SmallCaliberCentral

Some of you may remember my "Christmas Cooper", a nice little Model 38 Phoenix in 221 Fireball. After mounting my scope, a 2006 vintage Leupold VX-III 6.5-20X M1 Long Range with VHR, installing a Sinclair offset level, a Jard 10 oz trigger and hex action screws, it was off to the outback to see how the little rifle shoots.

The rifle came with 100 pcs of R-P once-fired brass, un-prepped and with an unknown primer, probably the WSR with its thin cup. I just wanted to load a bunch of cases up with suitable powders and bullets to get the fired brass in order to properly prep it and prime it with Remington 7-1/2's; my standard primer for this case. So this initial range outing was mostly "poking about" to find a baseline to proceed from further.

Here's the finished rifle on the bench during range testing this week:



And my super-sophisticated (not!) range setup in the boonies:



After zeroing, the first group shot with the Nosler 40gr Varmageddon Tipped and A2200 was encouraging, but shows more work is in order. No where near BR-quality grouping, but shows I may be on the right path:



A look downrange at my 'private outback range':



The targets are self-explanatory, but this one below was shot with my load for my CZ 527 221FB, set up for magazine feeding. Unfortunately, it was shot with RL-7, which right now is as scarce as chicken lips. With a bit of dinking about with seating depth and maybe tweak the charge, it may be 'the one' for the Cooper.....we'll see:



What looks to be "the load" using A2200, but also needs tweaking with powder weight and seating depth. I'll load the next tests in properly prepared R-P brass and the primer of choice (7-1/2), then when the load is found, I'll load up 200 rounds in Lapua and Norma/Nosler cases to really see the potential of the little rifle:



Lots more work to do before rat season rolls around in a couple more months, but the rifle looks promising. A parting shot on the bench....not much need for barrel cooling, as like the sweet 20VT, not much powder is burned so a guy can really have fun in a hot rat patch.



Still got a long way to go, but as soon as the brass is out of the tumbler, it's back to the bench in the quest for "The Load". Skippy is still sleeping, but little does he know that there's a new sheriff in town for when he wakes up.

That's a pretty rif.. Wait, scratch that. That's a man-pretty rifle, RIO. NICE setup. The only thing you're missing is a squeak. I sent you a PM.

csand: Thanks for the PM heads-up! Most appreciated.

As soon as the rats poke their heads above ground, this rifle, along with her safe sister, my Cooper 20VT will get some serious field action teaching Skippy to fly. Then, and only then, will the formula be complete.

Gotta start somewhere & it looks like a good one there!!

Yep, sweet set-up and looks like you are off to a good start! Of course, we would expect no less of you.

RAMOS wrote:Yep, sweet set-up and looks like you are off to a good start! Of course, we would expect no less of you.

Roger that!!!

When is Nosler going to do another run of Varmageddons? Been waiting for 2 years to see .204..

Bodei: To the best of my knowledge, they're running both BT's and Varmageddon's right now. They should be showing up on shelves by the time rat season rolls around soon I'd wager.

Skippy does indeed deserve the best method of molecular disintegration possible, right?

Good! I need some black tips of destruction to fill out my color spectrum....

Same here, tipped one's, really do the job. Bill K

Here's the "Eureka" part:

Took the little rifle back into the outback yesterday with an experiment in mind. Most of my precision rifles seem to prefer bullet seating in the .005" off the lands area, but there's always exceptions, and this Cooper Fireball is one (a la 204 Ruger jump...).

I loaded up what I think is to be my Pet Load using A2200, but seated the bullets .080" off the lands instead of the usual .005". THAT was the determining difference, and now the little rifle is shooting into the high .1's and mid .2's using Nosler Factory Seconds to boot (40gr Varmageddon Tipped).

The target results are what I was hoping for:



Anybody who poo-poo's Nosler Factory Seconds is missing the boat:



Still won't win any BR matches, but the combination should really put the hurt on Skippy soon:



Keep in mind that all these targets were shot with R-P brass of unknown number of firings (trade material), NOT Lapua or Norma/Nosler. Here she is all cleaned and ready to go back home:



Now to get busy loading up 100 Nosler and 100 Lapua cases with the 'new' Pet Load and make all preparations for "Fun With Skippy and His Pals" coming to an alfalfa patch near you soon.

Sweet!! Another rat rifle loved by all & hated by some!! Too bad they can't get to know it before it ends their existence on this wonderful rock we call Earth!! I just know they would love it too!!

Rick, just curious.

Why work up a load with R-P brass, then switch to Nosler/Lapua?

RAMOS wrote:Rick, just curious. Why work up a load with R-P brass, then switch to Nosler/Lapua?

Good question there, Jon.

The rifle came to me with 100 pcs of R-P brass, and I decided to use it for the initial load development to save the good stuff. Some came primed with what looked like WSR primers with their soft cup, so I shot it all up with my first round of tests, then fully prepped it and primed it all with 7-1/2's, my usual small rifle primer.

Now that the rifles Pet Load has been determined (I'm hoping), the Norma and Lapua brass will receive the same load, along with the initial 100 pcs of R-P brass. The water capacity of the three brands is so dang close, I'm not fretting about the differences in cases (we're talking tenths here). They will be all boxed up in 100 rnd boxes and not mixed of course.

But just for the sake of comparison, I'll take my target stand with me on my first rat trip and verify all three side-by-side at the same time. I've done this in the past with no indication of any difference at the target or chronograph, and don't expect this outing to be any different. But experience has taught me that groups are usually more round and consistent with premium brass, most likely due to case thickness uniformity, especially in the necks.

I had planned to use the Norma and Lapua cases for my 20VT, but decided that the Fireball deserved some quality cases too. As I've got another 200 Lapua 221FB cases on the way, and with a good stock of Norma cases at Nosler, I'm not having to depend on R-P cases for this rifle as I usually do. Between my 17 Mach IV, 20VT and 221FB, I bet I've got about 2,000 R-P Fireball cases on hand in various forms. Many on the forums call the R-P 221FB case crap, but I've shot groups in the .1's with them, so they can't be all THAT bad, right?

Anyway, that's the long answer to a short question FWIW.

Thanks for the reply, Rick. Interesting that the capacities are that close. Looks like you had some nice sunny weather for your testing, as well. Take care.