s explained how the tip and the rest of the bullet are attached so i have no idea.

2. Yes they are using an Aluminiumalloy, which was actually only recently discovered in-universe

3. I don´t really know much (or anything) about bullets, but i would guess ceramic would be to brittle for an effective bullet (actually how come the ceramic doesn´t just break in the gun when the bullet is hit/fired?). And Aluminiumbullets aren´t used instead because i believe Ranette is the only one who makes those two part bullets and she doesn´t have the money to buy the Aluminium for the bullets.

[Eki]

I'm not sure about the specifics, but I'm guessing it would fall off if it was in the barrel, and it was shaken around too much. The bullet was in a special chamber though, so maybe that helped keep it in place when it wasn't used.

For the second point, they are probably using some kind of duraluminum. I think that's what's mostly used in our world when we need to toughen up aluminium. (It's also an allomantic alloy, but mostly useless in that regard by the time of AoL, since Mistborn are not around).

And yeah, for the third point, I think it's mostly about making the coinshot think that pushing is safe, and then shoot a hazekiller round when they are least expecting it. Alternating bullets would work for that too, but you'd have less control over when to use them. You don't want to use aluminium against normal people, since it's so expensive.

Then again, I guess they are using revolvers at the moment, so changing chambers shouldn't be too difficult. I dunno.

I think fully ceramic bullets would be too brittle... But I'm not sure.

I'm not really a gun expert or anything, so I can't give better answers, I'm afraid

[cometaryorbit]

Why would pure aluminum not work for bullets? Surely it's not softer than lead...

[Darkness Ascendant]

4 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

Why would pure aluminum not work for bullets? Surely it's not softer than lead...

Depends how ur using it. In a fire-fight, a coinshot would realise that their aluminium, and would flee, but in, say, an assassination attempt, and I mean the silenced sniper kind. It would be invaluable.

[Yata]

Like @Dankness Ascendant said (sorry dude but until now I always read your name as "darkness").

Probably Ranette's bullets exploit an Allomancer's Istinct (at least for the Coinshoot or Lurcher). They live their all live knowing they have nothing to worry from bullet/object they can spot with Steelsight while they have to worry if they can't sense a throwing object.

They sense the bullet arrives and for their own training know how to react to a not alluminium metal bullet....And they fall in the trap.

Of course also the "cheap" factor is probably a good factor to this choice but Ranette's Bullets to me are a good trick to hit target with an high mobility (coinshoot, lurcher) because they will feel not the great need to dodge that bullet

[PantsForSquares]

8 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

Why would pure aluminum not work for bullets? Surely it's not softer than lead...

Multiple reasons, really.

1) Cost: Aluminum is better used as defense against Soothers/Rioters, and you can't guarantee that you'll be able to recover it from a bullet.

2) Aluminum on its own isn't particularly great as a metal. Basically every useful application of aluminum involves alloying it in some way.

[cometaryorbit]

Yeah, I know about the price, but I was responding to the comment that it has to be alloyed due to the properties. Yeah, aluminum is nearly always alloyed - certainly for any kind of structural use - but lead is really soft and bullets are made of that.

[Darkness Ascendant]

22 hours ago, Yata said:

like @Dankness Ascendant said (sorry dude but until now I always read your name as "darkness").

XD It was always Darkness lol, I recently changed it to Dankness cos why the storms not?

[Darkness Ascendant]

6 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

but lead is really soft and bullets are made of that.

I always thought that soft metal was used to coat a bullet tip so that when it gets all heated up, it would become red hot and softer, and then when it hits someones body, it would help the bullet push through, adding a searing path to the bullets already aerodynamic shape and it's speed and power.

[Jondesu]

On 10/16/2016 at 6:50 PM, cometaryorbit said:

Yeah, I know about the price, but I was responding to the comment that it has to be alloyed due to the properties. Yeah, aluminum is nearly always alloyed - certainly for any kind of structural use - but lead is really soft and bullets are made of that.

From what I can see, it's not just that it's soft, but that the aluminum would leave behind a small amount of trace inside the barrel (every metal does), and while that's not a problem for most metals, aluminum gets sticky when it's hot and could really cause problems jamming the barrel.  In addition, it's much lighter than lead, so the bullets wouldn't have as much inertia, making them less accurate because they'll be more susceptible to wind resistance and tumbling.

[Stonesinew134]

 

On 10/15/2016 at 10:03 PM, cometaryorbit said:

Why would pure aluminum not work for bullets? Surely it's not softer than lead...

There's nothing wrong with bullets made of soft metal. As far as I understand it most bullets are intentionally made of softer metal so that the tip will flatten and spread making for a larger hole. Perhaps it's other factors in the metal that make it not work? Like how it responds to heat or something.