What's the difference between...?

[jski]

MBW heat treated, BHN 22 v. Linotype, BHN 22 ?

What's the practical difference between the two?

[Hickory]

Heat treating is an artificial hardness, while Linotype is not.

[Wayne Smith]

The functional difference is that heat treating provides a moving target, it gets hard over time, stays hard for quite a while, and then slowly softens back. Notice I did not provide any specific targets as to time, it is not clearly known.

Alloy hardness is in the metal and does not change.

[winelover]

Heat treated alloy can be returned to it's original hardness by annealing. Lino cannot, unless cut with a softer alloy.

Winelover

[jski]

For the shooter, what's the practical difference? Why would I prefer one over the other?

[44man]

Depends on use. Target or hunting. You can oven harden a 50-50 mix to 18 or 20 bhn but will not lose the ductile properties for expansion. More of a surface hardness.
I water drop WW boolits to 20-22 bhn and they don't break but lino might shatter. All I want is for the boolit to take the rifling. Any harder is not needed.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

reading this might help you out ?
http://www.lasc.us/FryxellCommentsCBAlloys.htm
that was one article of many from this
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[Yodogsandman]

What's MBW? Montana Bullet Works? We don't buy any boolits!

Heat treated antimonial alloys allow you to shoot at higher speeds than possible with the same alloy that's been air cooled and age hardened. It will retain the malleability and toughness of the original alloy for a hunting boolit.

Linotype will be brittle and will shatter. It will cost at least double that of other lead like clip on wheel weights (COWW).

[jski]

What's MBW? Montana Bullet Works?

Yep. I'm a consumer of cast bullets, not of producer.


Heat treated antimonial alloys allow you to shoot at higher speeds than possible with the same alloy that's been air cooled and age hardened. It will retain the malleability and toughness of the original alloy for a hunting boolit.

Are these bullets made from the same lead alloys? The same percentages of base metals.


Linotype will be brittle and will shatter. It will cost at least double that of other lead like clip on wheel weights (COWW).

Isn't Linotype just an alloy and doesn't define the casting procedure? Whether heat treated or not.

[runfiverun]

lino-type is a eutectic alloy.
it's also an unforgiving brittle alloy. [BHN 22]

your average alloy 1/3/96 with a small percentage of arsenic or sulpher.
can be heat treated at 435-F for a full hour then water quenched [for a BHN of 22]
now this type of alloy has the higher BHN but still has the malleability and toughness of the original alloy.

in layman's terms.
your tricking the alloy into thinking it has more antimony spread out throughout the lead.
until it meets resistance, [hits something] then the antimony crystals break down and the lead takes over and does it's thing.

[jski]

Is the recommendation to avoid using Linotype?

[randyrat]

Yes, for cost reasons and anti shatter properties on front shoulders of large game.

[Yodogsandman]

Is the recommendation to avoid using Linotype?

Linotype is fine for poking holes in paper targets but, very expensive. It's better used as a sweetener for pure lead, if you were to cast your own boolits.

No idea what the alloy composition of MBW boolits is.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Is the recommendation to avoid using Linotype?
you ask good questions.
I'd probably avoid using linotype as a "regular" choice of boolit alloy for the reasons Randyrat (and others) gave.

But I sure wouldn't avoid buying some (at a reasonable price) and having some on hand.
It's probably the best, cheapest, easiest alloy (with a fairly consistent known content of antimony) to add to a soft scrap lead alloy you may run across for cheap or free...making the soft scrap a more usable boolit alloy.

Or... sometimes "casting your own", means experimenting, at least for me. Maybe a problem will arise, and you may think, I wonder if using straight lino will cure it? Some people will use straight Lino for 22 cal, if they have issues casting those small boolits flawlessly with other alloys.

But If you are casting, solely to shoot more, and money isn't an issue where you'd rather not search/scavenge scrap alloys...then I suspect I'd chose a alloy that the majority of cast bullet manufacturers use, and order in a supply of it, and not look back.

[runfiverun]

I don't know their alloy either.
they could simply be water dropping the standard 2/6/92 alloy from the [375-400-f] mold into cold water and getting to 22 bhn.

lino-type isn't to be avoided since it has it's uses.
but it generally is waay more then needed and cost is a factor.
it is recommended for some mold designs and for some specialty uses.
if you are using your 30-06 with a 12 twist barrel and are trying to shoot tiny groups at 2650+ fps with a boolit design that relies 100% on mechanical fitment then lino-type would for sure be the alloy to start working with.

if your trying to do the same thing with a design that needs to somewhat change shape and flow into the barrel under lower pressure before being accelerated to speed then lino-type would be a total waste of your time and money.

if your just using an off the shelf mold to shoot holes in paper at 1800 fps then you need neither the linotype or the softer alloy but somewhere in between would be best.
an alloy strong enough to take the rifling without damage to the boolit design or the nose as it engraves the rifling.
fitment becomes more important when you look at how things work, backing it with enough BHN to do the job is your second priority.
that second part is where the temperature manipulation comes into play.