Rifle alloy mix

[Lizard333]

I am going to be casting for my M1 Garand and I have pent of WW's, but I don't have any tin. I have been told that a good mix for the 311299 that I'm getting is WW's with 2% tin. Without any tin, can I add some Lino? I have a bunch of Lino, what would be a good mix of the two, that would help me produce a good alloy for the rifle boolit? Thanks!

[alfloyd]

8 lbs ww BHN 12
2 lbs lino BHN 22

Total 10 lbs BHN 13
Tin 1.0% Antimony 4.8% Lead 94.2%

This mix should work fine for your use.

Hope this helps.
Lafaun

[both eyes open]

What is lino? Im a newbie, sorry...

[runfiverun]

linotype is from the old printing presses it was used to make sentences, to print newspapers and such.
i use ww's and soft lead [75-25] and waterdrop it for almost all of my rifles it's plenty hard for velocities over 2400.
i only add tin if i cannot get the mold to fill out, ww's usually have .5% tin anyways and if i add some it's generally another .5% or so.

[geargnasher]

Linotype alloy. Used in old Linotype machines that cast letters an operator typed on a keyboard and made plates for printed newspapers, etc. The alloy is "eutectic", meaning it goes from liquid to solid all at once as it cools, with no "mush" phase in between. Composition is 84% lead, 12% antimony, and 4% tin. If the percentages are off even slightly, it will have a slight "mush" phase as it freezes or melts. Hardness is 22 bhn and it's often found in it's bulk form of specially shaped "pigs" which were designed for automatic feeding into the machine.

Gear

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

I shooting straight WW in my Argie, but I'm only cruising at 1650 so far,
Zero leading with 45-45-10 lube

[Larry Gibson]

Adding just lino and you'll still have a higher ratio of tin to antimony than is best. There are some solder bars for sale on the Swappin and Sellin forum. One 1 lb bar for $20 shipped. That's enough for 30 lbs of alloy using the solder + 29 lbs WW. BHN will be 14-17 for AC'd bullets. Mix at 24 lbs WW + 1 lb bar solder + 5 lbs linotype and you should end up with a 16 - 18 BHN. Both should be good alloys for the 311299s out of the M1. 30 lbs of alloy is 1000+ 311299s BTW.

Larry Gibson

[303Guy]

I enjoy your knowledge and analytical and precice thinking, geargnasher. :drinks:
I sort of knew what Lino was before .... Thanks.

[Lizard333]

If theses boolets are water dropped will they be too hard?? I don't know if that's possible. I am assuming the BHN that is listed is for air cooled.

[GRUMPA]

Lizard,
When I was TRYING to get my old K98 (converted to 06) to spit those out and still hit what I aimed at, I had to go through a bit to get them to work. Straight WW water dropped then with 1% tin then heat treating then speeds then powders, it took me over a year off and on trying to get the right combination.

Now after all this time I finally got it to shoot right and where is it? In the gun cabinet collecting dust. Now I have one I got my eye on another mould in the group buy section, I guess once I got it figured out I need another challenge.

But in the end I had to use WW with 1% tin water dropped and lubed (real important) with LBT Blue lube and was real happy with the results.