300 Fireball

nononsense

October 17, 2004 07:10

spec.4,

I think that you're referring to the 300 Whisper which would be the .221 Fireball necked up for .308 bullets for the ability to shoot subsonic and suppressed. This is a propriatary cartridge when referred to as the .300 Whisper. Here is a short synopsis:

The 300 Whisper was designed for the purpose of firing extremely heavy, accurate, ballistically efficient bullets at sub-sonic velocities and is now the state of the art long range cartridge in suppressed weapons. It delivers more energy more accurately than any existing sub-sonic round at 200 yards (and a lot further, except other Whispers). In addition, it has interesting sonic capabilities - possessing greater versatility than any other cartridge capable of performing in these vastly differing arenas.

This text is based on information from "Cartridges of the World", Hodgdon reloading manual, the cartridge designer and/or own resources.

Whispersr: A wide range of calibers encompass the 'Whisperr' series of cartridges. A "Whisperr" cartridge must be capable of sub-sonic extreme accuracy with very heavy bullets for its caliber; i.e. 240 grains in 30, as well as moderate to high velocity while maintaining excellent accuracy with light bullets for the caliber; i.e. 125 at 2300 FPS in 30. The 300 Whisperr was the first of the series, and, contrary to what you may have read about it, the fact of the matter is the cartridge was designed as a multi-purpose cartridge from the beginning. Its design parameters, in addition to the ballistics quoted above, were that it must be capable of being used in the AR-15/M-16 family of rifles, Contenders and bolt action rifles as well as being easily suppressed. I know that because I invented it. It revolutionized the tactical suppressed sub-sonic field in controllability in full auto, power and accuracy. It has been very successful and has gained wide acceptance as a hunting round for mid-size game, such as deer, and has probably taken a wider variety of game than any other handgun cartridge in the same time span. Due to its small case capacity, its recoil is very mild. One Whisperr series from 6 mm, 6.5 mm, 7mm, 300 and 338 is based on the 221 fireball case. Another series is based on the 7 BR case in 338, 375 and 416 caliber to convert 308 case head size actions. Another used the 460 Weatherby case for 50 caliber conversions to 300 Win Mag case head size rifles. Others use rimmed cases, such as the 50-70-750, for use in single shots.

http://www.sskindustries.com/cartridges.htm

Load information:

http://www.reloadersnest.com/frontpage.asp?CaliberID=135

http://www.loadyourown.com/loaddata/sdata.asp (enter selection under rifle)

http://www.stevespages.com/308p_6.html

Additional information:

http://www.feistyrooster.com/300x221/300x221index.html

http://www.quarterbore.com/300whisper/

http://www.accuratereloading.com/300whisper.html

http://www.larrywillis.com/300Whisper.html

That will get you started. Use a good search engine, there's a bunch of information available.

Best of luck.

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spec.4

October 17, 2004 09:08

thank you for the info.

spec.4

Don't fear the night, fear what hunts at night. ME!!

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Iconoclast

October 17, 2004 11:40

Interesting claim of origination. I know the (now retired) general commanding Elgin AFB at the time the .221 Fireball / .30 Fireball were originally developed. It could be the author was one of the AF ballistic technicians who worked on the project, though.

nononsense: looking at the above post, I can see how it could be mis-construed . . . defintely not well phrased . . . I was not contradicting or questioning the data you provided and certainly meant no offense. I'll drop the general an email and see what I can learn.

"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the french." (Mark Twain) ". . . And liberals." (me)

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nononsense

October 17, 2004 12:16

Iconoclast,

I have no vested interest in this question at all. However, I am always interested in more information, especially first hand, with regard to any of the questions posted here. If you have time, would you post more of the background that you have. It would help in keeping some of J.D. Jones comments in check.

Also, I've never had a problem asking J.D. a question or asking for answers. Here is his contact info:

SSK Industries
590 Woodvue Lane
Wintersville, Ohio 43953

Phone: (740) 264-0176
Fax: (740) 264-2257

Email: sskindust@1st.net
Email: info@sskindustries.com

Thanks!

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Iconoclast,

No offense meant or taken at all. These electrons don't communicate as well as I would like at times. But I am very interested in any information that you can turn up regarding this cartridge. I think that we both suffer from the same desire for more knowledge and that's what I'm always most interested in obtaining.

J.D. Jones is quite well known for his self-serving attitudes in business. So it wouldn't surprise me to hear or read a different version of where and when the original idea was born. It's happened before...

Thanks for looking into this!

Best.

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300 Fireball

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