Berger Reloading Manual - strange for 221 Fireball

[Geronimo Jim]

Great read..........Checked one of my favorite cartridges.....221 Fireball. In the introduction it mentions that a favorite load is 40 grain Bullet with Lil'Gun powder.
HOWEVER, when you look at load data no Lil'Gun. Now did I miss something? Does Lil'Gun go by another name?

In my experience Lil'Gun is the best powder by far. For me about 150 fps faster than anything else with great accuracy.

 

[Nomad47]

Somewhere in that manual I seem to recall reading that they would not list powders that did NOT fill the case to 80%. I'm betting that is why your powder is not listed.

 

[Nomad47]

BTW, LIL' GUN is mentioned for the 22 Hornet.

 

[Charlie-NY]

In my experience Lil'Gun is the best powder by far. For me about 150 fps faster than anything else with great accuracy.

This was my experience with Lil'Gun and the 40 BT in a custom .221FB. When I posted the info on another site, ol' GB threatened to ban me for posting dangerous information. After all, everyone knows that you can't get that kind of velocity increase with a change of powder at safe working levels.
FWIW, RE 7 was very consistent and accurate, just couldn't produce the velocity of Lil'Gun.

 

[Geronimo Jim]

In addditon to the velocity, it shoot quarter inch groups in my Cooper! I just check my Berger manual and it state the look for loads that fill 90%
of the case. Haven't loaded any 221 since last year and can't remember how full the case was. Maybe time to start loading for my trip
out west to shoot dogs.

If they were not going to list any data, why tease people with saying it was one of the most favorite loads in the introduction? Just oversight I guess.

 

[Charles]

Tried lil gun and several others,finally settled on N120 in my cooper shoots very small holes.Have to thank Fletcher for that rifle.

 

[LHSmith]

Well, I had just settled on a load for my 700 LVSF using Reloder 7 and 50 gr. BT's. I had tried AA-1680 w/ 40 gr. BT's and V-max, but wasn't happy with results. Now you guys got me wanting to try Lil Gun with the 40's.......and my Hercules Re-7 ('82 vintage) is just about done. A pound of powder sure goes far feeding a Fireball.
Got my grandson started w/ a centerfire using the FB from the bench.....and he is handling it amazingly well.

 

[bigedp51]

Great read..........Checked one of my favorite cartridges.....221 Fireball. In the introduction it mentions that a favorite load is 40 grain Bullet with Lil'Gun powder.
HOWEVER, when you look at load data no Lil'Gun. Now did I miss something? Does Lil'Gun go by another name?

In my experience Lil'Gun is the best powder by far. For me about 150 fps faster than anything else with great accuracy.

You can get the Lil'Gun information for free at the Hodgdon's website.
(remember free is good) And Hodgdon's makes the powder.

 

[Charles]

watch lil gun pressure come,s quick.40gr hornady and n120 worked for me worked up until bolt started to feel tight backed off and no need to shoot anything else.absolutley destroys P.D's

 

[flatlander]

I'm shooting & loading for a 20 VarTarg, not the 221FB parent case, but I've found AA2200 to be excellent in the little 20 VT. Gives higher velocities than any of the other powders I've tried in the VarTarg. Anyone know whether it's appropriate for the 221FB?