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Rebarrel/rechamber either)
Hawkshaw
Member Posts: 1,016 ✭✭
What kind of problems, or benefits am I going to encounter by re chambering,or rebarreling a 222 to the 221 Fireball????? Extractor, mag spring, follower, or feeding, or anything else. I'm considering any quality 222. 220, 288, win 70, etc. A trusted smith will be used for all metal work. THX Keith
Comments
The case is shorter but I would expect the action/parts to require no modification for a 222 to 221 conversion.
I think I would have straight no taper barrel and buy the set of reamers so it could be set back a few times.
But here is a Rem 700
https://www.GunBroker.com/item/795328665
I'd contact CZ and ask them to find me one.
https://cz-usa.com/chambering/221-fireball/
added Fair number of CZ's in other cal with that bolt and lots of 221 magazines listed.
No I'm not a 100 % sure the shorter length will work 100% in every action with out some mods. It seams to me that dads 722 Rem in 222 would feed them but that was way back in the 70's. In that same time frame I had a 700 Varmint Special in 223. It would do the 222 and the 221's. I have the 722 but no 221 ammo to re test the theory. The spacer block and follower might need adjusted or changed. I have considered opening the 722 up to a 222 Mag but...
added 2 I like the 222. I shot the heck out of it in high school. Mostly cast bullets, 450 rounds or so per week during the summer less when it was -20 out. The rifle was used dad got it. It might have been from uncle Tang. He was a shooter too. I have the Pacific die set to make jacketed .224 bullets from spent 22 rimfire brass that was his. A lot of hard work to make good bullets compared to just casting some. I bought all the broken boxes of jacketed bullets that were great deals at the gunshows and shot them too. The 222 Mag would maybe get me into fresher throat and I could do it myself. My favorite smith has been gone for a long time - thanks Jack D.
The 221 FB, 17 FB, and 17 Hornet are awesome little cartridges. Just throwing those last two out there. If I were to rebarrel a 221 FB, I would consider heavily of using a 1 in 8 twist.
I personally would skip the Remington 700 just due to the cost. The one listed on GunBroker is twice the cost of a Brand new CZ-527 in .221 Fireball. The only drawback is finding a CZ-527 in .221 Fireball as every one I see is out of stock or sold. CZ manufactures detachable magazines specifically for the .221 Fireball.
But you could find any used CZ-527 in the small bolt face (0.378?) for the .222 or the .223 then have it re-barreled for the 221 Fireball. Then buy the CZ magazines and go shoot.
I DO NOT recommend setting a CZ .222 barrel back and cutting a new chamber due to the fact that the barrels are hammer forged. This is the worst combination for a barrel when you have one which is hammer forged. Buy a used rifle, remove the barrel (or shoot it out), buy a new cut rifled barrel in the contour of your choice and let a good ?Smith take it from there. Then buy the CZ magazines and let ?er rip![:D]
I don?t favor any contour as long as it?s not a pure pencil barrel which is useless in my opinion. Get a #3 Bartlein which will stand up to anything you can throw at it. You can go larger but there is no need with this cartridge. I?ve built straight tubes and heavy contour barrels but they simply add weight which is not needed for your use.
Best.
I modified the magazine of a Howa 1500 223 Rem rifle that I had to feed the 221 Fireball. To make it feed I had to replace the follower and magazine spring. The follower I used was for a Savage 223 and I had to shorten it and file the sides down to fit into the magazine box. The magazine spring was a Remington 700 221 Fireball magazine spring. I also had to attach a spacer block to the L shaped bracket that Howa uses to shorten the magazine. The fireball rounds fed fine and if I worked the bolt quickly the ejector would fling the case out fine but if I pulled the bolt back slower the case would fall off the extractor and I could just reach in and pick it up without having to chase it.
There are two basic ways to view this type of project but they embrace two different ways of thinking:
Buy a CZ in .221 Fireball and run the Fireball magazines. Or buy a CZ for another of the small rimmed cartridges and substitute magazines after having a barrel fitted. The feeding is in the magazines.
Cobbling a .221 Fireball together from handmade parts. We've been doing this for 100 years as gunsmiths and gunmakers since not every cartridge could be accommodated by the actions available at the time. Custom boxes, springs and followers were the on the menu of the day simply because the parts needed for a particular conversion were not on the market.
Years ago, we often fought over any Brevex action which became available because there were so few made and the demand for oversized African cartridges was running at a fast pace. That's when some of us started making larger actions on manual machines (pre-CNC) so we could have at least a few to work with. The same concept applies to the shorter than 'normal' cartridges coming into favor for standard short actions made for the .223 length cartridges, the .221 Fireball and the 6mm BR.
Unfortunately, the public demand for both of these cartridges cases has leveled off so the rifles once made specifically for them have fallen off. But there are commercially made alternatives available for both.
Choose your level of desirability, cobbling to occupy your time and satisfy your need to create something or work with the commercially available alternative, the CZ rifles.
Enjoy the process!
Best.