Patches disappear

[azmntman]

I wouldn't worry about it if yer not having to pound down with a hammer. I once was shooting groups, shot 4, dryballed, pulled ball and used same ball with screw hole in it. Centered the group so I was thinking a bit of muck on the face from the starter or ram rod was not to worry about.

 

[Grenadier1758]

One way to minimize the marking on the ball is to use a bore sized cleaning jag with the ball sized concave face. The concave face will smooth the sprue to ball shape and have minimal change to a swaged ball. Of course you need a short starter that has threads for your bag.

If you have confidence that what you are doing will shrink groups, then it is likely your groups will shrink.