Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 221 Fireball questions

I have some duplication in my small caliber battery and am considering a re-barrel job to a 221 Fireball.
My candidates are:
Hawkeye 204
A-Bolt 223
X-Bolt 223

I know the OAL of the 221 is shorter than the 223 & 204. My question is will there be any issues in feeding the shorter Fireball cartridges from these mags?

OSU Sig: I am not familiar with re-barreling any of your candidate Rifles.
I am familiar though with several Rifles in 221 Remington Fireball cartridge and they are all WAY above average in the accuracy department.
I know of two Remington 700's in caliber 223 Remington that were re-barreled to 221 Remington Fireball - these belong to friends and are Colony Varmint Rifles - both feed correctly/reliably - I will have to contact them to see if the magazines were or were not modified to the 221 Fireball.
In the past I bought 2 (two) new factory offered Rifles in caliber 221 Remington Fireball - again both shoot VERY well indeed.
One is a single shot Kimber if Oregon Ultra-Varmint and the other is a Remington 700 Classic in 221 Fireball - it feeds fine from the magazine.
An old friend of mine about 25 years ago contacted the Remington Custom Shop and begged them to take his money and make him a Remington 40XB-KS in 221 Remington Fireball. Finally they did and he let me shoot the Rifle at the range on a dead calm day. The groups I (we) fired that day are some of the best groups I have ever had anything to do with from a "factory Rifle"!
I guess the object of my post is to urge you to give this cool little cartridge a try! Its efficiency, accuracy, brass life, barrel life and low recoil are wonderful attributes in my experience.
Finally I like the 204 Ruger cartridge immensely as well, and seeing's you have a pair of 223's I vote you re-do one of them.
Best of luck with whichever route you go - just GO!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy, its always good to get your input. Thank you. Like you, I love my 204's but with 3, I have one extra I can do something with. I have a 700 SPS Varmint in 17 Fireball that is a blast to shoot. I suspect the 221 FB will be more of the same.

Thanks again,

Sig.

My 221's are both on Sako L461 actions. Those actions are for .223 and even I believe 222Mag. They feed the 221 as if the action was meant for that cartridge. But I'm not familiar enough with the guns you mention to know how well they'd work. In the 90's I did modify a Rem. 700 magazine for 17MIV. Made a thicker spacer block and altered the spring and a solid follower. It worked beautifully and ejected just fine, there was no problem with the extractor position. You could do something like that as last resort. But the small Sako or some other short action really makes a nice rifle for that cartridge.

Thanks Ackman. The Hawkeye is a controlled feed compared to a push feed on the Brownings.

OSU Sig: You are welcome - I did not know you had a "bevy" of 204's - no reason then not to try the Ruger in a 221 Remington Fireball.
Again best of luck and you will LOVE the 221 Fireball.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

only thing better than the 221 FB.........

20-Fireball (Vartarg)

https://www.accurateshooter.com/cartridge-guides/20caliber/

Oh man!...
You are NOT being helpful..

How about the .222. They have a reputation of being accurate. I always thought it would be great to have one. I currently have an XP100 in the furball.

kwg

I have a 222 and the reputation is warranted.

I vote for either 20VT or 20 SCC (20VTAI)

Another option that I KNOW works well with the Fireball, is a regular short action Howa. A buddy built one on a Howa, with a PacNor full bull barrel (1,25"). That thing would SHOOT, you had to fight it to get a group over a quarter-inch. Gawd only knows what it would have done with a good trigger! It fed and extracted like a champ, too. No alterations necessary.


Jim got bored with it, and swapped it off for something else, an LVSF in .17 Remington, I think.

I have a Fireball in a CZ 527, I think it's the most accurate factory rifle I've ever owned. Just feed it Reloader Seven and any bullet 52gr, or under, and it shines.

A terrific little cartridge, but one that gets absolutely no respect from the media, rifles normally chambered for it, no local availability of commercially loaded ammunition and higher prices for it when you do find it. I've got a Cooper .221 Fireball that is a great choice for Wisconsin because our varmints aren't so big or abundant as in other places and the distances where we can shoot are usually full of trees. The Fireball was named correctly given the flash that I saw coming out of a friend's XP100, but in a rifle it is a real joy to shoot. Less noise and recoil than a .223 or .22-250 with longer case life. More oomph than a Hornet or K-hornet and it doesn't blow around like a .17 something. Given what I've seen since I bought my Fireball, I should have probably opted for a .222 or .223 because I fear my Fireball is going the way of my old .222 Remington Magnum. A great cartridge with no visible means of support.

My choices are more limited as I shoot left hand rifles so the Howa is not an option. I'll be choosing from my battery of Brownings and a Ruger and I feel pretty good about the 221FB. Thanks for all the ideas and information.

Idk why so many people get hung up on “feeding”
It’s not feeding you will have issues with. It will pickup the round and chamber just like any other cartridge. It will even eject it just fine so long as you didn’t FIRE IT.

The problem is the short little case youre left with after the bullet is gone. Most likely it will pull the case out and instead of flipping it out the side, it will flip it over backwards in the port. If you’re shooting off the bench at paper or at some little varmint it’s a non issue. But if you’re calling critters, it will cause a major jam up if you don’t notice it and try to rack another one in the chamber.


The CRF of the Ruger might help but after owning 2 700s in the 221fb, I’ve sworn off 223 length actions for fireball length cartridges. No one loves 700s and 221fbs more than me. But the two together is no good.

My 221 is a CZ and it gives me ZERO issues. It’s the perfect little repeater.

As for extraction issues, I ground a couple of coils off the ejector spring of my Fireball on a Stevens 200. Magazine fed single shot, sorta. I sometimes wonder if a mini-Mauser would work, like a CZ? Love the Fireball, since Lil Gun came out it's been pure pleasure.
And yep, maybe what I would do is cut back one of the 204s to VT or VT AI. That would probably be pretty awesome. Someday......

CZ no longer chambers the 221 in their 527. Mine would be one of the last rifles I ever part with. The 527 solves all of the issues of feeding, extraction and ejection.

Ky221: I am puzzled at your problems with the 221 Fireball fired cases not extracting/ejecting properly.
My Remington 700 Classic in 221 Remington Fireball functions perfectly? But I am speaking here from personal experience of my one Fireball and that friends Remington 40XB-KS in 221 Remington Fireball and a couple of Remington 700 re-barreled 223's.
Thanks for posting/sharing that great picture of the "Ground Hog" (?) and your Rifle.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
P.S.: I am editing this post to add the fact that I also have an all factory stock Remington Model 700 VSF (Varmint Syntehtic Fluted) in 17 Remington Fireball and it feeds, extracts and ejects perfectly also.
Maybe, as one poster added later on in this thread, that Remington "changed the position of the ejector in their Rifles chambered in Fireball calibers" and that obviously cured any problems with the Fireballs functioning(?).

That’s a big woodchuck!

Model 700 LS
Model 700 LVSF

BOTH had the exact same problems I just spoke of. Again. It’s not a feeding issue. It’s not an extraction issue. It’s an EJECTION issue with empty cases. Do a search and you will see that many of the 700 221FB owners have complained over the same thing I am. If you have a 700 that actually tosses EMPTY cases up and out of the port then that’s great. But MOST do not.
Both of these rifles shot very well, and the LVSF was stupid accurate. But because of the issues with kicking out the empties. Both went down the road. The last time I had the LVSF out, it cost me getting a much needed follow up shot on the coyote in the picture. It’s a shame but that’s just the way it is with the 700 action and the short case. I’m glad yours works . Hang onto that thing. I wish mine would have been more reliable.

Read here http://www.saubier.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-21995.html