Added versatility with nose sizing

Is anyone else nose sizing?   I have done sone in the past but never really appreciated the versality it adds for use with some cast bullet designs.  A simple example  I can give of how nose sizing corrected a problem for me is with a custom mold I ordered some time back with my design of a heavy 310 grain bullet for the 348 Winchester.  The basic design is a bore rider nose that from experience I have learned that the nose must be a snug fit to the bore diameter with no wiggle room or accuracy may not be good.   What I discovered was the .340" nose diameter as cast turned out to bee too much of a good thing it that on closing the breach the lever had a snap fit for the last bit of throw of the lever.   That would have been OK by itself but what I discovered was that snap fit was causing enough engraving of the bullet nose that in extracting a loaded round from the chamber would sometimes pull the bullet from the case which is totally unacceptable, especially in ammo that we may sell..

So in an attempt to alleviate that problem I dug through my bullet sizer dies for the RCBS lube-a-matic press.  Finding a .338" die which would reduce the nose diameter by .002" we moved forward with the test.  With a top punch that fits the bullet base the depth setting was set to allow the bullet to enter the die nose first to the depth of the top full diameter drive band  at .350".   That procedure reduced the bullet nose diameter by .002" right to the top of the lead drive band.  Loaded some bullets thus nose sized and cycling them through our old model 71 Winchester we found the idea to be a sound practical solution to the problem with the cartridges so loaded cycling through  the ole Winchester rifle as slick and smooth as anyone could ask for.

Well with that problem solved and the thought shoved  to the back  warehouse of my mind  the light of applying the idea to a more general use never came on until more recently.  I started thinking more recently of the many old Lyman Loverin designs that I had passed on because in unaltered form have to be seated so deeply into the case for many rifles that a good portion of the lubed bullet is below the case neck.  Those old Loverin designs being almost all bearing diameter for the bullet length so have a good grip on the rifling so most often shoot very good especially in vintage rifles with well worn bores.  The issue is with newer rifles with little ware and short throats that require deep seating of such bullet designs.

The problem with some calibers like 30 caliber is that there are no other standard sizers available for nose sizing to bore diameter for 30 caliber at .300".   Some years ago I started to move on this idea and had a special sizer die made to nose size 30 caliber bullets to .301" diameter.  The idea popped into my head quite some time ago but after receiving the special nose die and due to life happening it got put away and forgotten about until a rouge uncatalogued NEI mold came into my possession.     This NEI mold unused when I got it is a 6 cavity mehanite block material for a 30 caliber 230 grain semi pointed boat tail bullet that drops at .307" from the mold.  It is smooth sided without lube grooves so can be used for paper patching to a Euro 30 diameter or powder coated for bullets at .308" to .309" diameter.  Oh and BTW the nose die is just a standard lube type die but lacks lube holes.

OK so moving forward with the NEI mold I was disappointed to find that this long straight sided bullet much like the Loverin design bullets had to be seated very deeply with just a bit of the nose extending past the case mouth shot poorly in the 30 caliber cartridges I tried it in like 30-06, 308, 30-30 and 30-40.  Even in worn throats of milsurp rifles there was as much bullet inside the case as outside the case which apparently did nothing good for accuracy.   For that reason that great NEI mold was also  put out to pasture until very recently.   

With our usual hot weather slow down in orders I had some time to start going through some bullet inventory and found a stash of about 500 bullets from the NEI mold.   I had just finished a batch  of bullets from the custom mold for the 310gn 348 bullets when that light finally came on for nose sizing the NEI bullets.    That light must have shined more brightly than usual because suddenly I realized that the nose length could be adjusted for any cartridge as well as making a perfect fit to the throat but never extending the bullet base past the case neck.  Wow what a revelation!    So now I see that with nose sizing a long loverin type bullet can be custom sized  to be a perfect fit to any chamber regardless of the amount of ware to that chamber.   For chambers with well elongated throats by the time you find the length to have the groove diameter portion of the bullet that will contact the lands you may be well over the length that will cycle through the action but in that case single loading one at a time into the chamber may still result in better accuracy  than you thought old Betsy was good for.

At the moment I have no help to post picture but as soon as I do I have a couple pictures that may help add 1000 words.