9 twist too fast for 221 Fireball?

[Lefty Trigger]

I had a friend give me a barrel that is a 22-250 in a 9 twist. The barrel is 26 inches long but has a damaged throat due to him trying to dislodge a stuck bullet. My local smith looked at it and said it could be cut down to a 22 inch and be rechambered and will get past the messed up area. Curious if it's even worth fooling with being that its a 9 twist. I'm want to have it chambered in 221 Fireball if it will work but I'm thinking its too fast for 40-50gr bullets.

 

[varmintshooter]

I put a 9 twist 222 20" together this year for my night hunting gun. I m shooting 50-55 gr bullets and it has been working out well. I think you would be ok.

 

[dellet]

Depends on the bullet, at 3500 fps it will be turning 280,000 rpm. Hot barrel, longer shot strings could be trouble with certain bullets and fine with others.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

A 9 twist would not be my first choice for a 221FB. Dellet got it right with the hot barrel issue IMO. There are much better choices for a Fireball.

 

[Mark W]

Like some others a 1:9 twist for 221 FB wouldn’t be my first either, but I’ve shot a lot of 50 and 55 grain bullets from my 1:8 twist AR with out a blow up. I would have to see it to believe that 1:9 .221 FB would push bullets hard enough to cause blow ups even in a hot barrel.

 

[RonS]

I would do a 22 BR with that 9 twist

 

[Toolbreaker]

I've put many 52 gn. SMKs and a metric ton of 53 gn. Vmax out of a .223, 1:9 factory Savage barrel (read that as rough as a cob) without issue. Both loping along around 3400+ fps. I'm thinking you won't have any blowups with the furball .

 

[B23]

You'll have to set the barrel back nearly the full length of the chamber to go down to a 221 size case and, depending on the barrel, I don't know if it'll leave you with enough shank to chamber. That would be a bigger concern than it being a 9tw.

 

[Oso]

Depends on the bullet, at 3500 fps it will be turning 280,000 rpm. Hot barrel, longer shot strings could be trouble with certain bullets and fine with others.

Dellet,

I assume you are referring to lighter class bullets - 40gr class. What is your preference for twist rate for 221FB?

Thanks

 

[varmintshooter]

Think about it. If a 22-250 9 twist didn't blow up bullets, a 221 surely isn't going to.

 

[dellet]

Dellet,

I assume you are referring to lighter class bullets - 40gr class. What is your preference for twist rate for 221FB?

Thanks

Actually never had a 221 Fireball, but have loaded for one. Mostly just some experience blowing up bullets with unlikely combinations.

22K Hornet that someone had a 1/7 barrel laying around, who would have thought 315,000 rpm's out of a Hornet?

.308 110 Grain Varmageddon's coming apart in a 7" 300 Blackout with a 1/5.

250,000 rpm's seems like a good number to start thinking about bullet construction even in so called "high velocity bullets". Or expanding solids that can open it flight.

I pay a lot more attention to rpm's than velocity anymore when choosing bullets. Think about the OP. He mentioned 40-50 grain bullets. That gives him a velocity window of say 5-600 fps. A 1/9 twist is good for 8000 rpms per 100 fps. That's a 50,000 rpm window.

I don't think I have ever had something come apart under 250,000 and would probably use that number as a guide choosing twist, unless I had a specific bullet in mind, but a 1/12 is probably fast enough for anything I would shoot, 1/14 seems borderline for some of the newer light bullets.

 

[Lefty Trigger]

You'll have to set the barrel back nearly the full length of the chamber to go down to a 221 size case and, depending on the barrel, I don't know if it'll leave you with enough shank to chamber. That would be a bigger concern than it being a 9tw.

Its already been cut off and there is plenty of barrel left. Its a factory bull barrel, almost a straight pipe.

 

[Lefty Trigger]

I had my local smith cut it off today. He used his bore scope to get past the damage and lopped 3 1/4 inches off. Here's the barrel with the end cut off. I sent Stan a PM to see if he would be able to rechamber it for me. Hate to just toss it as its a really nice barrel and 22 inches would work fine for a Fireball.

 

[Tommie]

I think it’s a brilliant combo, actually. The higher RPM’s can compensate somewhat for the lower velocity of the Fireball case and make for some surprising terminal performance.

 

[Evan]

I'd be really tempted to try 69gn class bullets at 300-500yds. Bet it'd be surprisingly good.

 

[Lefty Trigger]

I'd be really tempted to try 69gn class bullets at 300-500yds. Bet it'd be surprisingly good.

Generally the throat is not too long for longer bullets in the Fireball. I lot of people on here have pointed my towards the 40gr bullets but for target work I'm getting better results with 50gr and 52gr but I could see the need for the speed with the 40's if hunting live game.

 

[shoot4fun]

Generally the throat is not too long for longer bullets in the Fireball. I lot of people on here have pointed my towards the 40gr bullets but for target work I'm getting better results with 50gr and 52gr but I could see the need for the speed with the 40's if hunting live game.

I've shot several thousand factory Hornady 40 Amax loaded in 223 thru an 8 twist AR-15 with a suppressor. Altitudes from 400-5500 ASL and barrel got very hot shooting prairie dogs. Never ever had a single bullet blow up. I think you'll do fine with the 9 twist and about any bullet that is suitable for a 221FB.

 

[dellet]

I can confirm that Sierra’s 50 grain Blitz is a bullet you should probably avoid. At about 240,000 rpm they don’t make it 200 yards. After calling Sierra they placed the max rpm around 225,000.

In a 1/9 twist that limits you to about 2800 fps.

40 grain VMax is good for at least 300,000, or 3400 fps in a 1/8. Making it out of the barrel and all the way to the target can be two completely different issues.

 

[SmokinJoe]

This barrel would make a great 223AI.

 

[Lefty Trigger]

Anybody want to buy it? I can seem to find anyone to chamber it for me at a reasonable cost. The prices I have been getting I can buy a new barrel with money left for lunch and ammo. Headed for the "for sale" section...