Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles FANTASTICAL Fhuqktardation.........

Spomer seems a little behind the times in his “revelation” with the Swift. If you’re looking to push high BC .224 bullets, nowadays there’s far better case options than the Swift.

I’ve been using the .22GT lately, and so far, am very pleased. 22-250 case capacity in a far better case design. Works great out of AICS type magazines. In fact, is the best feeding cartridge I have ever tried from that style of magazine. Cartridge OAL is a non issue as well.

Out of my latest barrel, a 20” Bartlein, I’m getting 3080fps from 88gr ELDs pushed by a warm load of H4350. In the conditions I shoot, out to 600 yards, it only drifts .1 mil/100 yards in a full value 7mph wind. From 600 to 1000, it does the same with a 6mph wind. Those numbers compare very favorably with my 6.5 Creedmoor pushing 147gr ELDs, but the .22GT is significantly flatter, needing 1.5 mils less elevation at 1000 than the 147. For those that don’t know mils, that’s 54” flatter.

Recoil is really light, making it much easier to spot my own impacts. And precision wise, it seems eager to please, putting five shots in the .2s at 100 and about .5MOA at 800.

Have only killed a couple of critters with it so far, but it has been very effective, producing DRTs on a 200ish pound sow and a 150ish pound boar. Sow was at about 175 yards, and Boar was 300ish.

So, Spomer is finally catching up to many of us in the benefits of small caliber, light recoiling, high BC bullets pushed to good velocities, but he doesn’t seem to have figured out the case geometry thing. The easy answer to get what he’s looking for would be factory produced .22 Creedmoor rifles and ammo, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see that before long. It has pretty good traction in the shooting community already and with the same capacity as the .220 Swift, adds another 100fps or so to the numbers of the .22GT.

John

It's very difficult to get an accurate range-finder reading on a prairie dog sized critter on flat ground when you are also on the same level, and it's about 400-500 yards away. Up to about 500 yards, a Swift shooting a 53 Vmax at around 3850 fps gives a greater first shot capability because of its flat trajectory. The light projectile reduces recoil and if there's negligible wind, then wind drift is not an issue. On hogs, a Swift using light projectiles will give you the same result as your .22GT. Those who used the Swift on big game like Ackley etc, were using light-weight projectiles that presumably were shot into the lungs and their explosiveness destroyed the lungs. It is questionable whether the heavy projectiles out of a large capacity .224 cartridge would have the same devastating effect. The design of the Swift does result in case stretching, but the design is very strong, a small diameter body surrounded by more metal from the barrel, a larger rim (.308 case size) for more metal around the primer pocket, the case taper and 21 degree shoulder gives good feeding and extraction. Past about 500 yards, the 75-88 grain projectiles in a fast twist are the way to go, but up to about 500 yards, I think the 53 grain Vmax is superior for the reasons stated.