221 fireball

Looking at my reloading records for 221Remington Fireball, I’ ve had good success with 40 grain bullets and Accurate 1680 as well as 50 grain bullets with H322.

I tried and did not like Reloader #7, Lil Gun, and IMR 4227.

I tried some H4198 and it did ok but 1680’and H322 meter better.

I have a Remington 700 and a Contender with a 22” Bullberry barrel chambered in 221 Remington Fireball. The Contender is a bit less finicky on bullet choice than the Remington.

You will just have to experiment some.

The Feb. 2022 issue of Shooting times has an article on reloading for the 221 Fireball. Powders listed are Lil-Gun,Acc.1680, Norma 200,IMR4198,Reloader 10, Acc. 2015, and IMR 4227,
ACC. means Accurate.

H&R Glock said:

The Feb. 2022 issue of Shooting times has an article on reloading for the 221 Fireball. Powders listed are Lil-Gun,Acc.1680, Norma 200,IMR4198,Reloader 10, Acc. 2015, and IMR 4227,
ACC. means Accurate.

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Seems like nobody can decide what prefix to use for Accurate Powders. Some manuals just use the number with no prefix. Others use AA as a prefix. Hornady spells out Accurate plus the number. I tend to use AA myself. I don't know why nobody uses AP. That would seem to make the most sense.

Accurate was at one time was known as Accurate Arms and Machine, a gun shop that sold surplus powders. By the 1980s, it had been incorporated in Tennessee as Accurate Arms.

The AA prefix for their powders is probably a hold over from those days.

Along the way, they became part of Western Powders and now Hodgdon.

What powders do you have aside from Benchmark?

flatsticks said:

Hello and good day everybody.

Looking to see what powder you have had sucess with when loading for the 221 fireball cartridge.

My Dad has one that he is not using and said i shoould get it back in action .

I have benchmark , which seems like it migh be descent.

new nosler brass is available so I can just pick up 100 of those.

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W296, 2400, and IMR 4227 are all I’ve ever used. Sold my Contender barrel in .221 a while back. I kinda had to give up on it. Bad eyes. Couldn’t see the dang bullets anymore.

flatsticks said:

I have benchmark , which seems like it migh be descent.

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Benchmark may be a bit slow for 221 Remington Fireball.

On the Hodgdon's Burn Rate chart, it is listed right next to H335. I did find reload data for H335 but not Benchmark.

I am not a fan of using the Burn Rate charts to determine if a powder is usable for a particular cartridge. The charts are interesting but not really useful.

My search was not exhaustive. I did not get off my rear an go down to my reloading room to look though my bookshelf full of reloading manuals. From internet searches, I did find some searches that had 221 Rem FB and Benchmark mentioned in the same search result but I did not see any conclusive information when I opened the result's website.

Separate from the Burn Rate position, powders do react differently from other powders listed close on the Burn Rate chart once reloaded in a cartridge. It is one of the reasons that companies may not publish data for a particular powder. The powder may have undesirable effects in a particular cartridges.

Do some more searches, maybe someone will chime in with some information on using Benchmark with 221 Rem FB.

Without any published load data from a reputable source, I would not venture out into unknown territory.

flatsticks said:

Some good advice so far on the benchmark thank you .

Right now Ionly have a couple powers , Benchmark, cfe223, IMR3031, othert than thar slower stuff like, H4350 and small amount of varget I saved for 223 heavier gr bullets.

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3031 is actually a good choice for the Fireball in a rifle. From a handgun length barrel it’s a little slow. Most Lymans manual have data for IMR 3031.

Maybe I missed it, but what kind of rifle do you have?

Be a touch careful with 3031. You don't usually see it in data for much smaller cases than the 22-250 although I know it's been used some in the 223. It's a bit slower than the typical sweet spot powder for the 221. The sweet spot centers up around IMR/H 4227.

flatsticks said:

Not totally sure on the complete rifle build, it is custom from a local gunsmith done a while back.

Will have to see if Dad remembers the details , he would have written information down like he always does.

Used to be the primary woodchuck gun.

Good to hear 3031 might be a descent option to start with .

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Did you get more details on the rifle? I found a bunch of loaded .221Rem in among my loaded ammo. Plan is to pull the bullets and punch out the primers before posting the bullets and brass on pay it forward.