Eagle27. That is a great idea to do the gas check groove and the metplat in the collet. My lathe is very small and only for soft material. The bullet goes into the chuck to a set depth and then I face the nose of the projectile back a bit. I remove about 8 grains of bullet doing the cut. They come out with 2-3 grains variation. I do the same when I cut the groove for the gas check, although these ones I have not checked as they shoot at 1700 FPS with out a problem. The projectiles are Westcast, and they seem to be pretty good, sized .459. My Marlin has a micro groove barrel, so I have not found out how hard I can drive them yet. If the .459 sized projectiles don't work I will go .561. An America company loads hard cast 45-70 with a huge metplat for the 45-70 to about 2000 fps. Guides in Alaska seem to like for there back 45-70 rifles.