Werewolf Hunter Arsenal

[ClockTickRobot]

This question rarely comes up in more serious contexts. Sure, you see it a lot, but its usually simplistic or unprofessional stuff, or the actual werewolf hunter is a plot device or something the kneecaps further analysis. So I'm interested to know what the arsenal of the average werewolf hunter is, unless that's going to spoil something later on. Though I have a couple of questions when it comes to unconventional weaponry that I never, ever seen werewolf hunters use but I think would be at least marginally useful.

Human beings have invented a lot of ways to kill each other, and though we're fragile, a lot of them have been overkill. We've come to the point that werewolves aren't vulnerable to mundane, Geneva Convention weaponry, but if a werewolf hunter is committed to their premise, I doubt they'll be following it in any case.

All of these things are readily available to the average person, and some of them are even cheap, scarily enough.

This is all in good speculation, by the way. I'm not here to get into a Were/Human superiority contest. I'm just interested to see how these things would be handled.

Hollow Pointed Bullets: This is a big one in my opinion. I never see these things show up, despite the fact that they're available in every gun shop in America (for hunting). Banned from military use by the Hague for being too brutal, hollow pointed bullets are designed to break apart inside a target creating a rather horrific bowl-like wound that is less tatters and more a soupy mess. Higher calibers obliterate bones and create really major organ damage. If the regeneration factor of a werewolf can come back from such a high amount of destructive force, the rest I have are probably questionable but I'm starting with the most mundane and going down from there.

Sticky Fire (don't try this one at home, for the love of god): Crude napalm can be made from just mixing something thick and sticky into gasoline. This isn't anything I had to look hard for, that comes from Wikipedia, so don't flag me for reposting the anarchist's cookbook on here or something. I don't think I need to even elaborate on this one.

Poison Gas: Somebody with a moderate amount of chemistry knowledge and some very simple equipment could cook household cleaning solutions and chemicals available at the grocery store into something at least heavily harmful if inhaled. Gas masks are sold at hardware stores and mining supply companies, so using this wouldn't be mutually assured destruction if the hunter comes prepared.

Shark Darts/Air Knife: Probably the most obscure thing, but a Shark Dart is a handheld tube with a small canister of compressed air in its handle. Used for defending yourself when diving, you stab the dart into a target and press a button and it releases all of the air into the target. Supposedly these things can blow a shark's organs out of its mouth. If that's not enough to give you nightmares, these things are sold at supply shops for divers. There's also air knives that do the same thing but are actual knives and can be purchased online.

[Kris@WLP]

[ClockTickRobot]

Another question is if a solid object like say, a steel bar, were stuck through a werewolf, would the werewolf regenerate around the bar? Just based on how most humans/animals heal, a solid object stuck inside somebody just gets a membrane of scar tissue around it. This method is perhaps not exceptionally practical, though on the faster healing werewolves you might get a The Thing style body horror and get some kind of tumorous mass that needs to be hacked off later.

In which case, barbed spears or something to the like would be extremely distracting to a werewolf in combat that's stuck with one. Pull it out and risk a hunter striking you in the neck, or leave it in and risk some kind of tumorous growing around it. To make it practical, perhaps the spear would be some kind of small Assegai thing.

This also brings up the point that damaged flesh isn't always alive, and that a lot of cells die in certain wounds. The more power or force, the faster the cells die, so stronger hits would leave patches of useless flesh inside a werewolf wound. For stuff like internal injuries or bruises, animals have phagi that consume dead material, but would werewolf phagi be able to handle such huge hunks of dead material? If not, even hollow pointed rifle hits would require surgery to remove the dead material.

Unrelated, but since we're on the regeneration thing, a friend of mine brought up the fact that cancer would be extremely dangerous in bodies where cells could reproduce faster. Werewolf cancer could kill somebody in a matter of weeks or days, if the tumors have the same resilience and growth speed of any other piece of a werewolf. Do werewolves simply not get cancer?

As just a bit of morbid curiosity, can parasites like tapeworms survive in a were, or do their immune systems destroy the things?

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

There was an old thread (not going to bother finding it) that entertained/answered questions like this.

FYI, monera is no longer used/recognized as a kingdom. It encompassed ALL bacteria and has since been split into archaea and bacteria. ALL bacteria, i.e. single-celled organisms lacking nuclei and organelles would be considered "monera" "Most bacteria and a few monera can" is a nonsensical phrase.

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

Kingdom protista, yes. All single-celled (and some multicellular) eukaryotes without specialized tissue - a ridiculously diverse kingdom (though not as much as bacteria).

[Kris@WLP]

[Fionn the Otaku]

[ClockTickRobot]

I have to sort of question the difficulty of making a hollow point out of silver. Silver bullets in general would act much like Soft Points that mushroom out in a wound, mostly because its the exposed lead tip that pulls the bullet apart due to how soft lead is without any kind of hard jacket. Its not a huge stretch to imagine just sticking the bullet in a vice and very carefully, very slowly filing a hole in the center with some kind of instrument. That, or just dip an average hollow point in silver and take care to avoid making the bullet larger than the gun that's supposed to accept it.

Also, tracer rounds are difficult to acquire for civilians, but I imagine they'd be the cheaper anti-werewolf bullet, particularly the ones made from white phosphorous. Some of the accounts of werewolves dealing ridiculous casualties against the military are a bit hard to stomach just based on the sheer power of guns and the fact that at some point somebody would think to use a head shot.

Another question on the regeneration front, how much neck/throat damage counts as a decapitation, and how much can the werewolf actually come back from? Could a werewolf's head even be reattached if somebody held it against the neck stump before its too late?

Also, maybe this one was touched upon, but is there anything in the body that is simply too complex for a werewolf to fully regenerate, like eyes? Or do werewolves just have near-Earthworm level regeneration?

[Happygun]

This question (and many others relating to werewolf biology, physiology, and injury) has already been addressed several times. Check out the following threads:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2477

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1566

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=333

[Kris@WLP]

[Kaeto]

Actually tracers are not illegal. It's armor-piercing in handgun ammo that is illegal. I currently have 20 rounds tracer for my SMLE rifle and 6 in .45 acp that could be fired from my .455 Webley.

[Kris@WLP]

[ClockTickRobot]

I suppose, but werewolf hunters don't strike me as the completely law abiding types. I can understand werewolves avoiding illegal stuff automatically because they have a sort of society that could be threatened by legal proceedings, whereas the hunters would have little incentive to care. Holding on to something illegal in the United States isn't impossible, otherwise we wouldn't have that lovely drug market that's tearing Mexico apart. With a bit of paint, even, tracer rounds could be made to look more or less ordinary. Cops are looking for drugs, usually, anyway. Though being armed with anything is usually cause for suspicion in most cases. Particularly big knives, my Dad got stopped with an ornamental sword he'd bought from a pawn shop and got a rough time even though it was just a basic taffic stop.

I don't really see where a hunter would consider carrying illegal weaponry around any more serious than anything else, unless they get searched a lot because of their outfits. I can imagine the local weres in the police patting them down every chance just so they can try to get them on something but if that's already happening you'd think they'd have a good way just to make a hunter "vanish" the moment they set foot in town.

[stormydragon]

[stormydragon]

[Black_Mantha]

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

Any poison gas would be a LOT more efficient and deadly if the hunter could somehow trap his/her quarry in an enclosed space - an exercise left to the imagination of the reader, I suppose.