powder suggestions for a 221 fireball

HeadHunter204

HeadHunter204

New member
I did some tests with lil gun an wasn't greatly impressed. Best group at 100 was maybe 1" at best. Thinking of trying RL7 or Varget. I'm running a 40 gr vmax. Also pondered 1680. Suggestions? Thoughts? Experience?
 
RL-7 and a 50g Sierra Spitzer is working good for me
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Id try a different bullet in front of the Lil Gun.
 
Originally Posted By: Blackhawk43I use RL7 or Lil Gun and a 40 grain Ballistic tip, so far no problems with either.

Same here and have had best results with 15.5 to 16 grains of Lil Gun with the 40 grain Ballistic Tips. Taken ground squirrel, prairie dogs and even a coyote with that combo. Shot iddybiddy groups with it too.
 
I went from start to top in .2 increments. Still got 15.7 15.9 an 16 to test with lil gun. If I'm still not happy, definitely going to switch powders.
 
That 15.7gr of Lilgun load should work for you with a 40gr bullet. If not, I'd definitely try some Reloader 7. I'd forget about Varget in this caliber with light bullets. Too slow.
Good luck!
 
I've tried AA 1680, Lil-Gun and RL-7 with Hornady V-Max's, Nosler BT's and Sierra BK's and settled on RL-7 with Sierra BK's. CCI BR-4 primers seemed to work best also. Try them all to see what your rifle likes best. All were 40 gr. bullets.
 
I've tried all the powders listed in this thread in my Fireball. I keep coming back to Reloader #7 as the accuracy powder for my gun. It doesn't shoot any bullet badly but it's tough to beat those bughole groups I get with #7 powder. 1680 does well with heavy bullets in my loads but still comes in second.
 
I have an old Accurate arms cataloge. It states that 1680 was the most consistant powder they tried.

Barrel life with 1680 in a 221 is perhaps 25K rounds on a barrel, depending on just how hot you shoot it.
 
I too tried them all and settled on AA1680 but not much difference in accuracy but mine prefers Sierra's and Berger with the Vmax's a close third.
For me the Sierra BlitzKing has been the ticket for the quickest kills and the least pelt damage.
This past year I used 4 different bullets on a mixed bag of animals and the BlitzKIing overall worked the best. That is from my gun YMMV.
 
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Did more tests today. Best group (if you want to call it a group) was probably 7". This thing is shooting all over the place at 100. Best group over all 10 tests to date was 2". Switching to AA1680 an moving seating depth out just a little.
 
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Dont have a 221, but used to have a rem 600 in 222rem. short barrel at 18 inch and used IMR-4227 with 50 grainers. Worked real well. Might be worth a shot.
 
we just gave it a good cleaning. the gun was filthy. took at least 50 patches to clean her up. waiting for the wind to die down so we can test her out and loaded up some rounds with my chargemaster.
 
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