I wanted to try paper patching in .30 caliber and .303 British, asked for sample bullets of about .300" diameter in the Bullet Exchange, and had two respondents fill my cup to overflowing. One even asked if I needed anything else to fill up the SFRB (!).
That being too good to miss, I thought "What the Heck", and asked if there was such a thing as a .216" (=.224-.008) bullet suitable for .22 paper patching. Well no, apparently that's too unusual , but instead it was suggested that I simply patch a .224 bullet and then run the whole thing through a .224" sizer. (I've seen advice to the contrary on this forum, but it worked just fine -- this time, anyway -- see below.)
So, I tried .303 British and .22 Hornet. (My paper patching in .30 caliber is on hold for the moment, pending rifle repair.) Here's the 25-yard target:
My .303 is a P-14, with groove diameter .3125" or so. (Yes, this is the wrong dimension to key off of. As advised on this forum. And as will become apparent. ) Two layers of green bar paper gave me a .310" bullet, too small. So for .303 I wrapped three layers of green bar paper, which got me to .314", and then sized down to .3125". Those are the 4 larger holes in the target. Note that only one of them is round! Looks like the other 3 bullets didn't spin, with about the results you'd expect.
I had some Cerrosafe, made a chamber cast, and found the throat of this rifle to be about .316". So it looks like a) advice on this forum to size for your rifle throat is right on, and b) I'll need a bigger sizer and matching M-die for this rifle. Or maybe it was the 3 layers instead of 2. Whatever. I'm still thinking ...
My .22 Hornet is actually a Euro-Hornet (5.6x35), with .222" groove diameter and about .224" throat, so my .224" sizer and M-die worked well. The six .22 holes grouped together are actually from 6 slightly different reloads, with two different powders, two different seating depths for the paper patch bullets (that's 4), and two powder coated .22 bullets, one for each powder charge. All the bullets were 50-gr Lee Bator. That all 6 grouped in more or less the same place tells me that all these reloads were pretty good. In particular, all 4 of the paper patched .22's went into about 3/4", different loads & all, despite the abuse of patching as cast and then sizing down a presumably excessive .008" or so.
All in all, I'm very happy with the .22 Hornet. As for the .303, not yet. But maybe I'll think of something.