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221 FB subsonic loads?

264win

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Oct 15, 2008
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    1,149
    whidbey island wa.
    Has anyone ever messed with subsonic loads for the 221 fireball?
    I am debating building a fast twist to shoot 70-80 grain subsonics. But would like a little more info before taking the plunge.
     
    In a bolt gun I assume? If so if you have a .223 host and a .221 case I would put it on the bolt head and semi chamber it then try and extract it. In alot of actions the case will fall off into the action before it clears the ejection port.

    I'm assuming this would be for fun primarily? Because energy is going to be pretty low.

    Feeding aside capacity wise you could probably get away a 22tcm and still have plenty of headroom pressure wise. (smaller cases with faster powders will be quieter and es/sd should be better than a voluminous case)
     
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    I would advise against this. I doubt you can find any powder that is gong to give you subsonic velocities and suitable case fill to give consistent ignition.
     
    A bolt gun is my plan likely an R700 or cz 527
    I would like to use something smaller like the TCM or hornet but the lack of quality rifles and brass, and challenge of find a smith, etc is making me look towards something a bit more common.
     
    I would advise against this. I doubt you can find any powder that is gong to give you subsonic velocities and suitable case fill to give consistent ignition.
    I suspect a filler may be required to address this, but I would like to hear from some folks who have tried it.
     
    I mean hodgdon provides subsonic loads for .223 and .308 even which have considerably more volume using powders like titegroup and a couple others (trailboss which is extinct lol) but.....I would plan on ES's in the 100's. I need to quit bullshitting and test my wildcat with subs. I have the barrel and bullets. just need to do it.

    Here is a picture I snapped for grins and giggles. The bullet needs to be seated deeper obviously but you get the jist. (88 eldm)
    BN6S2yyl.jpg
     
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    I would get real serious about being very careful with shooting very heavy for caliber bullets in the Fireball. I used the Fireball extensively in IHMSA. My wife, Brenda basically “stole” my half scale gun to use in big bore. I shot it with 69 grain Sierra MatchKings and it was excellent, easy shooting, easy loading and quite accurate. However, for her, I went to a 80 grain Berger VLD. It had enough momentum to take down the rams, light recoil and she loved it.

    Problem was, with the 80 grain Berger, the difference between having enough pressure to full expand the case to the chamber and having excessive pressure was 0.3 grains of powder. This is why I never gave out the loading data. It gets super critical with pressure Real Quick.

    Not enough pressure and you’ll start getting head separations. Too much and that is pretty obvious.

    Our velocities were running around 2000FPS, and it was hard on the gun. However, XP-100’s were made when Remington was making guns, not profits for corporate raiders and the XP-100’s were built like tanks.

    CFBAAA3E-7974-410B-92A7-FFDEF6A5DF6E.jpeg
     
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