Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Opinion's on Swift Scirocco 2 bullet?

I just picked up a .257 Weatherby and have been looking at bullet options. I also have a 250ai and run mainly cup and core bullets in it. Been thinking that I should be looking at nosler accubonds , Barnes , nosler e tips and the Swift scirocco 2. Just looking for feedback on the swift ....never used hem but they have caught my eye. Anyone used them at all on game etc.?

I guess no one uses these bullets. I went ahead and bought some 100 grain in .257 caliber for my new .257 Weatherby magnum. I will let you guys know how they work. I like the design .....they look like they might be a bit tougher than the NAB or the Hornady Innerbond....we will see. I am surprised at the lack of response to the post....must not be popular with the Fire crowd.

I'm not familiar with the 100gr .257 ones but I like the 150gr .308 ones out a 30-06.

They work great. Don't expect to get max speed out of them, but they hold up really well.

The original Sciroccos I tried worked well as far as bullet perfomance in game animals but I had a hard time to get them to shoot well. I tried them in a 270 and a 300 H&H and never could get a group smaller than 1.75" to 2" no matter what i tried. I've heard the Scirocco 2 is more accurate than the originals but I can't say for sure.

True. I run 130s in a .270, 180s in a .300 Wby, and 210s in a .338 Win Mag. I like their terminal performance but velocities run 100-150 fps behind Ballistic Tips. I actually had to step down a couple of grains using 7828sc in the .300 Wby, as they were starting to crater primers with my old standby charge that I used with Partitions over the years.

In my experience they work very similarly to Interbonds when they hit stuff.

I've had mixed results getting Scirocco II's to shoot well. They seem to take more fooling with powder charge and seating depth than most other bullets, and with some boxes I've just never gotten them to shoot well in any rifle. In others they're outstanding; my .243 loves the 90's.

Too true. And expensive to experiment with, I think.

My experience mirrors Mule Deer's - except that I've never gotten them to shoot well in my 30-06. I've tried both the 165 and 180 gr versions of the .308 Scirocco IIs with the same 1.5 to 2 inch results.

Have you tested any of them on your Juenke machine?

I finally got 90 gr. SSII's to shoot sub inch (.7" or so) in my .240 Wby. I had to approximate factory COAL, loading them out long, not so good, a bit under 2" at a hundred.

DF

Last fall my daughter shot 2 mule deer with a 25 WSSM using the 100 grain Scirocco. The first was a buck of about 225 pounds and it was a broadside through and through taking out the top of the heart and the bottom lobes of the lungs.

The second was a mule deer doe taken at a hard raking angle. She put the bullet between the last 2 ribs and the bullet stopped under the hide on the opposite shoulder.

I found the bullet was very easy to get to shoot well in the A-Bolt using RL17. (The first and only powder I tried with this bullet)

The "lump" on the right shoulder is where the bullet stopped.





25 calibre 100 grain Swift Scirocco. 3300 fps MV, ~3150 impact velocity. Recovered weight 79 1/2 grains. (80%)

Nice deer, congrats to your daughter. As I've mentioned before I really like the 130 gr in my 264 WM.

doubletap,

The Juenke machine was on loan for a year or so. I did get to test the original Sciroccos on it, and they tested quite well, no doubt because Swift used a Juenke machine when developing them. But dunno about the SII's.

Guy's, thank you for the feedback. I only bought one box so it will be fun to see if I can make them shoot. I'm planning on trying a number of combinations to see what shoots the best out of my new Vanguard S2. I'm starting with the gun stock, and going from here. The trigger feels decent, not quite sure about the stock. I can always get a B & C stock with the bedding block skim bed it and free float the barrel, but I figure I might as well see what happens with the factory set up first. I'm looking forward to the new .257........ I have always wanted a screamer....I don't think there is many faster than this, plus I simply love hunting Mule Deer and Antelope in Montanna. I can't think of a better long range rifle for that. I already have many nice flat shooting guns.......a 250 AI, a 6.5 creedmoor, a 6.5-06 ackley improved, a 280 ackley?...300 wsm, I am convinced it is a sickness......what is it wen call it r file looney ism......not sure I spelled that right. Thanks again for the feedback...I will let you know how they shoot. Goodshot

I am another who has not been successful in getting them to shoot as accurately as other bullets in my 06. As mentioned previously, they are a bit expensive to justify a great deal of load experimentation. Other premium bullets have settled into good accuracy quite quickly while my intial loads with the IIs sort of turned me off to further experimentation.

The advice given to me when I called the boys out in Quinter, Kansas about loading them for my 264 Win Mag was "don't be afraid to let them jump a little bit". I listened and have been very pleased with performance and accuracy. Slippery and tough... I like that combo sometimes!

One of these days, I am going to pull off I70 to see their operation when traveling back in the fall for my annual whitetail and rooster extravaganza.

I have had little trouble getting them to shoot in my 22-250AI, 223 WSSM, and 6.5 Creedmoor. Made speed pretty easily too.

It seems that high ogive bullets like VLD's take some tweaking to find the right jump. COAL made all the difference with 90 gr. SSII's in my .240 Wby.

I would think one could do the jump protocol published by Berger on their web site to find the optimal jump accuracy node for these bullets, as well.

DF

I could never get the originals to shoot well in a .270 Weatherby or WSM, so I kind of gave up on them. The few deer I shot with them died quickly, so they performed well enough in that manner.

I've tried them in multiple cals and rifles and never had them shoot very well. One exception was a heavy 300WM, I was able to get to .75 with the 180s in it(shoots in the .2s with MKs). Other than that one rifle, they've been a joke in everything else. Kind of a bummer when you have rigs that will shoot darn near anything well. Swift needs to go back to the drawing board again with these pills, SS3?....

loder

I have posted this before but my experience with the SSll enough to put me off them for life. I ground one for my display wall and found this void so I did a weight sampling from the box and there was a 5 whole grain discrepency from lightest to heaviest. I had a 1/2 doz other brands to test in a newly built 7x57 and they all came in at .2 max variation.



Von Gruff.

If that's a sampling of their QC, then it's a wonder they shoot as well as they do. Did you let Swift know about that?

DF

I have to confess that the powder and charges that I use with the S IIs (and used with the originals) were taken from your "Loads That Work" articles (both the original and the revised). I seat them out as long as they will work reliably through the magazine. As I mentioned, I had to drop back a couple of grains with the 180s in the .300 Wby, but they shoot about as well as anything in the gun safe. Not really much "work up" to speak of...

I emailed them and while they did answer with an offer to ring, when I gave them the ph no and a time I would be home taking into account the time zones so it would be a working hours time for them I heard nothing from them. I figured it was because I was off the US radar so it wasn't important to them.

Von Gruff.

mudhen,

Thanks for the info. Have you only tried them in the .300 Weaherby?

Maybe 180 gr. .30 cal and 90 gr. 6mm are the SSII crown jewels...

DF

I've had good luck with the 180gr SI2 in my 300 rum and 26" pacnor barrel on paper and game. Haven't recovered a bullet yet and have taken a couple of caribou, a brown bear and half dozen sitka deer with that combo. 15 yards out to 300.

Hopefully the bullet in the photo above is just a fluke.

No, I shoot 130s in my .270s and 210s in my .338 Win Mags. Obviously, the .338 loads weren't from your articles, but the ones I use in the .270s and the .300 Wby were.

I started out with 180 Partitions in the .300 Wby and used the same charge with the original Sciroccos. I continued using the S IIs when the change came, but had to back off a couple of grains. I have taken two fairly large bulls with each bullet.

So far, I have only taken one with the .338 210s, but they work at least as well as the 180s in the .300 Wby. I had been using 225 A-frames in the .338s, but I get smaller three-shot groups with the S IIs and a little flatter trajectory out to 300-350 (which is about as far as I care to shoot these days).

I have only taken a few management bucks and several feral hogs with the .270s, but have yet to recover one or need a second shot.

We used the originals to legally cull bunches and bunches of does on a local plantation. The number is not important here. What is important though was the inordinate number of failures we had when using them, as opposed to other brands....

One scenario stands out in particular: I had one box of 20 factory loadings with the Sciroccos. Out of the 20 shot with that box, 18 either failed outright, blowing up on the hide of the deer, or the shot resulted in one hell of a tracking job to locate the deer. Their performance was erratic as hell.

I fell out of love with them shortly after that.

Wow! Glad I read this thread. Just going by published ballistics they looked pretty impressive and with the Swift reputation I was going to give them a try. Guess I'll just stick with Nosler.

Bring this back up.

I just put a load together using the Swift Scirocco Bullets.

I used the 180 grain bullets in my 300 Win. Mag. I had to seat them deeper than what I would run my Nosler A/B 180 grain load. I think they like to jump.

I used H-4831sc powder. I worked up to 76 grains with this load, I felt this was too warm of a load. No real signs of pressure. This load would group on average .8 to 1 inch. I was seating this bullet at 3.890 to the Ogive.

I use 76 grains of this powder when I load my 180 grain Nosler B/T load with no problems and great accuracy. I just felt the Swift bullet was a bit more sticky going down the bore. So I reduced the load to 75 grains moved the bullet deeper 3.885 Ogive.

I think this is what they call the sweet spot. Groups shrank, .3 to .5 I tested this a few times. This load groups tight every time. (In my gun) Velocity on average is 3125 fps.

My ogive tool measures 1 inch long.

Total length is 3.559

Remember this is just for fun.
I was digging through my bullet cabinet when I ran across two boxes of Scirocco's. I thought, I need to work a load with these.
So there you go..

Have a good hunting season.
Be safe.

goodshot, I use them in my 338-06 AI. They are 210 gr. I shot a large bull elk last fall at about 50 yds. Recovered bullets weighed 196 gr and were text book mushrooms. I have no problems with these bullets matching velocities of other brands. They grouped well and terminal performance was second to none.
Strongly recommend them if you can get them to shoot.

I have no use for them.

Unfortunately.

Can't get them to shoot and have seen the results and damage done to game shot with them.

Might as well shoot New Ballistic Tip. Accurate. Toughened up

I have seen them used on two Elk, they both died.

One DRT the other shot twice, I think he was dead on his feet with the first shot. The second shot hit him he walked about twenty feet and feel over.
Bullet was the 180 grain SS shot out of a 300 Wby.