Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Fireball brass

Thank goodess for our european suppliers. Remington seems to have all but given up on supporting the 17 and 221 fireball ammo for the present and future is not looking any more promising on our shores for the future. Received an E-mail yesterday that a vendor is listing the Remingtion 221 FB & Remingtion 17 FB brass as discontinued.
Good news is Lapua and Nosler are now providing some very top shelf 221 FB brass and Nosler even has an offering for 221 FB ammo.

Now 17 FB brass is relatively easy to form from 221 FB Brass and not impossible to form from 223 offerings.

Still I wonder if Nosler 17 FB brass will be in our future?

Remington's abandoned a lot of things.....too busy producing the cheap junk buyers demand these days....

I agree, FieldGrade. The .17 Rem Fireball and .260 Rem are two of my favorite cartridges. Remington's brought out several great cartridges over the years and failed to properly support them. In addition to the Fireballs, they developed the .244 Rem (6MM) and .260 Rem. Unfortunately, any cartridge that Remington brings out seems to fail to win support from other companies until Remington screws up marketing and support on them...which ultimately happens. Maybe someone other than HSM will start to pick up with production of brass and ammo for the .17 Fireball. But that's unlikely to happen unless someone starts to factory produce a quality .17 Fireball rifle. Remington used to produce quality guns but struggle to even do that anymore.Big Green has become Green Weenie.

A whole bunch of us have been getting Midway notifications for weeks about a whole slew of Winchester brass being discontinued, and now it seems that Remington is also getting out of brass manufacture.
We were counting on Remington to continue producing hard to find levergun brass like the 25-20 and 32-40, but already have received notice that Remington bailed out. Now 17 Fireball, and who knows what else. At least Hornady is making my 17 Hornet, and it is on the shelf...

I got email from Midway again this morning saying 5 more cal or brass cases of Remington Brass have now been discontinued

It wouldn't surprise me if manufacturers structure the situation such that for more and more cartridges handloaders have to buy at least one box of factory loaded rounds.

Yep...they're a big company that requires big sales to stay afloat so they produce what the market demands which is cheap disposable chit and to hell with the rest....Savage and Ruger aren't far behind em either....
Thank god we still have a few companies that don't have so many mouths to feed.....like Kimber, Cooper, CZ, and even Sako to a degree....heck you might even add Nosler to that list....

Form dies, kids.

Yeah, forming Fireball brass may be something of a PITA but it beats looking for Remington factory brass these days. Especially if you're too cheap or broke to pay for more better Fireball brass from other companies.

Personally I have found making FB brass to be more of a therapy than a PITA. I like the home formed brass more than the factory fodder ever so slightly. Just would like to see this cartridge receive the attention that it deserves.
My gut tells me that it is just a matter of time B4 the likes of Nosler and or Hornady decide to offer ammo on a more regular basis.

Should ammo become more available and cost effective without the PITA forming process. Demand will then increase and a factory CZ and or Howa rifles will be available as well at a price the general public may afford.

IN the mean time I will enjoy getting out with the 17 Fireball and the reformed brass that works very well.
I like the 17 hornet also. I just feel the rimless 17 fb functions more reliably through a controlled round feed or push feed bolt action firearm. Thus I generally prefer the 17 FB.

I suppose I have offer my thanks to Remington for at least making this cartridge a
somewhat limited run production offering. and great big thanks to the likes of Redding, RCBS, Hornady for the dies they offer for this cartridge. Not wanting to over look a big thanks to Lee for my custom collet neck rising die. Hornady, Nosler & berger and Don't forget Nagel offer some fine bullets for the 17,s as well.

Guys have been enjoying this cartridge as the wildcat 17 Mach IV for many years B4 Remington altered that cartridge ever so slightly and made it a factory offering.

One way or another we will continue to enjoy this round for years to come.

I don't get lucky very often but I did find 7 bags of Fireball brass a couple years ago in my local gunshop. So far, I haven't had had to break into them. After a couple more trips to dog town, I may have to.

Break in? That shouldn't be a problem at all. If those are all from the same batch, you're set for life. A judiciously-loaded Fireball is easy peasy on brass.
Such a nifty cartridge...I am so grateful that Lil Gun came along when it did. Really brought it up to full potential.

17 or 221?

Dave: I assume you are talking about the 221? Do you prefer Lil gun in the 221 FB over Reloader 7 or A1680 for example?

What kicked me over to Lil Gun and a Fireball 221 was:
1. Not impressed with any Hornet I'd ever fired.
2. Really happy after being turned on to Blue Dot in the 223 thanks to James Calhoon and a couple of other Varmint Hunters Assn friends, such as Gary Lobe in Spokane, who is an absolute dead shot. He could hit stuff I couldn't even see, with Blue Dot loads.
3. Constantly thinking about a "fast, accurate Hornet" and having the Fireball suggested.
4. Then, both Mic McPherson and I think John Barsness reported ridiculous Fireball speeds with 40 grainers and Lil Gun. Then, Gary Lobe found me a full jug of the stuff at a great price. Shortly after, I had a visit with Steve and Karen Timm and they both lauded their Fireball experience.
5. Had just retired a problematic barrel that shot ONE bullet well with Blue Dot. Everything else skunked, but it would stack VM 40s in the same hole.
6. Then, the Stevens 200 hit the street, I had a Sharp trigger for the Savage 10, it fit the 200 -- so I had Fred Moreo chop the barrel back two inches and chamber for Fireball. All up, I had myself a Fireball "custom" rifle for about $550, and it's excellent.

Also excellent is the option of taking a tired 223 or other 22 cal barrel and giving it a long second life as a Fireball.

As for RL and 1680, I'm pretty much brand-loyal to Hodgdon because I've always had good results and never felt the need to shop around. LG meters great, shoots great right from the start -- so while I know others are delighted with 7 and 1680, I'm just as happy with LG and, you bet, good old BLUE DOT!

For anybody who's interested, MidwayUSA has Nosler .221 Fireball brass on a clearance sale right now, $64.81/100.

Not offering any sort of pissing contest though Powder valley has 100 count Lapua 221 Fireball brass available at there everyday price of $64.53. Monmouthreloading.com goes as low as $55.34 per 100 on .221 Lapua brass when you buy 400 pcs.


http://monmouthreloading.com/shop/lapua-221-fireball-brass/

I ask myself which one of these fine suppliers will be the firs to offer 17 Fireball brass?

They have a few hundred less in stock now

For those interested, remington is offering a $10 per box rebate on some types of ammo right now. And cabelas has premier varmint on sale right now. Including 221 fireball. Kind of a round about way of sourcing brass. But an option.