No not seeing patches on the bullet after firing but finding pieces of patch material within about 10 to 20 feet from the shooting bench.
As I said earlier I believe the patch thickness has some bearing as I use 9 lb,  16 lb, and 24 lb cotton bond paper depending on the application.   
The heavier paper is used mostly but not exclusively for high power smokeless powder loads.

oneatatime wrote on Mar 30^th, 2026 at 12:57pm:


GG bullets didn't replace PP. They both were part of the evolution of bullets from muzzle stuffed round balls to modern monometal projectiles.

If anything could described as replacing PP, perhaps it would be jacketed bullets. As speed increased so did leading issues.  PP was an attempt to control that.

 

Then there is the increased barrel wear with paper patches?

marlinguy wrote yesterday at 2:57pm:


That is correct but PP saw a revival at the beginning of BPC competition.  PP dominated that competition for a long time then finally gave way again to the simplicity of greased bullets. Some high level competitors still use PP or did until BPC kind of fizzled out. There is no doubt that a smooth bullet of the same length and basic shape as a grooved bullet has a higher BC than the grooved bullet. Some competitors want to every advantage possible and a higher BC is am advantage. If you look at the ballistic charts in the Lyman cast bullet hand book and compare the drop figures between a flat nose bullet and a round nose bullet of the same caliber and weight you will see quite a difference in drop and wind figures. That is why you dont see any serious competitors using a flat nose bullet.  The same comparison is there between a grooved bullet and a smooth bullet of the same caliber and weight. Another advantage with the smooth bullet being shorter for the same weight requires less rotational velocity for stability. That becomes important when your rifling twist rate is marginal for a certain bullet weight/length.  For instance I have a Sharps 45-90 with a 1/20" twist that will not do well at long range with the Lyman 457132 Postell bullet at about 525 grain in a BHN-9 alloy . I have an adjustable for weight 45 caliber PP mold that if I set for the same weight and cast in the same alloy will do much better for long range because its reduced length for the same weight is fully stabilized by the 1/20" twist where as the longer but same weight bullet is marginally stabilized.  That is an advantage I will use.   

oneatatime wrote Today at 1:01am:

The answer is no if I understand you correctly.

There's really no reason all the lube grooves on a grease groove bullet need to be inside the case. It doesn't hurt anything to have lube grooves exposed and might even help accuracy to have the bullets seated out as far as possible to touch the rifling.

marlinguy wrote Today at 10:41am:


Yes that can sometimes be done depending on the chamber throat but there are indeed reasons not to. I think when Mike wrote that book he was aware of that possibility but he chose not to.  He must have had his reasons. Another big reason is the exposed lube can easily pick up dirt and grit that you dont want going down your barrel.
I suppose you could just not put lube in the top grooves but maybe that is not a good idea especially with BP where you never seem to have enough lube.