Took my new .221 Fireball toy to the range for it's "first" workout. Can't hit "jack" at close range.(100 yds.) Need to work more on that. 300 yards? Now thats a different story! Almost 200 rounds fired. 190 of them went "ding".This new toy took everything I had loaded and worked like a champ. I had everything between 18.5 and 21.0 grains of powder with 35gr.soft point to 55gr. FMJ.I use only AA2230C in all my rifles.I tried some Lil Gun but was not impresses. (Will need more work on that)! The main thing that I had planned to do was sight the rifle in and burn some ammo. Cleaned after a few rounds and then did some real shooting. A little more recoil than I had expected with a 15 lb. rig but backing the power down on the scope gave me a better bullet strike picture.(not a pack gun for sure) All in all a good day at the range. The potential of this rifle leaves me wanting more! Lots of load work and sight tinkering to do but thats the fun of it! I think I have a "keeper"! Mike. (maybe again tomorrow)

NorCalMike: Are you firing your 221 Fireball for group at 100 yards or just a gong or something?
Good luck in your load development!
If you are firing for group - what size groups were you getting there at 100 yards?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG: My mian thing was to fire this new rifle for the first time. Waited 6 months for the stock to show up. Had the barreled action for about 3 months.
I got the scope centered on the big cross I had put up for a target. Got the windage centered. Elevation was way off at 100 yards, so I just moved over to the 330 yard steel target.(couldn't resist the temtation) I wanted to see if this thing would shoot. And did it ever! The barrel was very easy to clean.The plan is to go back and work on the targets at 100 yards and also work up some loads. Like I had said, it took everything that I had loaded up and worked like a champ. Seems like it was shooting about 8" to 10 " high at 100 yds. Too busy having fun to pay too much attention. Now that I got that out of my system I can concentrate on loads and accuracy. At least I got to fire it!