Just a question to figure out if I should go through with a purchase. I'm looking at a Tikka 595 in 222 Remington. I have no use for this cartridge, but I would like to rechamber it to 221 Fireball. How feasible is this to do? Is it simply a case of setting the barrel back and reaming it to the 221 Fireball and a little work on the magazine or is there more to it?

I suppose you could set the barrel back and rechamber but it may not feed.If you have no use for a 222..what are you going to do with a 221 Fireball?,just curious.

Rembo is right. The 221 & 222 are nearly twins, all except for the fact that the 221 is the popular twin right now.
The 222 is a GREAT cartridge and has won many benchrest matchs it its day. Keep the 222 and enjoy.
VH

Yap Dog, I want a .221 Fireball also. I figure it will fill the niche between my triple duece and Hornet very well. FYI, CZ announced it will be offering the 527 American chambered in .221 later this year. I just purchased a 527 in .22 Hornet and very pleased with it. Hope this helps.

The reason I want a rifle in 221 Fireball is because I have an XP-100 in it already. Because of Canada's wonderful laws on handguns, I can't hunt varmints with this unit. Therefore a rifle would be a logical next step. I was just wondering the best way to go about doing this. I already have dies and brass so this calibre is better for me than the 222.

Yap Dog: Whether you can set the barrel back enough to rechamber to Fireball depends on how much full-diameter barrel shank there is to work with. My guess is that it is doable, but you may find that afterward the barrel no longer fits the stock's barrel channel very closely due to having move the relative taper somewhat rearward. This may or may not be a problem, and would depend largely on the taper of the Tikka barrel.

As another alternative, the Remington 700 Classic is now available in Fireball, but I would prefer a much smaller action for this diminuative little round, like a Sako l461 or Mini Mark X or Kimber 84 (old style). Kimber even made a few .221's, but you'll pay through the nose for this rare bird. If money is no object, I think Cooper is offering their single shot in .221.

Thank you Stonecreek for your reply. This is exactly what I was looking for. I had a feeling that this would be the situation with the barrel not fitting the stock properyl. The reason I was looking at the Tikka is because I'm left-handed, and I saw one at a reasonable price in the 222 Remington. The Remington 700 Classic was very appealing, but I still like my bolts on the left side. The semi-custom manufacturers do make some of their models in left hand, but you are correct in that the price can become prohibitive. Still perhaps I should save my pennies for one of these rifles.

If you like the lefty Tikka, then you might consider having a new barrel fitted and chambered for .221. This wouldn't cost all that much more than setting back and rechambering the old barrel.

I may have "over cautioned" you about the fit of a reworked factory barrel. Actually, even with considerable setback, I think the free floated Tikka barrel channel would not have any particularly large gap. You'd just have to do some measuring and calculating to see.

The Tikka barrel is fairly unique in sporters in that it is fairly parallel for the first 6 inches or so. The barrel channel is normaly quite tight in tolerance so I think it would be hardly noticable.

I would check feeding with some dummy rounds! As a 222rem in a Tikka utilises the same length action as a 243 which itself has a lot of space (can fit 3"COL in the mag)you may run into problems feeding from the mag.

It is perfectly possible to get 221 fireball performance from the 222rem using published loads. Vihtavuori show VVN110 (around 17gr) for 40gr bullets giving around 3,100-3,200fps (max load)and a stock tikka 222 is likely to be very accurate indeed.