Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Calling all 221 Fireball shooters.

If you own a rifle chambered in 221 Fireball, post your pics, stories, and results of shooting your fireball here. I am almost posative that when I order my Cooper Classic that will be my caliber choice. Had one as a kid but its been many years.

LVSF, re-stocked and bedded by me. Talley LW's and a 2.5x8x36 VX-3......Shoots in the low .3's @3400fps with 40gr B-tips and Lil' Gun. This is the first FB I have ever owned and it has been a blast. It is one of my favorite cartridges and to date this rifle has taken prairie dogs, coyotes, beaver, couple of groundhogs, racoons, a few red foxes, a pile of crows, a few Texas turkeys, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.. One day soon I intended to run a 45gr TSX into a deer just for grins......

I've been nothing but impressed with it's performance on all the above and I will never own another .22 Hornet. I've said it here before but I see absolutely no reason to punish yourself with anything Hornet when brass for the .221 is readily available! Much better cartridge in every aspect!!

It is a little hard on fox fur and 300yds is about the top end for coyotes but both shortcomings are to be expected from a 40gr bullet @3400.

My "holy grail" of FB's is a Lilja #2 @22", Bansner High Tech stock, built on an L461 action with a 2.5x8x36 VX-3. The Remington 700 is just way bigger than it needs to be for such a diminutive little round.

One day soon I will sell this great little rifle and build another .221 and a .17, both on L-461's or A1's.......



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Great write up and nice looking Fireball. Just how I imagine I would use this small but efficient little cartridge. Keep em comming.

I'm putting together a Fireball as I write. Barrel is on the way to the smith. Brux #1 1:12 @22" with the shank turned to 1.070 screwed onto a Sako L46. It's not a Vixen, but it is petite and seems a natural fit for the FB. I'm weighing stock options (literally), but I think Lonewolf will get the call, checked with Dick and McMillan doesn't have a stock for the inlet. She'll be topped with a 3x9 compact with a M1 ele in Leupold rings. I'll wait and see what she likes, but 52 A-Maxs are the plan and she'll get plenty of fox and lynx duty as they are prolific within a few miles of the homestead... Should prove a perfect snow-go companion.

15.5 Lil Gun, 40 gr. NBT. Never look back.

That's odd, I spoke to Ryan about this probably a year ago and he told me they could inlet any of their Sako patterns for a L-461......go figure??


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Bump, keep em comming.

I have a 700 Classic, and also use 15.5 grains of Li'l Gun and 40 BT's. Mostly I use it on ground squirrels and prairie dogs. I like it a LOT, and it's one of my favorite PD rifles, perfectly capable out to 350-400, about as far as most of us can hit 'em consistently--and you can watch everything through the scope.

But it hasn't caused me to get rid of my Hornets! And I also really like the .221's little brother, the .17 Fireball.

15.5 grains of powder??? You mean if I spent about 1K on a new rifle'scope combo...that I could save money reloading???

Color me "there"....!!


( that was actually the rationale I used for the deuce...might hafta come up with something different... )

last one was a Cooper varminter...shot great, Blitz Kings made it happy with Reloder 7. but, i didnt pack it around much though, i wanted something a bit trimmer, so i stuck a .221fb LVSF into a CDL stock. been just as happy with it.

also shoot a contender by Match Grade Machine, 16" barrel, topped with a 3-12x burris, and bith Lil gun or reloder 7 both make it happy with the hornady 45 spire point hornet bullet.

XP 100s in 221FB sure are expensive anymore.

I built mine on a 700ADL 222 that had been in an SUV accident. It took me a bit of work to get the old barrel out of the action. I used the old 1917 Enfield trick of working-down the barrel shoulder against the action. I used a Shilen #3 1 in 9 twist barrel blank. I took a great deal off of the breech end of the blank so that it would just fit into a Brown Precision stock.

It shoots real well!!! I used the 1 in 9 twist in the hopes that I'd try some 40 or 45 grain bullets with about 3 or 4 grains of Unique to shoot tree squirrels i.e. grays and fox squirrels. I have stuck with 50 grain Sierra Blitz bullets for ground hogs. I have either used AA2015 or 1680. I think 1680 gave me the highest velosity. 2015 may have been a bit more accurate. Field velosity not enough to know the difference. Both seem to be one-hole powders.

I have never bothered with any other bullet. You cannot argue with success, and as an old production man I don't see how Sierra or Hornady can make a more complicated bulet with a plastic tip and get better short range accuracy to 200 or 250 yards.

I put a cheap Simmmons scope on it of something like 4 to 12 or 6 to 16 power because it has an adjustable objective for parallax if I choose to go to low velosity and short range for squirrels. I think that i cut-and-crowned at 24 inches so that it best fit the length of the forearm of the stock, and ther is plenty to recrown if I re chamber in the future.

I tell everyone that when I get the peak accuracy knocked-off of the barrel (3500 rounds or so) that I'll rechamber to 223....

I'd like to think that I'm a thoughtfull, home gun plumber. I used a standard SAMI Clymer reamer.

Tom,

Yeah, 15.5 grains of powder and 3450 fps with a bullet that has a listed BC of .221. Basically it shoots as flat as a .223 with a typical soft- or hollow-point, because the BC's of those generally run around 50 points lower. The Ballistic Tip costs more than those bullets, but the difference in powder charge makes it pretty much a wash. And I can watch the bullets hit with the .221.

I keep comparing other bullets to the plastic-tips in the field, but the difference really is there at ranges past 200 yards. I do it every year, because there are always new bullets to test. This year I compared my standard Ballistic Tip load with a new hollow-point that's supposed to be super-explosive, with a sleek profile. The 100-yard accuracy and point of impact was the same, but the BT was noticeably better in the field. It not only shot flatter and drifted less in the wind, but splattered dogs even at 350+ yards. The HP didn't.

Have seen that over and over. Last year I compared the 40 plastic tips to the 30-grain Barnes Varmint Grenade. I can get 3800+ fps with the VG, and decent accuracy, but it loses all ambition beyond about 175 yards, and the plastic-tips don't. The Sierra BlitzKing and Hornady V-Max also work very well, and if anything are slightly more explosive than the Ballistic Tip.

Mine is a 700 LVSF which I cerekoted, after market trigger, and McMillan Classic stock. I load with AA1680 powder and use Sierra 40gr HP's.. It is fast and accurate.. It is a fun gun to shoot..I usually take it if I am setting up for bobcat..It also finds it's way into the truck most often when just out and about..as this ole hog can attest..

JB Ive been shooting 50 gr. Vmaxes in the .223AI and am VERY impressed at 300 yds...and have noticed the same thing you have in years past, shooting BTs and 60 gr. Vmaxes...they don't lose their "ambition" as easily as soft points...

the L-461 has significantly different bottom metal and their stocks are simply not properly proportioned to handle the detachable magazine.

There was a popular article a while back about 16 grs. Lil Gun in the Fire Ball and it is a oft touted load.
However in the article the author was getting 3400ish velocities.
16 grs. give mid 3500's to 3600+ in most rifles and noticeably looser primer pockets in one firing,IME. If only Lapua......
My son's LV SF got 3600+ with 16 grs. but I backed down to 15.5 grs and 3450 fps.
It is a woodchucks nightmare to 400 yards and a blast to shoot.
Here is a pic of a five shot group my boy shot getting it sighted in. Bone stock other than a Shilen trigger and likely able to do better on a bench.
Great cartridge.

FVA,

Yeah, even Hodgdon lists 16.0 grains of LG as max with the 40 Ballistic Tip--at 3384 fps! They must have had a slow lot. I tried 16.0 grains in my rifle (24" barrel) and got about 3575 fps. Accuracy wasn't as good as with 15.5 either.

Depending on the bullet, in my rifle gets 3400-3500 with 15.5, and shoots most bullets pretty well. Both Bergers and BlitzKings go well under an inch, but the Ballistic Tip averages around half an inch.

I just put a 2-ounce Jard trigger in my rifle this spring. Pretty slick, once you get used to it!

My next 'rat rifle for WA will be another .221.

Still got a ton of brass, dies, etc., so I can't see not scratching that itch again.

If the rifle XP-100 popped up, it might have to get got, too.

Your old one likes 18.5 grains of RL-7 and 40gr. BT seconds...