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December 2011 No. 275Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

Display until 01/15/2012 Printed in USA7 25274 01240 4

1 2

$5.99

Lipsey’s Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt!

Handgun Loadsfor the

.44 WCF

New Load Data:• .221 Remington

Fireball• .348

Winchester

OrphanCartridges

4 Handloader 275

AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNAL AL

December 2011Volume 46, Number 6

ISSN 0017-7393 Issue No. 275

Background Photo: © 2011 Royal Tine Images

Page 64 . . .

Page 46 . . .

Page 72 . . .

24 .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum Cartridge Board - Gil Sengel

28 If This Gun Could Talk Pistol Pointers - Charles E. Petty

32 Primer Pointers From the Hip - Brian Pearce

36 .44 WCF in Handguns Loads for Single-Action Revolvers Mike Venturino

46 .221 Remington Fireball A Small Cartridge That Could John Haviland

54 Handloading Lipsey’s .45 Colt Ruger Blackhawk The .45 Colt and .45 ACP on a Medium- Sized Frame Brian Pearce

8 Utility Loads Reloader’s Press - Dave Scovill

12 Case Splitting Bullets & Brass - Brian Pearce

16 Alliant’s Unique Propellant Profiles - R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

20 Handloading, Circa 1927 Mike’s Shootin’ Shack - Mike Venturino

Publisher of Handloader™ is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of published load-ing data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced withoutwritten permission from the publisher. Publisher assumes all North American Rights upon acceptance and paymentfor all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mu-tilated manuscripts.

Issue No. 275 December 2011

AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNAL AL Publisher/President – Don Polacek

Publishing Consultant – Mark Harris

Editor in Chief – Dave Scovill

Associate Editor – Lee J. Hoots

Managing Editor – Roberta Scovill

Assisting Editor – Al Miller

Senior Art Director – Gerald Hudson

Production Director – Becky Pinkley

Contributing EditorsJohn Haviland Ron SpomerBrian Pearce Stan TrzoniecCharles E. Petty R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.Clair Rees Mike VenturinoGil Sengel Ken Waters Terry Wieland

AdvertisingAdvertising Director - Stefanie Ramsey

[email protected]

Advertising Representative - Tom [email protected]

Advertising Information: 1-800-899-7810

CirculationCirculation Manager – Luree McCann

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Handloader® (ISSN 0017-7393) is published bi-monthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dbaWolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, Pres ident),2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona 86301 (alsopublisher of Rifle® magazine). Tele phone: (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona,and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices:U.S. possessions – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $22.97;12 issues, $39.00. Foreign and Canada – single issue,$5.99; 6 issues $29.00; 12 issues, $51.00. Please allow8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnishedon request. All rights reserved.Change of address: Please give six weeks notice.

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Wolfe Publishing Co.2180 Gulfstream, Ste. APrescott, AZ 86301Tel: (928) 445-7810 Fax: (928) 778-5124© Polacek Publishing Corporation

Page 54Page 72Page 64

Background Photo: © 2011 Royal Tine Images6 Handloader 275

On the cover . . .A pair of single-action revolvers: one by Coltand another by U.S. Fire Arms, both with 43⁄4-inchbarrels and chambered for the .44 WCF/.44-40.Photos by Yvonne Venturino. Backgroundpainting, Smoke of a “Forty-Five,” by Charles Marion Russell.

Page 82 . . .

64 Refugees from the Orphanage The Ill-Fated .22 Remington Jet and .256 Winchester Magnum Terry Wieland

72 .348 Winchester A Cartridge with an Odd History John Barsness

82 RDZ Case Trimmer Product Tests - John Haviland

86 Gunpowder Plots In Range - Terry Wieland

Handloader 27512 www.handloadermagazine.com

Q: You have no idea how much

I enjoy Handloader and thedetailed articles. Handloading man-uals are good but usually only con-tain fundamental information. Onthe other hand, most Handloader

articles are in-depth and based on real-world experience with agiven cartridge or gun. At any rate,thanks for all the great articles.

My question has to do with .45Colt case splitting. I have a ColtNew Frontier .45 Colt (not surewhen it was made). My handloadsusually consist of either 250-grainHornady HP-XTPs or 250-grainRNFP cast bullets from OregonTrail Bullets, both being loadedwith 11.5 grains of Accurate No. 5powder. I have referenced thoseloads in several sources (includingyour articles in Handloader) andbelieve they are safe. There is nosign of excess pressure in the NewFrontier. Primers are not flat andcases fall from the chambers. Ihave reloaded brass cases from

Winchester, Remington and Star-line, but the case bodies beginsplitting within two to four re-loads. Many of the cases do lastlonger, but I am puzzled at theearly mortality rate.

I handload for other handguncartridges, including the .41 and.44 Magnums and .38 Special, and

those cases can be reloaded sev-eral more times before failure. AmI doing something wrong? I haveread that the .45 Colt case is justas strong as the .44 Magnum, whichif that is true, cases should lastjust as long. Any help would be ap-preciated.

– D.S., Billings MT

A: Your problem is not unique.

First, your loads are safe enough

in the Colt New Frontier and are

within industry pressure guide-

lines. The reason for early case

splitting is probably due to the

Colt chamber, which during the

postwar years has been generous

– or on the maximum side. As a

result cases expand considerably

when fired. To add to the problem,

many die manufacturers feature

a sizer die that “works” cases

more than necessary or sizes them

smaller than is really needed. This

combination results in shortened

case life with splitting in the case

body as you describe.

I would like to see firearms man-

ufacturers tighten chamber di-

mensions (not to be confused with

throat diameter), which would gen-

erally increase accuracy and in-

crease case life, not to mention

chamber strength.

You are correct, .45 Colt cases

are equally strong (and some-

times stronger) than .44 Magnum

brass. I have a custom Ruger .45

Colt revolver that has industry

minimum chamber dimensions,

and in firing loads that run near

32,000 CUP using Starline brass,

cases expand very little and as a

result case life is long.

A good cure for your problem is

to fit your New Frontier with a

.38/.357 Magnum or .44 Special

cylinder, then chamber it to .45

Colt with a custom reamer that

BULLETS & BRASS by Brian Pearce • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

CASE SPLITTING

Cases that are fired in generous.45 Colt chambers will expandand get “worked” more duringthe sizing operation, resulting inshorter case life.

December-January 2012 13www.handloadermagazine.com

Long that is a clean five-screw gun with just a little holster wear.I do cast my own bullets andwould like to purchase a mouldthat throws either a roundnose orSWC profile bullet weighing be-tween 90 and 100 grains. Any sug-gestions would be appreciated.

Also, which powders will give thebest accuracy and more or less duplicate the 700 to 750 fps typi-cally generated by traditional fac-tory loads?

– K.K., Winter Haven FL

A: Try the RCBS mould

32-098-SWC (available

in two-cavity only) that

throws bullets at just over

100 grains depending on

alloy. Another good one

that is available in four-

cavity is the Redding 325;

it is an SWC profile and typically

drops bullets at 95 grains. Either

2.2 grains of Alliant Red Dot or 2.2

grains of Hodgdon Titegroup will

give the velocities you desire with

either of the above cast bullets.

.38 WCF

Q: I have a Winchester Model 1892rifle chambered in .38 WCF (aka.38-40) that was manufactured in1912. The bore is shiny and void ofpits, the action is perfect and over-all condition is very good.

At this point I have only fired itusing Winchester factory loads con-taining the 180-grain JSP bullets. Iplan to handload for it and amwondering if it’s safe to increasevelocity and performance com-pared to the above factory loads?For the fun and challenge, I wouldlike to hunt mule deer and am will-ing to limit the distance to around50 yards. What bullet(s) and pow-der(s) would you suggest?

– S.M., Glenwood Springs CO

has minimum specifications. In

this process, the throats can also

be cut to about .452 inch, which

will result in notably better accu-

racy than the .456- to .459-inch

throats your gun was likely fitted

with at the factory.

.32 S&W LONG

Q: After nearly 20 years, I was inthe right place at the right timeand found a Smith & Wesson K-32Masterpiece chambered in .32 S&W

Alliant Red Dot andHodgdon Titegroup powders are top choicesfor the .32 S&W Long.

.35 Whelen

Q: I recently acquired a Reming-ton Model 700 chambered for .35Whelen that I plan to use on elk. I have pretty much decided to use the 225-grain Nosler Partitionbullet. My first question is whatpowder will give the best velocityfrom the 22-inch barrel? And sec-ond, I do hunt from a horse andhave considered cutting the bar -rel down to 20 inches, or perhapseven 19. What are your thoughtson that? Will it reduce the veloc-ity substantially? Thanks for your advice and keep the articles com-ing.

– B.D., Ashton ID

A: There are several powders that

will offer top perform-

ance in the Whelen us-

ing 225-grain bullets, but

61.0 grains of Hodgdon

Varget or 59.0 grains of

IMR-4064 will reach over

2,700 fps from a 22-inch

barrel and will generally

give top-notch accuracy.

Your question regard-

ing barrel length and ve-

locity has been asked

many times. The problem is there

is no figure that applies to all bot-

tleneck rifle cartridges and each

load (bullet, powder type and

charge) will behave differently. I

am unaware of any such tests

conducted with the .35 Whelen,

but my guess would be around 30

to 40 fps per inch of barrel. I am

aware of the needs of the horse-

mounted hunter, and cutting your

rifle to 20 inches would certainly

help in its handiness. Shaving

around 60 to 80 fps from the

muzzle speed will not be noticed

by any elk, but it will increase

bullet drop slightly. You will have

to make that decision.


A: Your rifle was manufactured

for black and smokeless powder

loads and was notably stronger

than the Model 1873 Winchester

or Colt Single Action revolvers. As

a result Winchester and Reming-

ton offered “High Velocity” factory

loads (as early as 1905) specifi-

cally for smokeless steel Model

1892/92s, as well as other strong

rifles, such as the Marlin Model

1894 and single shots from Rem-

ington, Stevens and Winchester.

Velocities were advertised as high

as 1,776 fps, with chamber pres-

sures being reported at around

23,000 psi. Later the bullet weight

was lightened from 180 grains to

165, 150 and even 130 grains,

and speeds ultimately reached

2,000 fps. All the above loads are

now history.

Due to the many black-powder

Winchester Model 1873 rifles, Colt

Single Action Army revolvers and

others of weaker construction that

date back to around 1879 and

are still in use, today’s .38-40 fac-

tory loads are intentionally loaded

to low pressure. Considering the

strength of your rifle, there is no

problem increasing pressures and

velocities. Using the 180-grain JSP

bullet (which is no longer avail-

able as a component from either

Winchester or Remington), try

20.0 grains of Alliant 2400 or 20.0

grains of Accurate No. 9. These

will effectively duplicate the old

High Velocity loads as offered by

Winchester for your rifle.

I would avoid using commer-

cially cast bevel-base “cowboy” bul-

lets at those speeds, as leading

might become an issue and nei-

ther will they support the full ac-

curacy potential of your rifle’s ex-

cellent bore. You might consider

trying 180- to 185-grain cast bul-

lets from RCBS mould 40-180-FN.

For deer hunting, there are sev-

eral jacketed bullets designed for

the 10mm and .40 S&W cartridges

The 180-grain SpeerGold Dot HP and Hornady HP-XTP bulletsdesigned for the 10mmand .40 Smith & Wessoncartridges can be usedin a Winchester Model1892 .38-40 Winchester(aka .38 WCF). A can-nelure should be appliedto allow for a properroll crimp.

that will perform excellently, of-

fering expansion and reliable pen-

etration. Examples include Speer

Gold Dot and Hornady HP-XTP,

both in 180-grain weights. The

only hitch is that they do not have

crimp cannelures, which can be

applied using a CH Tool & Die

cannelure tool (PO Box 889, Mt

Vernon OH 43050).

As always, ammunition should

be labeled to prevent its being used

in a firearm of weaker construc-

tion. With a muzzle velocity of

around 1,750 fps, and assuming

your rifle is grouping correctly, I

would not hesitate to take deer at

100 yards and beyond. Good luck

on your hunt.

Proven powders forhandloading the .35

Whelen include IMR-4064 and

Hodgdon Varget.

•

See the OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM in this issue.

- OFFICIAL RULES - You must be 21 years or older to enter the drawing. Only one entry per subscription per magazine for a total ofthree entries per person using the official entry form. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY: To enter without purchase, print in block letters, thewords EL LOBO GIVEAWAY across the top of a 4x6 card along with your name, age, address and phone number and enclose in an envelope.You may submit up to three entries (each card must be mailed in a separate envelope). Failure to follow these directions will void yourentry. Please send entries to Wolfe Publishing Co., Dept ELG, 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, AZ 86301. Wolfe Publishing Co. is notresponsible for misdirected, damaged or undelivered mail. All entries must be received by January 30, 2012. The drawing will take placeon February 15, 2012. Winners will be notified within 15 days of the drawing. All decisions are final. No substitutions for prizes otherthan those necessary due to availability. Applicable taxes and charges not included in the giveaway are the responsibility of the winner.Odds of winning are dependent upon total entries received. Void where prohibited by law and regulations. Employees and families ofWolfe Publishing Co., Classic Barrelworks and Swarovski Optik are not eligible to enter. All federal, state and local laws and regulationsapply. The rifle must be shipped to an FFL dealer in your area. Winner’s name will be published in the magazines following the drawing.

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oC nte

est Endsds

.221Reming

A varmint hunter out for a walk is best served with a light rifle. The.221 fills that bill, yet the .22 Hornet still rules with light rifles.

TJohn Haviland

The .221 Fireball is a great lit-tle rifle cartridge that pro-vides high velocity with atightfisted amount of propel-

lant, recoil so gentle it barely bumpsthe crosshairs off the target and allwith marvelous accuracy. Somewherealong the line, however, it became lost in the shuffle when it made the switch to a rifle round from a car-tridge originally intended for long-barreled handguns.

Most shooters shopping for a rifle cartridge forsmall game hunting and general shooting shrug theirshoulders when they see the .221’s mediocre veloc -ities recorded from 10- to 14-inch barrels listed in most handloading manuals. Add 10 inches of barrellength, and the .221 is right on the heels of the .223Remington.

Remington created the .221 Fireball in 1963 for itsXP-100 bolt-action single-shot handgun. The Fireballcartridge was supposedly a shortened .222 Reming-ton case, but it’s really more of a .223 Remington ab-breviated in the case body. The Fireball and the .223have essentially the same neck length, while the .222has a neck nearly half again longer. The maximumpressure of the .221 and the .223 are also the same,at 52,000 CUP, while the .222 is limited to 46,000 CUP.

The XP-100 was sort of a ray gun-looking handgunwith its bolt hanging out behind the trigger, a venti-lated rib on the barrel and white diamond shapes inlaid on the sides of the forearm of the brown orblack Zytel plastic stock. It was chambered in .221Fireball from 1963 to 1985. Eventually the gun waschambered in a bunch of cartridges from .223 and

ton FireballA Small Cartridge

That Could

The .221 RemingtonFireball is small andholds only a couplemore grains of powderthan the .22 Hornet.


.250 Savage to .308 Winchesterand .35 Remington before it wasdiscontinued in 1994.

The XP-100 never achieved muchmore than a splash of popularity.Over the years I’ve met a fewprairie dog shooters armed withone chambered in the .223. Onefellow who liked to sit in trees car-ried one in .221 mounted with a 4xscope as his white-tailed deer rig.

.221RemingtonFireball

Remington created the .221 Fireball in 1963.

Most shooters have a difficulttime hitting prairie dogs at muchover 300 yards. The .221 Reming-ton Fireball makes those shotseasily with its mild recoil and flattrajectory.

Left, perhaps between the .22 Hornet (left) and the .223 Remington(right), there is no room for the .221 Remington Fireball (center).Above, bullets used for load development include: (1) Berger 30-grainFB Varmint, (2) Nosler 35-grain Ballistic Tip Lead-Free, (3) Berger 40-grain FB Varmint, (4) Hornady 40-grain V-MAX, (5) Berger 50-grain FBTarget, (6) Sierra 50-grain Blitz King, (7) Sierra 55-grain BlitzKing and (8) Lyman 55-grain 225646.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Remington tried to revive the.221 in 2002 as a rifle cartridge bychambering it in its limited editionModel 700 Classic. The .221 hungaround for awhile in the Model 700,but a couple of years ago Reming-ton quietly dropped it. Even so, a friend shoots the heck out ofground squirrels with his Classic.221. Shooting 40-grain bulletswith 15.0 grains of Lil’Gun propel-lant, he easily mows over groundsquirrels out to 300 yards. The bar-rel remains fairly cool during a

long string of shots, and the recoilis so mild he can see where thebullet hits if he misses, correct hisaim and give the little grass-gnaw-ers another round.

The only rifles currently cham-bered in .221 Remington Fireballby major manufacturers are theCZ 527 American and the CooperFirearms Model 38. When I askedTexas rifle-builder Charlie Siskabout building a .221, he yawnedlike he was bored stiff by the meremention of the cartridge. He finallywarmed up to the idea, though, andstarted work. The .221’s appeal isthat it makes a light and handyrifle. Sisk figured that had been


done, so it was “go big” to see howaccurately the .221 would shoot.

The result was a 17-pound riflebased on a Surgeon 591 short-action single shot. The majority ofthe rifle’s weight comes from anunturned Lilja barrel (one-in-12-inch twist) that is 24 inches longand measures 1.25 inches in diam-eter at the muzzle. On the 591’s fulllength Picatinny rail, I mounted aNikon Titanium 5.5-16.5x scope. AMcMillian Hunter Benchrest syn-thetic stock completed the rifle.

The first few times shooting therifle I discovered I had an ingrainedflinch, because the moment Ipulled the trigger I jerked myhead off the stock comb. No

doubt this hitch was left over fromshooting a .300 magnum at thebench the previous week. Thatproblem resolved itself after a fewmore shots made it clear the .221’srecoil was as gentle as a flowerwaving in a summer breeze.

That lack of recoil also showedmy bench technique was a bitstressed. Nudging the rifle withthe thumb of my shooting hand orfailing to pull the trigger straightback caused the scope crosshair

to shift ever so slightly off the tar-get. The result was a bullet holeright where the crosshair pointedand out of the group. The groupsizes listed in the load table aremostly an indication of my shoot-ing ability, and not the .221 or theSisk rifle.

The Sisk Rifles .221 Fireball, basedon a 17-pound Surgeon 591 short-action single shot with a full-sizeLilja barrel, held steady in thewind while shooting prairie dogs at 300 yards.

Exact propellant weights helpkeep velocities constant in the.221. One additional grain ofIMR-4227 increased velocity ofthe Hornady 40-grain V-MAX bymore than 200 fps.

IMR-4227, Lil’Gun and VV-N130 worked best with most bullets.


cantly. The Berger 30-grain FlatBase Varmint bullet had extremespreads for five shots of up to 118fps with H-4198 and 117 fps withEnforcer. The Nosler 35-grain Lead-Free Ballistic Tips had spreads of218 fps with Reloder 7 and 178 fpswith IMR-4227. With heavier 40-grain bullets, Lil’Gun and IMR-4227 turned in spreads as small as

46 and 27 fps. Velocity variationshrank with 50-grain bullets downto 10 fps with H-335 and 39 fpswith Reloder 7. With 55-grain bul-lets, Vihtavuori N130 had a spreadof 49 fps and 48 fps with Lil’Gun.Propellant amounts with the Ly -man 55-grain cast bullet didn’t fillthe .221 Fireball case, yet velocityspreads were as uniform as 33 fps with Unique and as great as 71 fps with IMR-4198. Lil’Gun,IMR-4227 and VV-N130 providedthe most uniform velocities acrossthe board of jacketed bullets.They also mostly imparted thehighest velocities to all bullets.

These three propellants also meas-ured uniformly through a powdermeasure. That’s important to aprairie dog shooter who wants toassemble uniform cartridges yetsave time churning out severalhundred rounds. Thrown from myold Ohaus measure, five chargesof IMR-4227 varied .2 grain, Lil’-Gun was right on and VV-N130fluctuated .1 grain.

Starting on the light side of pow-der weight and working up .5grain at a time is good advice forloading the small .221 RemingtonFireball. About .5 grain below themaximum amount of Lil’Gun listedin loading manuals developed toomuch pressure. Those weights ofLil’Gun pushed 30-grain bullets4,100 fps and 40-grain bullets over3,600 fps, which are .223 Reming-ton speeds. Backing off 1.0 grain,the 30-grain bullets still clocked


Above left, this five-shot group was shot with Hornady 40-grain V-MAXesand VV-N130. Right, this group was shot with Berger 40-grain FBVarmints and H-110.

The .221 Fireball is a small car-tridge, and a little increase in pro-pellant weight produces a largerise in bullet velocity. For instance,increasing the weight of IMR-4227from 14.0 to 15.0 grains resulted ina boost of 211 fps to Hornady 40-grain V-MAX bullets. Velocity es-calated another 155 fps by addingone more grain of powder.

All the propellant weights listedin the load table were weighed ona balance beam scale. Yet therewas relatively high extreme ve -locity spreads with many loads.With heavier bullets, though, ve-locity spreads narrowed signifi-


3,872 fps and 40-grain bullets oneside or the other of 3,500 fps. Thatwas still 100+ fps faster than thevelocities Hodgdon states for 40-grain bullets.

The one-in-12-inch twist in theLilja .221 barrel will stabilize bul-lets weighing up to about 60 grains.I shot bullets weighing from 30 to55 grains with great accuracy.

The tiny Berger 30-grain bulletripping along at 3,800 fps wouldmake an excellent exterminator ofground squirrels infesting a farmfield. It pained me deeply that the

ground squirrels had gone into hibernation by the time I got myhands on the Sisk rifle, but withthe Berger bullets sighted one inchhigh at 100 yards it drops only oneinch below aim at 200 yards and10 inches at 300 yards.

The 40-grain bullets are what most.221 shooters chose for varmintshooting. At 3,400 fps, they shoota smidgen flatter at 300 yards thanlighter bullets. The 40s drop ap-preciably less at longer distances,about 10 inches less at 400 yards.My friend’s Remington Classic .221

.221 Remington Fireball Loadsbullet powder charge velocity group

(grains) (grains) (fps) (inches)

30 Berger FB Varmint H-4198 19.5 3,542 .71 H-4227 16.0 3,540 .69 Lil’Gun 15.0 3,872 .60 VV-N130 19.0 3,454 .3735 Nosler Ballistic Tip Lead-Free Enforcer 14.0 3,440 .84 IMR-4227 15.5 3,338 .82 Lil’Gun 15.5 3,727 .75 RL-7 19.0 3,539 .6640 Berger FB Varmint H-110 14.0 3,141 .41 H-322 20.5 3,236 .84 H-335 21.5 3,216 .51 Lil’Gun 14.5 3,470 .6040 Hornady V-MAX H-4198 18.0 3,083 .45 IMR-4227 14.0 2,918 .49* 15.0 3,129 .35* 16.0 3,284 .63 Lil’Gun 14.5 3,514 .61 VV-N130 18.6 3,284 .5450 Berger FB Target H-110 13.2 2,810 .61 H-335 21.5 3,120 1.26 IMR-4227 15.5 2,996 .82 Lil’Gun 13.5 3,117 .5150 Sierra BlitzKing H-322 20.0 2,998 .73 Lil’Gun 13.5 3,078 .71 VV-N130 18.0 2,994 .52 RL-7 17.5 3,020 .6250 Remington Accu-Tip V boat-tail 2,845 .69**55 Lyman 225646 IMR-4198 9.0 1,480 1.37 IMR-4227 9.0 1,810 1.32 Red Dot 6.0 1,924 3.19 Unique 5.0 1,695 1.9455 Sierra BlitzKing H-322 19.0 2,930 .56 Lil’Gun 12.5 2,812 1.25 VV-N130 17.2 2,853 1.34 Xterminator 20.2 3,005 1.04

* three-shot group** This load was shot through a Remington Classic with a 24-inch barrel and is the average of three,five-shot groups.

Notes: All loads, except where noted above, were shot at 100 yards through a Sisk Rifles Inc. rifle com-prised of a Surgeon 591 short-action single shot with a Lilja 24-inch barrel and a Nikon Titanium 5.5-16.5x scope, set on 16.5x. Remington cases were used with Winchester Small Rifle primers.

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.



A little increase in propellant weight

produces a large rise in bullet velocity.

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capacity. The 50- and 55-grain bul-lets lag 300 fps behind the 40-grainbullets and drop considerablymore past 300 yards. If coyotes orfoxes are coming to a call, theheavier bullets might be a betterchoice, but for long-range shoot-ing, the 40-grain bullets are thebest choice.

I shot Lyman 55-grain 225646cast bullets in the .221 Reming tonFireball, which shot okay out to100 yards for plinking and varmintshooting. They are cheap to shoot,and a pound of powder will loadnearly 800 cartridges loaded with9.0 grains of powder, and a .221cartridge loaded with a lead-alloybullet duplicates the .17 and .22

magnum rimfires, at about a thirdthe cost.

There is a place for a mild .22-caliber cartridge, and the .221 Fire-ball should occupy it. The rim -less case has a minimum amountof body taper and a fairly sharpshoulder that makes it ideal forhandloading and long case life. Itshigh pressure limit also producesmaximum bullet speed from asmall amount of powder.

Instead, the old .22 Hornet pre-vails. The Hornet’s sloping caseand thin neck rim can make it apain to handload. Its bulbous rimprevents the cartridge from feed-ing smoothly, and the short mag -azine of most Hornet rifles will not accept a cartridge loaded witha pointed bullet. There is no pre-dicting shooters’ affections andaffinities.

The .223 Remington hasn’t donethe .221 Fireball any favors either.Other than the Cooper FirearmsModel 38 mini bolt action scaledto fit the .221, other .221 rifles arenothing more than a .223-size ac-tion with a block in the magazineto accommodate the shorter car-tridge. So why buy a rifle the samesize as a .223 to shoot a cartridgethat comes up short of the .223’svelocities? Plus a .223 can dupli-cate the .221 by merely backingoff powder charges 3.0 grains or so. The only additional cost of such .223 cartridges, compared to the .221, is 10.0 grains more of comparatively slower burningpowder.

Handloaders can turn this neg-lected, yet impressive little riflecartridge into a cheap-to-shootcartridge for plinking, or turn upthe heat to shoot about as far awayas most of us can hit a tiny target.Perhaps someday shooters andhunters will appreciate all the .221Remington Fireball offers.

dotes on Nosler 40-grain BallisticTips powered with 15.0 grains ofLil’Gun. With that load he shootsground squirrels from 50 to 300yards, and his .223 and .22-250mostly remain home in the guncabinet.

Heavier bullets start to fade be-cause of the .221’s modest powder

Orphan Cartridges .44 WCF - Rifle Magazine · See inside for details! El Lobo Custom Rifle...

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