Since the CBA covers black powder to unlimited BR competition this is a pretty broad question but I though I would give it a try.
Does the freebore diameter have any sway on the choice you make for what you size your bullet to?
Up until a couple years ago I was only shooting military or old lever guns and my practice was what I had read and that was to size the bullet as little as possible. So in all cases I ignored the freebore diameter and would size as big as I could. Heck at the time I didn't even know what terms like throat, free-bore and leade were. So 30 cals were sized .312 or even .313. Looking back I'm guessing that the free-bore was so generous on the old rifles that it was a loose fit even with a bullet sized big.
But when I started loading for new production rifles I had a problem. I don't know if it was by accident or by design but the last three new rifles had tighter free-bore diameters than my old rifles. I found that if I were sizing bullets a couple thousands greater than the free-bore I would get a scraping of alloy on the face of the free-bore and it was a real bear to get out.
I was hoping someone could comment on this. Thanks, Bill C.
A “Measured Response” is as effective as tongue lashing a stuck door.