Replacement for 220 Swift

[lee31]

All this talk about the swift made me dust off mine. Loaded up 4 50 grain Vmax's in front of some H4895. Average velocity was 3886. Shot in the .2s at 100 yards. Also Varget with the same bullets. Group was right around.5 velocity was 3871. Then I tried some some IMR 4166 with 55 grain Sierra blitzking

 

[Cantshootalick]

I have a 25-06, that shoots 75gr V-max at 3700 fps from my Tikka T3 and 4000 fps from my P17 Custom 25-06. Funny thing is point of impact is very close to my 120gr loads, so I dont' have to adjust the scope when changing weights. Just a thought.

Quarter inch cartridges in my opinion are the "do all" cartridge. Anything from deer to varmints. My first rifle was a mark v in .257 wby. ($650 back then. Had to save my pennies for a while). It shot 75 Sierra flat based reeeeaaaal good. Took it to the dog town once. Put it back in the case after bout five shots LOL. Still use it a lot for deer and yote. Now days I just reload 100gr Sierra flat bases for it. Suddenly I feel the need to seat some 75 grainers.

 

[TX Badger]

Quarter inch cartridges in my opinion are the "do all" cartridge. Anything from deer to varmints. My first rifle was a mark v in .257 wby. ($650 back then. Had to save my pennies for a while). It shot 75 Sierra flat based reeeeaaaal good. Took it to the dog town once. Put it back in the case after bout five shots LOL. Still use it a lot for deer and yote. Now days I just reload 100gr Sierra flat bases for it. Suddenly I feel the need to seat some 75 grainers.

Even more so now that there are high bc 130 grainers avail. If a guy really wanted to get by on just one rifle...

 

[Cantshootalick]

All this talk about the swift made me dust off mine. Loaded up 4 50 grain Vmax's in front of some H4895. Average velocity was 3886. Shot in the .2s at 100 yards. Also Varget with the same bullets. Group was right around.5 velocity was 3871. Then I tried some some IMR 4166 with 55 grain Sierra blitzking

Nice shooting. I normally have a "flier" lol. I never played too much with powder and bullets with the Swift. I was a member of a gun club back when I bought it. The owner was a huge swift fan. He seemed to have it all figured out. I still use his loads. 40gr 4064 w/ 40gr vmax. 38gr w/ 50gr vmax. I think I read an earlier post that a guy had 6000 rounds through his Swift and it was still shooting flies. I think mine has 2500-3000 and is throated bad. When you're on the dog town and your gun smells like you're welding......prob should switch rifles lol. But those little bastards kept popping up!

 

[Cantshootalick]

Correction. He shot 40gr hp and 52 grain MatchKings. I switched to the vmax's.

 

[Hunter09]

The one gun I regret selling more than anything was my 700 LVSF .220. That gun was an absolute coyote killing machine.

 

[Varminator 911]

Only gun I ever regret selling was a pre 64 Model 70 in 220 Swift. It had an 8 power Unertl target scope. Bought in about 1960 and sold as a poor college kid that needed a shotgun to go pheasant hunting with my buddies.

 

[mmgravy]

It sounds like you have the right thought process in place, namely putting a new Swift tube on the Swift and building, say a 22 Creedmoor.

The only thing I would say is if rebarreling your Swift, go with a minimum 8 twist. Do not go any slower. I have rebarreled a pair of push feed M70's, one with a SS 5R Rock barrel and the other a SS Brux. Both are 1-8 twist. If I were to do it over, I would have gone 1-7.5 or perhaps 1-7.

I also have a 1-14 Swift. The lightest bullets I have shot in all three is 50 grain. All three shoot groups about the same size. The heaviest I have shot are 80 grain in the fast twists, again both of them shooting the same size groups. The 1-14 will not, of course, shoot an 80 grain accurately which brings up the point of going with a fast twist to be able to shoot the heavies as well as the lightweights.

 

[jjmp]

Mmgravy, so tell us how tite those 1/8 twist bbls shoot? Being that their both top tier bbls thks . Cantshootalick, do you anneal your brass ,where you from thks !

 

[lee31]

It sounds like you have the right thought process in place, namely putting a new Swift tube on the Swift and building, say a 22 Creedmoor.

The only thing I would say is if rebarreling your Swift, go with a minimum 8 twist. Do not go any slower. I have rebarreled a pair of push feed M70's, one with a SS 5R Rock barrel and the other a SS Brux. Both are 1-8 twist. If I were to do it over, I would have gone 1-7.5 or perhaps 1-7.

I also have a 1-14 Swift. The lightest bullets I have shot in all three is 50 grain. All three shoot groups about the same size. The heaviest I have shot are 80 grain in the fast twists, again both of them shooting the same size groups. The 1-14 will not, of course, shoot an 80 grain accurately which brings up the point of going with a fast twist to be able to shoot the heavies as well as the lightweights.

I've heard those fast twist barrels will tear those light bullets up outta a cartridge as fast as a swift. You e never had any issues running 50s at 3800 plus with them?

 

[Dolphin]

New to the forum. Great to be here. Blah blah blah. Anyway.
I've got a rem700 vssf. I bought the rifle new back when they would only set you back bout $600. It is chambered for 220swift. The rifle has been to the dog town prob 6 times and has done as much work on the farm. The rifle is at this point "shot out". I have a heavy 22-250, heavy 243, hornet, 223. Sooo I'm looking to re-barrel the rifle in another "barrel burner". I loved the Swift but didn't love the rimmed case. Been looking at the 22-243. Whadya guys think? Never ran a wildcat before but looks pretty straight forward.

The swift is still awfully hard to beat in my mind even though it's been around for about 85 years and the parent case has been around since 1895.

 

[Dolphin]

New to the forum. Great to be here. Blah blah blah. Anyway.
I've got a rem700 vssf. I bought the rifle new back when they would only set you back bout $600. It is chambered for 220swift. The rifle has been to the dog town prob 6 times and has done as much work on the farm. The rifle is at this point "shot out". I have a heavy 22-250, heavy 243, hornet, 223. Sooo I'm looking to re-barrel the rifle in another "barrel burner". I loved the Swift but didn't love the rimmed case. Been looking at the 22-243. Whadya guys think? Never ran a wildcat before but looks pretty straight forward.

 

[Dolphin]

Accuracy before speed. My long range dog killer is a 6mm dasher.

 

[mmgravy]

The norm with either rifle is half-inch or below. Most of the time much below. Both rifles are superbly accurate.

I also heard that I would have trouble with light bullets "blowing up" in flight. I have yet to see that in my rifles. One bullet both love is the 53 grain Vmax. Prairie dogs not so much!!