The no excuses definately engage the rifling and I may should have done what you suggest. However, I spoke with the guy who makes them and he said to simply start them with your thumb and then seat them with the rod, which is what I did. The funny thing was that in spite of the BM3 being very residue free there were two spots in my barrel that the no excuses were hard to get by. The first was about 1/2 way down and the second was just above the powder. This was fairly consistent. Could be I need to do a thourough cleaning for leading. However, I had an 18 inch round target at 25 yards, and some of the bullets did not even hit the target. Not sure that would make that much difference, especially when the powerbelts hit so consistently..