The Fireball,
Fond Memories: Part II M.L. McPherson
my friend and this is about that friend- ship, I will refer to him by his given name rather than by his family name. Synopsis: The family of Roger
A
Hazlewood, my late friend, gave me his custom 221-Fireball-chambered, short-action Remington 700 – a gun that Roger referred to as, “The Fireball.” In this, Part II, of this article, I cover a con- tinuation of load development work that
s in Part I, for this piece, be- cause Roger Hazlewood was
I began with this particular rifle about ten years ago. As the last three conversa- tions that Roger and I had were about handloading, it turns out that while developing the loads reported here I was fulfilling one of his last requests by testing new bullets and propellants in The Fireball. MAKING MORE FOND MEMORIES Roger could never bring himself to
spend any money to put a better scope on The Fireball, but he did talk about it.
When I showed him my 17 Ackley Hor- net with a Burris 4½x14-42mm Fullfield II scope with the Ballistic Plex reticle installed, Roger commented, “That sure would be a good scope for The Fireball.” So, because I could not stand not giv- ing this special rifle the quality scope it deserves, I fulfilled that goal. I know that Roger approves. I mounted this scope using Burris
Signature Zee rings, which are superior to any other system for scope mounting
Roger Hazlewood at the Cortez Rifle and Pistol Club outdoor range, circa 2009, posing with his AR-15. We were testing the special, biased, AR-15 LAW Brake (Lightweight Air Working). When firing loads with 40-grain bullets, this brake drove the muzzle slightly downward; with 55s, muzzle rise was essentially zero; and, with 62s, the gun exhibited slight muzzle rise. In all instances, recoil was essentially zero (the rearward-pointing ports vent gas rearward, which pulls the gun forward, thereby canceling much of the recoil), and the rocket nozzle design of each port reduces noise so effectively that adding this brake made this gun far quieter than it was with the standard so-called flash suppressor installed.
Page 50 Winter 2013
Above photo: 22 caliber bullets tested in this study, left-to-right: Hornady 35 NTX (properly moly-plated using the aqueous method – I plated all tested bullets thusly – and naked); Nosler 35 BT-LF; Barnes 36 VG; Hornady 40 V-Max; Nosler 40 BT; and Sierra 40 BK. These modern varminting bullets extend useful Fireball varminting range far beyond what anyone would have suspected two decades ago. Because frangible bullets (at left) are longer (despite being lighter), when used in a typical chamber (with a throat that is typically far too long), these allow for adequate seating depth without creating excessive bullet-to-rifling jump. Because cores of frangible bullets are harder and have some elastic strength, these also are less sensitive to bullet-to-rifling jump and to the misalignment that results from bent cases and asymmetric case necks. Generally, it is relatively easy to develop accurate loads with these bullets (see text).
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