Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting linotype

I'm going to stand in the background and throw this one out to a few that might notice it cause i aint no pro at casting bullets.
Just a quick question or two.
I have 500 pounds of linotype. I helped melt it down and cast some ingots about 15 years ago from the news type of a paper that was cleaning house and this stuff was in the basement. At the time i thought i really had something. I've moved the stuff from NY to Va and back again.
Ive cast some 130 grain lymans with it and they shot real good after i got done working up a load. It's been quite a few years since i had time to fool with casting although I can't bring myself to part with the lead. Around here it's hard to come by( I think).
Whats this stuff worth these days? I know what i paid for it then and actually at that time i thought i was buying only half of it but ended up with all 500 pounds.
I never tested the hardness of it. It needed nothing added to cast well and consistency was great, after the mold was hot enough i got only an occasional reject. Weights stayed within half a grain.

About ten bucks. I'll send you a money order <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Seriously, I paid 35 cents/lb about 5 or 6 years ago. It has at a minimum doubled, or even tripled in value since then.

lead is cheap it's the shipping that'll getcha!

IIRC linotype has a Brinell hardness of 22. It contains some 6% tin but don't quote me on that tin content.

Anyway, that high tin content is what makes it so easy to cast, it will also make your bullets fall out of the mold a bit lighter than something with less tin like straight wheelweights.

It is excellent stuff to use as is for making high performance cast bullets like rifle bullets, but is a bit expensive and increasingly rare to "waste" (I use the term loosely) on run of the mill plinking or lower velocity pistol loads.

I bought some 200 pounds of linotype about 12-14 years ago and mix it with wheelweight and a tiny pinch of 50/50 bar solder to produce as close to Lyman #2 as I can get. Something like 7 pounds straight wheelweights, 2.something pounds of lino and .something pounds of 50/50 makes #2 alloy which is 90/5/5 lead/tin/antimony and works out to about 16 Brinell. Good for most everything you'd use a cast bullet for and with gas checks makes good .30-30 or .308 bullets up to the 2000-2200 fps range.

Probably could go higher in rifles with straight lino but I only cast for rifles as practice and light load ammo.


P.S. Somebody correct me on those alloy mixture numbers if I'm wrong as I'm going from memory here and occassionally suffer slight bouts of CRS syndrome.

I cast pistol bullets from wheel weights when i was fooling with it back then. The lino was saved for the rifles. The best luck i had was a 130 grain gas check lyman mold that dropped a 128.5 grain slug pretty consistantly for the .270.

Any thoughts on running that hard bullet fast in a .270 and maybe hunting with it? Is there a speed that will make it upset enough to cause enough tissue damage?

Or...should i just build a good 30-06 lead bullet gun and soften up the alloy a little? Like I said, I got 500 lbs. of it and maybe i'll find some time to play around.

seriously, it sounds like fun to make my own slugs and hunt with 'em.

have gotten several batches of linotype over the years, while it casts great. every batch i have gotten a hold of would only check out around 14 on a l.b.t. brinnel tester. it gets used over and over again most of it has lost the antimony and tin it started with. i save it for my high vel. rifle loads, even at that
fwiw ed in idaho

Well.. this stuff cast a consistant size and weight so it can't be all that bad. Giving the hardness of 14 or so, is it too hard to hunt with?

BHN 14 wouldn't be too hard to hunt with, but linotype typically runs 22 +bhn. A hardness test would be in order, unless you bought new pigs of lino, you could have monotype, or even stereotype. These are even harder than lino, and more fragile, too! Bullet shape is what actually kills with cast bullets. Pointy bullets, cast hard would be similar to stabbing your game with a pencil, at high velocity, of course. seriously suggest you get yourself a copy of Veral Smiths "Jacketed performance with cast bullets", and read it cover to cover. It is the oracle for cast bullets.

I'll look that book up, thanks