Was not making progress with my 30 Herrett so I could not resist when I saw a good deal on a 14" Contender 30-30 barrel with 4x scope.
My goat is IHMSA so I was hoping to get good results with my checkless ASBB PC coated C309-170-F boolits.
First trip to the range was promising for accuracy, but with PC on the nose, I could just barely get the ammo to chamber. Also had quite a few that I had to slap closed to get to fire
When I got home, I checked out the fit.
The bare nose 170s had been just slightly loose in the Herrett, so they were just right with PC.
Without PC, the nose is perfect in the 30-30. Just a one finger push gets it chambered and I get just barely visible engraving marks.
I loaded a few with BLL over hand applied regular lube (not fired yet) but I kept thinking about how to get PC performance without PC on the nose. Several previous tries with the Lee 170 in a couple of contender barrels just could not get leading free performance at the full velocities I need.
The it hit me. I started rummaging around in a basket of old ballpoint pens. I kept pulling off the rubber sleeves until I found one that would just slip over the nose. Taped the rubber sleeve onto the barrel of the pen and made a plunger to push the bullet back out. My NNPC tool is shown below "loaded" with a Lee 170.
ASBB HF red PC coated some bullets, stacked them on a flat plate, pushed the tool down over the nose, wipe the base off, set boolit back down and hand wiped the rounded portion of the nose. Pushed the tool down over the nose again and transferred the boolit to the NSAF on the tray.
I cooked them with my standard "light baking routine" (PID controller set for 380 °F, turn off over heat 10 minutes after the temp goes above 350 °F).
I got exactly what I wanted with the base wiped clean. The usual PITA of boolits sticking to the NSAF was but a memory. Removal was easy as pie. Now I have naked nose powder coat (NNPC) boolits.
Can't wait until next shooting day (Friday probably).