shortgrass
Well-Known Member
If you were going to build a new varmint rig today, all things considered (brass/ammo being the main ones), would you even consider the .220 Swift?
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- Thread starter shortgrass
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Browninglover1
Well-Known Member
I personally wouldn't build a Swift I'd rather have a 22-250. The Swift wins in velocity but component availability makes the 250 my choice. I've never owned a Swift but I've shot some and they are fun. I think most guys that choose to buy and build new Swifts do so out of nostalgia. If my grandpa or dad had a Swift that I shot growing up and loved I'm sure I'd own one right now.
I have both and like both but the Swift is my favorite. Swift Brass is hard to find now but it will come in . Heck if you get a 200 that will last you for years unless you load supper hot. I have some Winchester and Norma I have loaded 8 times, brass is still good. I use a Redding body die and lee collet neck die. It seem easy on the brass. don't have to trim much.
HARPERC
Well-Known Member
I think the Swift set the bar, and has to be considered. That said I'd go with with the .224 Clark or TTH, whatever it's being called these days. Sentimental reasoning.
FearNoWind
Well-Known Member
Call me "grandpa". Back circa 1962 I curled up behind a Swift for some of the finest varmint shooting imaginable. I swear the bullet maintained one level straight line from muzzle to target. OK, an exaggeration
but I'd love to have another one today.Let me say one more thing. The RUGER BICENTENNIAL 220 sw. I have belonged to my cousin he got it in1976
I kept it most of the time. Until I got my 2506. About 1985 he sold the swift to a buddy of ours. Around 1992 I bought it from him. 2 years ago I got a 700 sps varmint in 22-250. I threw the plastic stock away and put a lamanate stock on it. It is a nice gun. I like it alot.. will it out shoot the old Ruger almost but No. Is it faster than the swift No. Can you find ammo for the Swift ,not everywhere. The 22-250 yep. Every body needs one of each.
I kept it most of the time. Until I got my 2506. About 1985 he sold the swift to a buddy of ours. Around 1992 I bought it from him. 2 years ago I got a 700 sps varmint in 22-250. I threw the plastic stock away and put a lamanate stock on it. It is a nice gun. I like it alot.. will it out shoot the old Ruger almost but No. Is it faster than the swift No. Can you find ammo for the Swift ,not everywhere. The 22-250 yep. Every body needs one of each.
shortgrass
Well-Known Member
My main concern is ammo/brass. Neither is available. I know ammo has loosed up but mainly in the more popular calibers. The not so popular are coming along but very slowly (like the .257 Rob. , 7 x 57, 6mm Rem and the like) and aren't run in very large lots. I'm not even seeing .243 Win. and .22-250 loaded ammo on the shelves regularly. Lapua .22-250 brass seems to be available readily. Brass fired in a factory chamber may very well not chamber in a custom cut chamber, even with FL sizing. Not much sense in building a rifle and not having ammo to fire in it! Now if you've got a couple of hundred new cases salted away, that becomes a different story. There's no other cartridge case that Swift brass can be made from.
tinkerer
Well-Known Member
I might recommend the 22-243. Brass plentiful, bullets easy, forms easy.
Larry
Tinkerer
Larry
Tinkerer
shortgrass
Well-Known Member
Ya',, I know. I've got a potential customer asking me about building a Swift. I don't own a Swift reamer and if he wants me to rent one, I won't guarantee accuracy. That'd be like buying a "used" reamer from an unknown source. I already own nearly $10,000 worth of chambering reamers! He's the second or third in the past twenty years to 'want' a Swift,,,,,, he already owns a Ruger in that chambering. Why another? Like I said earlier, brass from the Ruger may not fit into a custom cut chamber. I have, in the drawer, a .22-250. .22-250AI., 22.243, and a 220 AI (only because the customer just gave it to me as bonus/tip). I could charge him extra for having to buy a chambering reamer that's not a very popular one. My main fear is ammo/brass availability. If it was a job in any machine shop that required a "special" tool that has very limited use it'd be added to the price of the job. I was just curious if anyone else was seeing lack of ammo/brass as a negitive. I see it (lack of brass) as a BIG ONE! I don't care how "good" it is,,,, if you can't feed it, so what!
Browninglover1
Well-Known Member
I fully expect to eat the cost of the reamer on an uncommon chambering but I also expect it to be mine at that point and you ship it back with the rifle. Like I said in my post, nostalgia is the only reason to build a Swift. A 22-250 AI is what I would build after you explained to me why you aren't particularly fond of the old Swift.
Yea, Most brass is hard to find right now. You can't even find 22-250 brass, every place I checked is out. When they make their runs, they will have everything again. Then stock up. I have plent of everything I shoot. I buy when I don't need it.
22-250 good, 22-250 Ackley better. 220 Swift better, 220 Swift Ackley even better. 22-243 real good ,22-243 Ackley even better and better with fast twist barrel and 75g Amax.
22-250 good, 22-250 Ackley better. 220 Swift better, 220 Swift Ackley even better. 22-243 real good ,22-243 Ackley even better and better with fast twist barrel and 75g Amax.
This guy sums it up pretty good. between a 22-250 and a 220 swift.
.22-250 Or .220 Swift–That Is TheQuestion
So which of the two cartridges under discussion is best? Those are questions varmint shooters have been debating for several decades so in truth there's no way I can settle the argument here and now. When taking a close look at test results from a number of rifles in both calibers I have worked with through the years, I notice the .220 Swift has consistently produced slightly better accuracy, but that may have had more to do with rifles than with cartridges. When both cartridges are handloaded to the same chamber pressure and fired in barrels of the same length, the .220 Swift will usually average upwards of 100 fps higher velocity. While that can be considered substantial, I'm not sure it represents enough difference in performance to cause a serious decision to be made one way or the other. Due to its semirimmed case, the .220 Swift will sometimes fail to feed reliably from the magazine of a rifle unless the magazine was designed specifically for it. Even so, since, like the Weatherby Super VarmintMaster, most of my bolt-action varmint rifles are single shots with no magazine, neither cartridge has an edge there.
The .220 Swift is my favorite for reasons more sentimental than practical, but anytime I need to send a long-distance hello across the Back Forty, Mr. Woodchuck is in grave danger regardless of whether the rifle I am shooting is chambered for the .22-250 or the .220 Swift.
.22-250 Or .220 Swift–That Is TheQuestion
So which of the two cartridges under discussion is best? Those are questions varmint shooters have been debating for several decades so in truth there's no way I can settle the argument here and now. When taking a close look at test results from a number of rifles in both calibers I have worked with through the years, I notice the .220 Swift has consistently produced slightly better accuracy, but that may have had more to do with rifles than with cartridges. When both cartridges are handloaded to the same chamber pressure and fired in barrels of the same length, the .220 Swift will usually average upwards of 100 fps higher velocity. While that can be considered substantial, I'm not sure it represents enough difference in performance to cause a serious decision to be made one way or the other. Due to its semirimmed case, the .220 Swift will sometimes fail to feed reliably from the magazine of a rifle unless the magazine was designed specifically for it. Even so, since, like the Weatherby Super VarmintMaster, most of my bolt-action varmint rifles are single shots with no magazine, neither cartridge has an edge there.
The .220 Swift is my favorite for reasons more sentimental than practical, but anytime I need to send a long-distance hello across the Back Forty, Mr. Woodchuck is in grave danger regardless of whether the rifle I am shooting is chambered for the .22-250 or the .220 Swift.
shortgrass
Well-Known Member
The makers will make runs of .22-250 brass looong before they'll be making .220 Swift brass. When I first started shooting the .22-250AI there was no loading data published for it. The remedy,, use .220 Swift data......
