Ross is there a particular cartridge you’re working on? If you follow the traditional thought that the bullet should not be seated deeper than the case neck a lot of the pro/cons of bullet design and throating will fall into place.
But IMHO the bore rider design is the most user friendly design to work with. Maybe or maybe not the most accurate design, but it gives you something to easily set up and shoot while you sort out fit for a spitzer, tapered or a combo tapered bore rider design (31-230E) and whether or not out anything needs to happen with throating.
IMHO for the bore rider to shoot reasonably well there’s a couple conditions that are important:
1) Like Rick said the fit of the front size drive band into the throat/freebore.
2) The fit between the nose diameter of the bullet and the diameter of the bore.
Of the two I’d put more need to fit free bore than bore rider nose to bore fit. But both are important.
Flags go up if the bullet nose won’t fit in the bore and the base is being pushed back into the shoulder area or if the bore is so oversized there’s little or no contact between the bullet and the bore. Just my opinion, Bill Cook.
Patience isn’t a virtue, it’s a delay tactic.