Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 221 Fireball questions

Not to steal the thread away from the OP, but here’s a better pic. He was pretty big. Earliest I’ve ever killed one too. February 13th


boy waiting for girl images

Remington moved the location of the ejector on those rifles chambered on the fireball case, like 17 fireball and the 221 fireball. The ejector is in a different spot on those chambered on the 223 case.

Ky221: Wow! That indeed IS a "double chubby Chuck"!
Good for you and thanks for sharing the great pictures.
I shot my first "Rock Chuck" at age 10 (eastern Oregon) and over the intervening 62 years have probably killed at least 10,000 (ten thousand!) more.
I have wanted to kill a "Wood Chuck" for well over half a century now - it has been on my "bucket list" so long I keep passing over the urgency of "getten'er done" as I am now well into my 7th decade.
Maybe once this corona virus thing has passed I will saddle up the old VarmintMobile and head east for the Wood Chuck haunts?
Yep gotta get to work on that bucket list - I ain't gettin no younger!
Thanks again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

That’s neat. I’d love to hike up into some of that high country and shoot at a few marmots or rock chucks or whatever it is that y’all callem lol.

If a woodchuck is on your bucket list. You should by all means get on that. I can’t speak for the rest of the eastern states but around here. The good old days of ground hog hunting are long gone. We still have several but they mostly live close to inhabited areas, in and around barn lots, under old barns etc. the days of catching a woodchuck out in the middle of farmer johns hayfield and shooting him from 200+ yards with your 22-250 seem to be a thing of yesteryear. We still have the fields but people keep them manicured like a golf course these days. I imagine that with the ever increasing number of coyotes, the woodchucks have learned that being close to people ain’t a bad thing. I shoot a couple each year, but only those that wonder into the barn lot or pasture field where the cattle and horses are. Which is there this guy was. I’ve got a new 17remington and 17 hornet that I’m itching to whop a whistlepig with, so hopefully one finds his way into the field again this summer.

I imagine there’s still some good woodchuck hunting in Virginia, and Tennessee. Also I’d say central Ky, but here in the eastern part of the state. I’m not so sure it would be worth a drive.

Ky221: Thanks for the tips on the "whistle pigs"!
I appreciate them.
Keep after'em.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I think I'll go with a LH 527 that I have. It's a 223 but I found some 221 FB mags on ebay.

The 527 has a Mauser style ejector and slot, right? I've never handled one, so I dunno.

Dave, if you mean a slot in the lug opposite the extractor and a blade ejector, yes. It flips the cases to the side.

So would the 527 have any 221 FB ejection issues, when coming from a 223?

My Sako was a set back and rechambered 222 magnum. It works much better in Fireball than the parent cartridge in the little Sako action. Been a staple for me for about three decades.

No it will not.

Thanks Sherm.
Next question: Is there a reason to get a faster than 1-12 twist bbl?

Fireball2, I sure wish that I'd been gun savvy enough to have done that with my old Sako Vixen L461 .222 Remington Magnum and turned it into something that I could have actually bought ammunition for.

I would run an 11 twist. A 12 will work for 32 grainers and it will be iffy with 39-40. Some 12's shoot 39-40 some dont.
An 11 is a better option.

All of mine have been 12twists and I never had any issues shooting 40s or 50s. My 221s shot both with equal accuracy

Can’t see any reason to shoot anything larger than a 50g bullet out of the little 221 case. And it really shines with 40s.

I don’t know of any 32g bullets that are .224.

thanks to both of you. Ky221, you don't need to answer my pm. You answered it for me.

I thought you were referring to a 20 cal. For a 22 12 will be fine.

Thanks.

To this posters point - I had a 700 SA that had a Krieger #2 or so in FB. Extraction was not 100%....I always drop the firing pin when rifle is pointed in the air..........yep.......be careful to check your chambers before you call it a day at the range or field. 40 Vmax over Lil Gun was Flat and Fast...and that gun was a bughole gun. Loved the 221, and like the 222, personally I feel a fast 40 is the way to go. Just me, they work! The industry should have more 221s and 222s.......they ALWAYS shot circles around any and every 223 I owned.

The .221 is made for 40's. Doing 3450 in my gun they're very accurate and do a great job on varmints. Through a 14TW barrel. I suppose you could go with a 12 twist but it's really not necessary.
About .extraction problems on a regular 700.....the gun I set up for .17MIV was a .223 with an unchanged bolt. Shorten the extractor spring to where the case doesn't go flying but just falls out, and that little case extracts just fine.