Hardness for lead cast rifle bullets (with gas check).

[Foto Joe]

stay away from linotype because while it makes hard bullets, it's a brittle alloy and from what I understand bullets thereof tend to shatter when they encounter bone. If it's for target shooting and plinking it won't matter.

There's also such a thing as being too hard. With super hard boolits, drive bands have been known to crack or break off on the trip down the barrel. With a starting hardness of BHN 16 there shouldn't be a problem in a good barrel. If you do get leading then it's simply a matter of water dropping your boolits with the same alloy to achieve a harder boolit without adding anything. Linotype being one of the most expensive forms of lead out there is generally used to harden things like tape or stick on wheel weights or pure lead like from pipe. Casting from pure linotype is pretty much overkill.