Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 221 Fireball velocity/pressure question

I recently put a 221 Fireball together. Some of may have seen the thread. I bought a new 22" LVSF take off barrel and an action. I had a local guy screw them together and everything turned out golden.

I bought some Lil Gun and started (and finished) working up a load. I'm shooting the Nosler 40gr Varmageddon in front of 15.5 grains of Lil Gun. The brass is RP and I'm using WSR primers. .020" off the lands....

Accuracy is excellent by my standards. I'm consistently getting 3/4" or better 5 shot 100 yard groups. My concern is this: velocity is averaging 3480 feet per second. I see absolutely no pressure signs. Typical ES is in the mid 30's.

Should I be concerned with this load? I was expecting maybe 3300ish. Is this velocity in line with you other 221 Fireball shooters? I have zero previous experience with this round.

The picture below is a 3 shot, 100 yard group with typical results. I'm very happy with the gun! The squares on the target are 1".

looked in my reloading records and see i am shooting 13.5gr of lil gun with a 35gr vmax and have noted 14gr as max.can't find any data on lil gun use in 221 in my loading manual

Ed

just checked on hodgon's data site they list 16gr of lil gun as max with a 40gr nos bullet at 48900 cup

Ed

shortactionsmoker,

Your load is fine.

I also run 15.5 grains with 40-grain bullets, and have tried it with several, including the Varmageddon. Velocity runs around 3450 from the barrel of my Remington 700 Classic, which probably has a somewhat looser throat than your barrel, also with excellent accuracy.

Thanks for the response John. Velocity was higher than I expected. I didn't see anything else alarming, so I wanted some feedback from other Fireball shooters.

Looks like I might have a good load!

Sorry guys! I already have first dibs on this one when or if he decides to sell.

I also run 15.5 LiL Gun with the 40 Hornady v-max in a model 700 classic. Velocity runs in the 3450 range with very good accuracy. Tried the Hodgon max of 16.0 and got a very high velocity increase to over 3600. Backed off that quick. Tried several different primers with the 15.5 load and was somewhat surprised to see velocity's stayed pretty close together. Best accuracy came with Fed small rifle match, with the CCI400 running a close second. All loaded in Rem. 221 brass with no pressure signs at all.

My go to load was with AA-1680, 7 1/2's, and moly plated 40 BT's at 3500 in a 24 1/2" barrel.

+one on the 1680

Ed

15.5 Lil gun behind a 40. gr. NBT for a solid 3500 fps out of a 22" barrel here. Sub 1/2" for five.

This one isn't going anywhere! I'll let you shoot it some though....

I'm liking the Fireball.

You'll like it even more after you whack some stuff with it!
Its little brother the .17 ain't bad either.

I use Reloader 7 in mine, at a leisurely 2950/50gr. or so. I have other rifles for going fast, this one is for giggles, and it shoots so well, I'm not about to change a thing.

My batch of Lil Gun make the rifle (a CZ) choke a bit, though it shot well, it blanked primers really badly, so I quit it quickly.

Kind of interesting how so many like 15.5 of LG under a 40. Me too.
The only thing I regret about having a Fireball is not getting it sooner. What a nifty unit.

There is a good article on the 221 fireball by John Haviland in the December 2011 issue of Handloader. He found Hodgdon's data for Lil'gun to be a bit too hot in his Sisk rifle. If you don't have access to the articel, PM me your email and I'll send it to you.

Thanks for the offer, but I have it. One of my favorite magazines....

Not to change the subject, but does any one else notice that John Haviland's velocities tend to be a little on the low side? In several of his articles I've noticed that he doesn't seem to load real hot.

He does appear conservative. On the other hand, I tried a load of Benchmark for the 260 Rem he wrote about and was getting BIG pressure signs 1 1/2 grains below his maximum. IIRC, his max was 40grs behind the Sierra 120gr PH. I could barely open the bolt at 38.5.

Each rifle is different though...

And by the way, thanks for that action. It's one that won't leave my stable!

As a 221 Fireball fan, and also a fan of VihtaVuori powders, I would like to try VV-130. On the burning rate charts it falls between 1680 and 4227, so it should work.

Has anyone tried VV-130, or have any load data for it? Thanks.

I haven't tried VV-130 in the Fireball, because I use my .221 for high-volume rodent shooting and ain't willing to pay VV powder prices when shooting hundreds of rounds a day, especially when other powders work so well.