tional propellants, velocity of top-end loads with all bullets was within about 150 fps of what 223 loads at similar pressure would produce. If this gun had a 24-inch barrel, velocities probably would be about 75 fps slower so the velocity difference would be closer to 225 fps. While burning one-third less powder the shorter cartridge produces more than nine-tenths the velocity – even better than Roger had anticipated. When comparing varminting-
usefulness of the 221 to the 223, I would note the following facts as worth
considering. Muzzle blast is less than one-half as loud: Targets are not nearly as disturbed, which increases shooting opportunities. Recoil is only two-thirds as much: The shooter can better see more hits and misses. Barrel heating is significantly less: I have never had to stop shooting to let a 221-chambered barrel cool; conversely, I have had bar- rels on three 223-chambered rifles so hot that I was embarrassed to keep shooting – hot enough to brand with. In my experience, the actual ability to keep on shooting without worrying about
unduly damaging the bore is often more important than is a modest theoretical difference in useful range. THE PRIMER QUANDARY
When I did the original load
development with this gun, the batch of Remington 1½ primers that I used worked perfectly. But, when I began testing for this article, I discovered that I could not use the newer batch of Remington 1½ primers because, as the striker smashed the cup against the anvil the striker pierced through the center of the cup. The resulting gas leakage damaged (burned) the striker nose, which I had to repair by judicious polishing, to remove a few thousandths inch of the nose while making the ra- dius slightly larger. Fortunately, I had no such trouble with Federal pistol primers. Obviously, lot-to-lot variation
in cup and anvil design (at least with Remington pistol primers) is a serious concern. For this reason, as noted above, I discontinued testing with the 1½. Re- gardless of primer brand, if you detect piercing or significant incipient blank- ing, discontinue testing and discard, destroy, or tear down any remaining loads using that primer. Any ballistic advantage is not worth the potential harm to the gun and possible injury from a gas leak. THE PROPELLANT QUANDARY When I did the original load de-
velopment with this gun, I tested 2400 because it was more than likely the ideal choice of propellants that were then available for use with 22-grain bullets. In this testing I again intended to test 2400 and I also began testing with VN110. After firing many shots with each
®
of those, using both the Fed-100 and the Fed-205M with each of the tested bul- lets, I belatedly came to the conclusion that neither of those propellants seemed to work well in the 221 Fireball. Repeat- edly, I got pressure spikes. For this reason, I suspended test-
ing with these propellants. This leaves a limited number of suitable propellants but among those are several excellent choices, so omitting those two should not represent much of a loss. (I must note that it is entirely pos-
sible that the noted pressure spikes re- flect something that I was doing wrong, rather than an actual problem with
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