Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 221 fireball or 223?

Hi I am new to the forum. I just saw a BDL in 221 fireball and picked it up. It came with dies, brass and a brand new mounted Leupold vari x 2 3x9. The gun was in great shape, 95%? but had been threaded for a can. I ran out of the shop foe 625, yea? Looked like a good buy, the SA feels wonderful in the hands. I am going to load up some 221 fireball and see how she shoots. Anyone have any favorite loads? I was thinking of putting on a take off 223 barrel or maybe a match barrel on her. Is it worth adding yet another reload caliber to the reload bench/ project list? Never played with the fireball, wish me luck! Thanks.

Welcome. Love my Fireball. Try 1680 and a 40 grain V Max.

If you are gonna re-barrel look at the .20 VartTarg.

FireBall is a good little round.

If turning into a 223, be sure it will feed and eject loaded rounds and empties (with a .223 mag box)....the ejection plunger is in a different location for the shorter case.

Stick with the Fireball. Great little round.

I have a box (20 rounds)and a part of loaded .221 Fireball ammo 40gr Vmax molyed over 20.5 gr 1680 if anyone wants them the are free for the asking I no longer have that rifle

I would love to have them. sounds like the fireball is a winner! Thanks

nice score highdesertcentralor

highdesertcentralor,

Welcome to the Campfire!

I actually prefer the .221 to the .223 for most uses. I primarily use smaller varmint rounds for shooting abundant rodents like ground squirrels or prairie dogs, and a sporter-weight .221 allows you to see the bullet impact through the scope, while sporter-weight .223's usually don't. Plus, the .221 uses less powder and barrel life is longer. The only downside is finding brass, but if you look around and stock up it's no big deal, and it can be made from .223 cases.

The .221 will also take larger varmints as well.

Pm me your info and I'll send them off to you

A subject near and dear to my heart, the FIREBALL!!
My friend, do not let anyone talk you into butchering the perfect rifle into one of those other less desirable cartridges. Shoot your Fireball with GREAT confidence that it will kill cleanly out to 400 or 500 yards. It will serve you well.
My favorite load is 18.7-19 grains of RL7 and a Nosler 40 grain ballistic tip. For my rifle, it shoots a little over an inch at 200 yards. You can usually score a hit on a squeekers head if you can spot his beady little black eye staring at you from deep inside the short grass. You will kill coyotes like lightning because you will have so much confidence in your little cartridge.
FYI, you simply MUST make your trigger pull as light as possible to get the most out of this cartridge. AS has been noted, light recoil makes staying on target possible with a sporter weight rifle. Very important to me.
Velocities of the Fireball do not heat the barrel like faster cartridges and you won't feel guilty smoking off 100 shots in a row.
Simply put, the .221 Fireball is what other cartridges wish THEY were, not the other way around.

After you shoot and hunt with the Fireball for anything from coyotes down, I think you'll be in love. I have both a .17 Fireball and a .223. The Fireball goes with me 95% of the time unless I'm only planning to see coyotes. The .221 would be the perfect tweeter for these calibers. I 'd put my money into a higher power scope before buying another barrel.

Years ago I was out shooting gophers in Central Montana and a landowner showed me a cartridge he used on them. It was the new 221 Remington Fireball. At that time it was only available in a pistol (XP-100). When I got home I found a Ruger in 223 Rem and had it rechambered to 221 Fireball. It was great for gophers and prairie dogs. Like mentioned in this thread, you can shoot many more rounds than a 223 before the barrel heats up.

I no longer have a 221 Fireball, but my 20 Vartarg (20-cal Fireball) is so sweet that I probably will never go back to the Fireball. Enjoy what you have. Get a good high-powered scope and a good light trigger. Rifle Basix makes a good drop-in trigger.

I have three .221 Fireballs and a .17 Mach V (basically the .17 Fireball). The first one I got is a custom build on a L461 Sako that is a wonderful little rifle that has accounted for many a PA fall turkey and woodchucks, the second is a M700 Classic in the special run they did years ago and the third is a TC Contender with a 10 inch barrel. The thing the three have in common (other than the chambering)is they are ALL incredibly accurate, economical and just plain fun to shoot!

FWIW I have one .223 (AR) that is great but what I can't do it with the .221 I can do it with my .250-3000. I really can't think of a thing that the .221 can't do that the .221 can - FOR ME anyway

I am a BIG Fireball fan!
PennDog

One of my favorite forms of varmint hunting is to fill my pockets full of cartridges and wander off in search of pdogs, jackrabbits, sage rats, etc. For that use I really love the .221 Fireball. I have a classic 700 that carries easily and shoots lights out.

Out to 300 yards or so I can't think of a better option.

HD,
You now have joined the ranks of the really cool people. The Fireball is truly underrated, just a joy to shoot and even more of a joy if you are a sage ratter.
Others like 1680, I have had super good results with Lil Gun and Blue Dot under both 35s and 40 plastic tippers. Only caveat is, it is a high performance, small case, and picky about how much powder is too much. But when you get it right (carefully), it's sweet.

let's try this again, loaner computer is crashing...

less diplomatic, but the 223...

can do all the real world things a Fireball does... can be loaded to Fireball specs ( which are awfully useful)...

if you want a Fireball Magnum, just load to regular 223 specs...

brass is a lot easier to find and a lot more cost effective...

But the Fireball is NIFTY, Seafire.
Like I started downloading the 223 with BD because I had situations where the 223 was overkill and I didn't want a Hornet...
So now I have to wonder just how cool you really are.

Been out of town there Dave for the last week...

If brass was available... I have to acknowledge the cool factor in the Fireball.. but to my way of thinking that 'cool' factor starts with 17 caliber bullets in a Fireball case, and ends with a 20 caliber bullet in it....

have always thought a 19 caliber Calhoon bullet in a Fireball case would be kind of cool also...

A bullet velocity out of a 221 Fireball rifle will be more than a 22 Hornet but a little less than a 222 Rem rifle. I don't know why anyone would get a Hornet after 221s were available in a rifle. My rifle likes Re 7 with a 40 Gr bullet. I used my Fireball for shooting prairie dogs and jack rabbits but the rang is somewhat limited when compared to the 220 Swift ,204 Ruger, and 17 Rem cartridges.

Because the Hornet has class. 3000+ fps from 13 grains of powder.