.221 Rem Fireball advice please

[Bad Wolf]

Hi,

I shoot rabbits and the occasional fox using 22lr, 17hmr and 17 Rem Fireball.

I am tempted to buy a s/h 221 Rem Fireball, at a reasonable price, but don't know whether it will offer any advantages over my current selection of guns.

What do you guys think ?

[montdoug]

My CZ .221 shoots the 40 grain V-Max at 3,550ish and better safely using AA1680. Accurate as can be!
A 40 grain .22 caliber bullet at that velocity will certainly deliver a lot more energy to the target than what your shooting but for what you described as your primary targets it sure won't kill em any deader . There will be a lot more drama however as in parts and particles flying if that matters to ya.
It's a really neat round in my opinion and I like mine a lot.

[flashhole]

I agree with montdoug. It will buy you more knock down power but will not kill things any deader. You have a 17 Fireball so you already know how robust the case is. The 221 Fireball is a great cartridge. Mine is a Rem 700 LVSF but I replaced the synthetic stock with a Boyd's thumbhole laminate. This is it along with Mr. I-showed-up-at-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time Groundhog.

[montdoug]

Don't get no deader than that .
I like that case so much I have the whole family. .221, .20 VarTarg, the .17 Fire Ball and .17 MachIV.
Like Papa Bear, Momma Bear, and the 2 Wee Little Baby Bears. I wonder if there's any cousins in the family??
Truly is the epitome of efficiency in a case design.

[Bad Wolf]

I have no willpower and, despite the fact that there is no logical rationale to justify this additional gun, I'm going to get it anyway -as it looks like fun.

Thanks for all the replies.

[Larry in VA]

A wise choice and surely no one here can fault your reasoning. ..
I use to own three Rem700's in the fireball but have just recently put a custom 221FB (Bartlain) barrel on one and reballed another in 20TAC (Krieger) so now I only have two 221FB. Love the cartridge it is a lot of accuracy for a small price if you reload.
Larry

[17varminter]

If you can find a Rem 700 Classic buy it!. its a beauty and an extremely accurate rifle.

[ae35gunner]

The Fireball is a GREAT cartridge. I currently have three, two CZ 527 Americans (one purchased new in Dec 2003 for $469.95 and the other purchased-plus gear and ammo-for $400 at a gun show). Both these rifles shoot great and look great too. I use one of my CZs as my main coyote rifle. It kills consistently (never had any escape, and only had to use 2 shots on one occasion) with 50 gr Hornady SPSX bullets over 17.5 gr of AA1680. In fact, the first coyote I killed with this rifle I was shooting 42 gr Calhoon Double HPs over 17.5 gr of AA1680. That coyote (mature adult female) had an exit wound through the off shoulder that looked like she'd been 7 Magged to death!!! You could stick your clenched fist into the wound it was so large. Because of the massive amount of damage I changed my loads to the Hornady SPSXs which is much more "fur friendly". I also have an original XP-100, S/N 3009 that was manufactured in 1963, in 221 Fireball which I was fortunate enough to purchase from the estate of its original owner. I have two 20 VarTargs as well (both Coopers). One is a Model 21 chat started life as a 221 Fireball which I bought used Dec 1999 (my first Cooper). It shot superbly as a Fireball, but I heard the siren's call and had Cooper rebarrel it to 20 VarTarg in 2005. I have never regretted the move as the VarTarg is simply AMAZING. I have posted several times before about my VarTarg experiences using it in long range precision shooting competition matches in Tucson which you may find interesting. Last year I had to get another Cooper 20 VarTarg (a Model 38 this time) as I just had to have another one. In my opinion, you can't got wrong with the Fireball, and you can always rebarrel to a 20 VarTarg if you ever need to replace the barrel. No matter what you decide to do, the Fireball is an excellent choice.

[Bad Wolf]

Thanks ae35gunner. I am going ahead with the purchase of the 221 Fireball on the subjective basis that the cartridge just looks "right".

[philip]

I`m having my Cooper .204 rebarreled as we speak to .221 fireball.

I just never fell in love with the .204 as i hoped i would.