221 Fireball: 27-Inch Barrel, Test-Load Performance
Ballistics (Oehler 35P Data, Corrected To Muzzle) Accuracy (Typical 5-Shot, 100-Yd Groups) Tested In 82-Grain Remington 221 Fireball Cases (Unless Otherwise Indicated)
Bullet, OAL
Hornady 35 NTX @ 1.943 (-20/1000) 1.547 SPL
Tested
Primer Powder Charge Fed-200
300-MP
IMR4227A A1680
Fed-205M 300-MP IMR4227A A1680
Nosler 40 BT @ 2.006 (-20/1000) 1.605 SPL
Fed-200 300-MP
IMR4227A A1680
Fed-205M 300-MP IMR4227A A1680
Barnes 36 VG @ 1.899 (-20/1000) 1.577 SPL
Fed-200 300-MP
IMR4227A A1680
Fed-205M 300-MP IMR4227A A1680
Sierra 40 BK @ 1.994 (-20/1000) 1.587 SPL
Fed-200 300-MP
IMR4227A A1680
Fed-205M 300-MP IMR4227A A1680
Hornady 40 V-Max @ Fed-200 1.922 (-20/1000) 1.536 SPL
300-MP
IMR4227A A1680
Fed-205M 300-MP IMR4227A A1680
17.0 18.3 18.7 17.0 18.3 18.7
16.7 18.0 18.4 16.7 18.0 18.4
17.0 18.3 18.7 17.0 18.0 18.7
16.7 18.0 18.4 16.7 18.3 18.4
16.7 18.0 18.4 16.7 18.0 18.4
fps/ S. Dev.
3,632 | 41 3,793 | 25 3,434 | 27 3,734 | 23 3,767 | 25 3,413 | 54
3,439 | 37 3,533 | 24 3,245 | 41 3,478 | 39 3,526 | 32 3,250 | 66
3,591 | 38 3,711 | 26
3,401 |103! 3,624 | 40 3,554 | 25 3,355 | 35
3,353 | 17 3,572 | 26 3,307 | 33 3,374 | 37 3,709 | 28 3,216 | 51
3,437 | 28 3,594 | 28 3,315 | 24 3,469 | 13 3,554 | 35 3,291 | 57
Group (Inch)
0.35 0.29 0.73 0.74 1.04 0.31
0.50 0.44 0.68 0.61 0.72 0.35
0.75 1.00 0.96 0.59 0.39 0.71
0.38 0.56 0.38 0.44 0.47 0.49
0.19 0.48 0.39 0.74 0.41 0.37
START three grains below listed loads and work up carefully while watching for signs of excess pres- sure and refer to the following notes.
ALL TESTED BULLETS PROPERLY MOLY-PLATED: Reduce starting and maximum charges ½-grain if you are using naked bullets.
LOADS AT STANDARD 221 FIREBALL MAXIMUM INDUSTRY PRESSURE – To create such loads, do not exceed a charge that is at least one full grain below listed charge.
PRESSURE RESULTS in any other gun and with other components or loading techniques can vary dramatically. Use appropriate caution during load development.
MOREOVER, unless you have safely proven that your gun will handle loads generating about 65,000 psi for routine use (see main text) never exceed a charge that is at least one full grain below loads listed in this table.
CARTRIDGE LENGTH – All tested loads significantly exceeded SAAMI specification maximum car- tridge length for the 221 Fireball. To use similar loads at maximum SAAMI length see TESTED BULLETS: SEATING CHARACTERISTICS table for the absolutely necessary and quite significant charge correction.
PISTOL PRIMER WARNING – For loads using pistol primers, be particularly cognizant of the potential for blanked primers, especially in guns with a poorly fitted striker. And, note that appearance of these thinner-cupped primers will be misleading – at any given pressure, flattened area will be larger than on any rifle primer. Also, if primer piercing, blanking, or significant incipient blanking occurs (see The Primer Quandary), discontinue use of that primer.
LOT-TO-LOT CASE HEAD HARDNESS VARIATION – Note that such variation does occur. Therefore, cases in some lots might not tolerate the listed charges without the occurrence of undue case head expansion.
BARNES VARMINT GRENADE and other frangible bullets – My experience with this bullet suggests that it usually gives good accuracy when seated very close to or into the rifling; I expect that such testing would be especially valuable here. I suspect that this might be true for the other tested frangible bullets.
Page 54 Winter 2013
case head expansion to result in a leak- ing primer (or worse), this 1.2-grain variation in maximum charge among standard rifle primers should be suf- ficient proof that primer substitutions always result in a new load that requires new load development. I will leave it to your imagination as to what would happen if one were to substitute a hot magnum rifle primer. As noted, I tested Federal 200
(small-pistol magnum) and Federal 205M (small-rifle match). These would seem to be ideal choices. If you can use the Federal 100 in IMR4227A 221 Fireball loads in your gun, this primer is apt to give better accuracy; if your gun requires the use of a rifle primer, the Federal 205 or 205M seem to be the best choices. Use no other primer with these data! To see why, just refer to the table at left! IMR4227 NOTICE: According to
Hodgdon, the Canadian- and Austra- lian-manufactured versions of IMR4227 are interchangeable when used with its data. That does not coincide with my observation in 17 Ackley Hornet testing. In that, both the difference in density and effective burning rates were sufficient to matter. Therefore, I will not interchange these two and I cannot recommend that practice. This soon will be a non-issue as, unfortunately, Hodg- don has discontinued the Australian made version (which I am confident is a superior product). With the tested ball-type propel-
lants (300-MP and A1680), I also tested Federal 200 and Federal 205M primers. With these propellants, these primers proved to give similar performance; so, again as with the IMR4227A testing use the pistol primer if your gun will tolerate that; if not, use the rifle primer. However with these harder-to-ignite propellants testing with a hotter primer might prove worthwhile. I will leave that to others but I would suggest reduc- ing the starting charge significantly be- fore proceeding with any such testing. While 221 loads use only a modest
mass of propellant, ball-type propel- lants usually give best performance with a comparatively hot primer and often require such a primer for adequate and dependable ignition (inadequate ignition is responsible for the phenome- non known as “detonation” and detona- tions destroy guns and can injure or kill
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196