Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Can anybody help me - 221 FB

Hi, I have a problem.I wanted to make a 221 fireball from a Savage 10-110. It is a new gun. I got the barrel cut and chambered for a 221 fireball. It shoots very well. the problem is. the magazine doesn't work with the short bullets. a friend of mine made a single shot carrier with JB weld or something like that. It works but i don't like it. I thought about trying to make other magazines work inside. I called others - Brownell - and nobody has an answer.
has anyone had this problem? I don't want to go back to a 223 because i have cut and formed 800 cases for the 221. If someone can help me, i sure would appreciate it.

Thank you

I've got a Fireball built on a Stevens 200. It's pretty much a single shot, which doesn't bother me. Shoots great, more killing.
If I did this again, I'd look for a claw-extractor, Mauser style ejector setup because the cases are so short. I reduced the tension on the ejector spring and cases eject properly about HALF the time. Stock spring, they just went cattywampus and died inside the receiver ring.
As for magazine feeding, somewhere along the line I'm going to hunt down some cheap pistol magazines or even 30 Carbine hardware and start chopping and hacking and zapping tin. If you can get a Carbine follower and spring to fit in the FRONT of the mag box with a good spacer, that should work. ANOTHER thing to try is an ejector in the rear space, make a slot in the lower left quadrant of a "experimental" bolt head.
Hmmm. Maybe this winter. And if it works, I'll be RICH.

Richethec, I'd find me a good Mauser gunsmith. They are used to dealing w/short cartridges. They have all manner of knowledge on spacers, cutting followers and springs to match. It's just a thought but in my experience a sound one. powdr