Why did the Lone Ranger use silver bullets?

by notmrjohn on March 28th, 2006

Actually it is easier to make bullets out of lead than silver, lead melts at 327.5 �C (621.5 �F), silver melts at 961.93 �C (1763.474 �F). A silver bullet is also lighter and harder than a lead one which, most of the time, would make it not as effective as a lead one. A silver bullet might have a bit more range but wouldn't have the spreading and stopping power of a lead one. However that might be an advantage for the Ranger, as he made a vow to "never shoot except in defense and even then never shoot to kill." Later on in the original radio series, the Ranger tells Tonto that the use of silver reminds him of the cost of a mans life and the related expenses involved in firing a gun at a man. ( Apparently he kept forgetting about the expense of the silver bullets as he left them laying around all over the place.)
That expense brings us to silver being "easier to come by." Lead is cheap, silver ain't. Unless your the Lone Ranger. The Lone Ranger had his own secret silver mine. There are three versions of how he found the lost mine of the Conquistedores, all from the creator of the Ranger and from the original series. When Tonto and the Ranger rescue the injured white stallion, the horse somehow leads them to the mine, thus the name Silver, not only fitting for the white horse but also because of the mine. This version is from some later programs recapping the Rangers origins because they find the horse in the second program and no mention of the mine is made. AND in the third program the Desert Duo rescue an old timer, a prospector being set up by the evil Cavendish gang to take the fall for their ambush and massacre of the Ranger's brother, Dan, and the rest of the Texas Ranger Company, where they thought they had also kilt the Ranger who was on his first assignment and neither masked or lone yet.( (Of course Tonto had rescued the Ranger out of gratitude, recognizing him as John Reid, who when they were both lads, had rescued HIM from a gang of bullies, possibly the very same Cavendish gang. Otherwise, what kind of fool Indian would do such a thing?) The desert rat out of his gratitude tells the Ranger about the lost mine he has just found. He agrees to secretly work it for them, providing them with all the bullets and cash they need, not being interested in wealth himself, though he has spent his life looking for the mine.( Perhaps all those years in the desert sun had fried his wits.)
Then a few seasons later it is revealed that the Ranger and his brother had discovered the mine themselves years before, keeping it secret until their retirement years, the IRA having not been invented yet. Later in the series (or more likely in one of the books the series inspired and which elaborated on the "Legend"), we learn that the 'old timer' was actually an old friend of the two brothers. Who, we learn, had possibly been orphaned, again, possibly by the same Cavendish gang. Orphaned or not, he had been their mentor, teaching that Justice and the Rule of Law and Order were more important than Wealth and the Rule of the Gun. This may explain the old timers disinterest in wealth, the Ranger's hesitance to shoot, and the brothers willingness to be Rangers for a dollar a day, saving the silver to buy their own rocking chairs at the Home for Retired Rangers and Decrepit Desperadoes. Either he, or the brothers, or he and the brothers together had found the mine in their ramblings. When the brothers grew up, no longer needing mentoring, he went off to live and work at the mine in solitary Justice and poverty until the Cavedish frame up.
No matter how he got it, the Ranger had his own source of silver. Which was to come in very handy for one of the Ranger's descendants. In one of the first 'spin offs' the success of the Lone Ranger radio series lead to another program featuring a masked defender of Justice, The Green Hornet. The Hornet was Britt Reid, grandnephew of the Ranger, and head of fabulously wealthy Reid Publishing. The Hornet was so busy fighting for Justice and never shooting to kill that he had little time to run the business, that silver mine would come in handy, the publishing empire being just a front to explain the wealth.
I was unable to discover if Kato was related to Tonto, or if any of the gangsters the Hornet fought were descendents of the Cavendish's. I do remember that in the Comic books, Silver would go off on his own sometimes ( al la Lassie) and deal out Justice of his own in the animal kingdom, saving wild horses from cougers, deer from pouchers and even thirsty cattle from drought. Sometimes even finding lost children in the wilderness.( These were pro'lly during the times when the Ranger was being a master of disguise as a wino in some frontier town, where the ownership of such a fine steed would blow his cover.) And while High Yo!, or at least Huhho, is easier for a horse to say than Silver, I doubt that it was his name among the wild horses before he took up his secret identity. It is possible, but not probable, that some of the difficulties requiring his rescue by the Ranger and Tonto were caused by the evil Cavendish horse herd.