Waiting for my VV barrel and got busy match preping 50 cases. I'm going to start out with Re-7. I have Starke, Berger and Shilen bullets to start with. Anyone have good advise on load for 221. I have redding body die and wilson dies on order. Its been several years since I loaded for 221 as I remember I used H4198 and had good results. Thanks

tommyn,

I have tried several powders and bullets with my old 10" octagon barrel.

I have tested,
WW748, H110, W296, AA1680 with Nosler 40, 50 B-Tips and Sierra's 50 Blitz, 40 Hornet, 40 & 50 Blitzkings.

Best groups in my barrel so far are the 40 Blitzkings and AA1680. I have yet to chrono them and not shot any chucks so i cannot speak for performance, just accuracy.

Lyman recommends a load of approx 10 grains of WW748 for a subsonic load. This powder is WAY too slow for the fireball but would make a nice squirrel load. It is dirty, loading density is low but it did shoot well for me.

H110 & W296 are too fast. 50 yard accuracy is good but 100 is lousy. Groups are in the 2" range.

The Fireball is one fun caliber to develope loads for......

Tommyn, When I first bought my 221 Fireball barrel, I asked guys for their favorite powder for it. The most commonly rec'd powders at the time were (in no particular order): RL 7, AA 1680, and 4227. My load development was VERY BRIEF because the combination of IMR 4227 and Hornady 40 V-Max bullets did SOOO well. Mine is a 12" Contender barrel from VVCG. I started off just using what I had on hand--40 gr V-Max bullets, H 110 and IMR 4227. At 100 yds, H 110 wouldn't hardly stay on a notebook-sized sheet of paper; 17.0 gr (2940 fps) and 17.5 gr (3020 fps) of 4227 both did VERY well; former shot 2 (3) shot groups averaging 0.6" while latter shot 0.8". I used Rem 7 1/2 primers in virgin Rem brass that had receieved "match preparation" (primer hole uniformed, flash hole deburred, and case neck uniformity <0.002"); loaded OAL was 1.935", 0.02" off the lands. I settled on the above two loads after only a total of only 18 rounds through it! Of all the guns I've worked w/, I've NEVER had such promising loads SO QUICKLY. I've got to hand it to VVCG--looks like they "done me good" w/ this barrel. Haven't shot any live game w/ it yet, but hope to soon! Gary T.

[ 08-05-2002, 18:21: Message edited by: Gary T ]

Thanks for the info. Now for the hard part just waiting for the barrel. I'm not going to hunt with the barrel just target shoot so I will probably stay with the 52gr match bullets but I do have some Starke 45 gr and Berger and Hornady 40gr bullets on hand.

Tommyn,
Are you still looking for 221FB data? If so email me goforit40@msn.com
I finally found a floppy disk that I same 221 FB data on from varminthunters.com page. It is in jpeg and I can't post it here.

AA1680 (in my experience) is THE powder for the 221FB. Great accuracy, good velocity, clean burning.
T.D.

I want to thank everyone for their replys. Should have the barrel here this week. I have some little gun and short cut H-4198 on hand and will try Re-7 and 1680 if these don't work out like I want.