Monotype

Okay, gonna jump into it. I have read all over the place about: Monotype - linotype - pure lead - wheel weights etc.

To sum it down for this village idiot's understanding, should I buy the 50lbs of monotype available at the recycle center for 40 cents a pound? Would it, by itself, make good cast boolits for .30 cal. rifles? As in .308, .30-06, .30-30, .30 Carbine, 7.5X55 Swiss, ETC ETC? And is that a good price?

I have only shot .45-70 Lee Alox Tumble Lubed 500gr boolets cast in pure lead with absolutely -0- leading and excellent accuracy, so far.

Thanks for any input.

WOW, grab it!
Pure lead is $.75 a pound here in southern Oregon! Do a little research here to decide how you wanty to alloy that stuff with pure lead for those rifle boolits. I am sure you will get many suggestions but I would go 80-20 monotype to pure lead up to around 2000FPS

The only request that I have is don`t break the guys hand when slapping money into it!!! Yes, grab all that he has. Scrap wheel weights are going for .75 or so a pound around here. You can either mix this with pure lead for an alloy or sell it again to other casters that are looking for this gold.Robert

That is a fantastic price if you are sure it is monotype. What shape/configuration is the material in?

Yes it will make boolits for the calibers you listed but they will be large, light and HARD. Monotype has a BHN close to 30. If I were going to mix it with lead I would start at a low ratio, maybe 5% Mono to 95% lead and see how it performs. Others will disagree but I am not an advocate of hard boolits. I shoot 308, 30-30, 35 Rem., and 8mm Mauser from 1800 to 2000 fps with a BHN of 10 to 12.

Larry

Its a steal. It has $2.00 worth of tin and antimony in it. It would make entirely toooo hard boolits undiluted. You can resell it for about $1.25 per pound at the drop of a hat.

NO, it will not make good bullets by itself. It's not so much that it's too hard (it is) but rather it's way too brittle. Mono is 9% tin, 19% antimony and 72% lead. 19% antimony is way past a lot and bullets cast with this much antimony are so brittle they can actually break in two by simply chambering a round or dropping one on the floor.

It is a valuable find though and buying it at 40 cents a pound is about like making a bank withdrawal with a gun and you should wear a mask when you pick it up.

As others have already said it is a perfect alloy for blending with lead, WW's and such. Congratulations on your find, grab it before it's gone or the guy realizes what he has and ups the price.

Rick

WOW! Thank you guys. Did not realize monotype was that scarce or desireable. They also have wheel weights at 40 cents a pound.
I have bought about 150 lbs of pipe and shower stall sheathing lead there also. All clean & new stuff. Already have it all cast in .458 bullets, 3,000 total rounds.
Have another 300+ pounds of indoor range lead waiting to be smelted outside as weather permits. That cost 18 cents a pound.
Boolet casting is addictive. :bigsmyl2:

My recommendation is 3:1 lead (or WW's) to Mono. Two/three percent tin is sufficient for mold fill-out, and the Sb will be about 5%, so you will have a good all-around alloy.

And +1 on the mask & gun...

Picked it up today, Saturday, 27-Feb-10. 54 lbs of monotype and 10 lbs of wheel weights cost $22.00. Only the larger wheel weights were selected. They allowed me to 'pick & choose.'

I suggest you dilute the monotype even more than Echo suggested. You can read something about the issues and the ideal alloy range in the "Toughness of Lead-Tin-Antimony Alloys" thread in Classics and Stickies on this site. I suggest 4 parts pure lead to 1 part monotype, to give you 1.8% tin and 3.8% antimony, or 5 parts pure to 1 part monotype to give you 1.5% tin and 3.2% antimony. Personally I'd prefer the latter alloy - it is closer to the optimum than the higher-antimony version is - but both are very good bullet alloys, and way better than most people are using.