I have never patched a single bullet and never really planned to but:
I have several boxes of 500 grn .45-70 Govt pattern bullets (grease groove type) with the driving bands at .462. However the nose is only .440 dia and so far these bullets do not shoot very well. I have thought about wrapping the nose up to the groove diameter of my 45-70 bores which would be about .450 to .452.
My rifles are modern replicas or Ruger single shots. Some have shallow grooves and some are conventional 8 groove barrels.
Is it possible do this safely without damaging barrel by having a bullet run over or iron the patch paper into the bore? I would like to shoot up these otherwise high quality cast bullets.