Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 221 Fireball

Just screwed a fireball bbl ( heavy )onto a savage model 11 action , Cking the load charts looks like 4198 is the powder, I hate stick powder anyone tell me what the best ball powder would be will use 40 - 50 gr bullets

I've had good luck with AA1680 and 40gr V-Max's.

I've had excellent luck with Li'l Gun with both 40's and 50's. Excellent accuracy and velocities, and it's ball.

I tried a bunch of different powders after getting my rifle, and while some others worked well, Li'l Gun worked best with all bullet weights. (Of course that's just one rifle.) The load I settled on was 15.5 grains with a 40-grain bullet, for 3400-3450 depending on the bullet and 5 shots in 1/2" to 3/4" at 100, again depending on the bullet.

I'll second that.

Li'l Gun and light Ballistic Tips make for a fun little rifle!

Another easy-measuring favorite in the Fireball is RL-7.

Lil Gun but AA1680 worked pretty good with a little more velocity with 40 grain NBT.

Yep, little gun and RL 7 super for a super little gun. Worked for me and both shot way under an inch in my CZ.

Lil Gun -- period. I have a 1-14 recycled barrel screwed on a Stevens 200 and have the exact same load as John does, 15.5 under 40s. Half inch shooter all the time, not bad for 500 bucks lock stock scope trigger and barrel.
And, if you have Blue Dot, that works too.
But be cautious. That's a small case and tenths matter. But get it right and boy, you'll be delighted.

+1
RL7 works well with 50gr Rem PLHP bullets in my Vixen.

have had good luck with 1680.

Ed

Mine does its best work with IMR 4227 and the 40 gr Berger HP at about 3200 fps. The Sierra 40 gr Blitzking and HP Varminter are almost as good.

Thanks Gentlemen I have some W680 guess Ill try that & a Small bit of lil gun enuf to try

As a 20+yr shooter/reloader of the fantastic Fireball, I've tried a lot of powders. But several yrs ago the AA1680 load under any of the poly-tip 40gr pills became the best go-to load for either of my Fireball rifles. Very fast AND accurate.
RL-7 or LilGun are close seconds. AA's 2200DP also works well, and maybe the new 2200 will also.
I seldom use the 50's, but did find good loads using H322 or AA2015.
Several new powders have come out that are likely applicable, but I doubt I'll move away from 1680.

I always keep an extra 5 pounds of RL-7 around for my 221 Fireball.

I have about 250 rounds of 221 loaded with the last pound of 680 that I had. I worked it up from 16 grns and ended up with the same amount of powder that I use in my AA1680 load. I don't know if it was a fluke or if 680 and 1680 were(are) that similar in burn rate.The 680 load is a lttle bit faster and a hair more accurate.

Add me to the RL-7 list, outstanding stuff.

AA1680 for me

I'm wondering what kind of powder charges all the RL-7 and AA1680 fans are using.

As noted earlier, I tested a pile of bullets and powders in my rifle (a 700 Classic) and never could close to Li'l Gun velocities with either RL-7 or 1680. Published data was used for all the load work-up, and even a slightly below-max charge of 15.5 grains of Li'l Gun and the 40-grain Ballistic Tip beat the max load of RL-7 by 100 fps and 1680 by over 300 fps.

In fact I couldn't beat my .22 Hornet velocities with 1680, at least with published data, though my Hornet does have a 26" barrel.

I use 18-18.5 grains of R-7, but I don't really put an emphasis on speed. Think it clocks just under 3,200 with a 24" barrel.

I have too many 222's to worry about it!

I use 19.5gr of 1680. Have pushed it up to 20.8 but accuracy suffers noticeably. 19.5 behind a 40 gr VMax is right at 3450fps out of a well broke(23 years old) stainless Douglas barrel, 14 twist, 22 inches long.
This load is from Accurate's loading data from a few years back, specifically for rifles. I see that they now have no data what so ever for the 221 in their online web site.