Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 220 swift pet loads

suggest a few of your favorites combos

Spotshooter: My Remington 40XB-KS single shot in 220 Swift is ultra accurate and ultra lethal using the humble old Sierra 55 grain Blitz (not Blitz-King) bullets.
This Rifle uses Norma brass, Federal 210M primers and good old IMR 4064 powder! My Oehler chrono says this load perks along at 3,796 F.P.S.
When I want something DRT, and its way out there, this Rilfe/load is one of my first choices.
I have six other Swift Varminters and four of them prefer IMR 4064 powder for accuracy while two of that six prefer H 380.
One of my favorite bullets in the 220 Swift (and in my 22-250's) is the somewhat fur friendly but still amazingly lethal Speer hollow-point boat-tail 52 grainers.
Over the decades it seems to me that IMR 4064 always gave me at least good accuracy in my 220 Swifts.
To tell the truth I have been witness to the barrel wear that CAN come along with missuse of a 220 Swift. Once I have an "adequate and accurate" loading for a Swift from that day on it is only used sparingly at Varmints and game with a cool barrel.
In other words I don't hot rod my Swifts and I don't "plink" with them and I never shoot one hot.
I have not as yet tried any of the "newer" powders in a Swift.
I bought a now discontinued N.I.B. Ruger 77 V/T in 220 Swift late last year and I have as yet to mount a scope on it or have I as yet decided to shoot it at all. I may just sell it for some hussein obama proof profits?
But if I do decide to shoot it I also am going to be looking around at the "newer" powders offered today.
Long live the 220 Swift.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

i have a remingto VSF that i put into an hs stock that LOVES 52 gr berger FB varmint match with anything from 37.5 to 39 gr of RL 15. i settled at 38 gr and it is the best shooting rifle i own. will shoot an honest .25 moa if i do my part and often better. the gun definately shoots better than i can. never had a rifle that would shoot good right up the scale. i couldnt beleive it. needless to say ill be keeping this one around. Like Varmint, i shoot it sparingly and never heat it up. this gun also shot 4064 very well too.

Foster: I have not tried those 52 grain Berger's in any of my Swifts or 22-250's as yet.
But I will hail their amazing accuracy in lesser 22 centerfires.
That is great shooting from a Swift (your .25" groupings!)!
Good for you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, Foster, thanks.

VSF here as well, hope it shoots as well as yours.

I have shot a bunch of 55 V-max but am just now switching to 53 gr V-max. The BC for the 55 is 0.255 and the 53 is 0.290. I stumbled onto the 53s while searching for more of the 55s, seems bullets are a tad hard to locate.

Mine is a VSSF. I was measuring velocity this morning with the new 53s and banged out 5 rounds without all that much concern for accuracy. The 5 shot string yield 0.425". I measure 3776 fps with 40gr. of H380. I'll have 500 loaded for next weekend when my Idaho partners arrive for a prairie dog hunt.

I have not tried the 22 cal Berger bullets

After doing some research and reading, and thatI have a couple of 204's I'm planning on trying 40 grain varmaggedon pills with R-15 to see what type of hang time I can get on them.

Big Grin

yes i couldnt beleive the accuracy in this swift. i dont own a gun that shoots as good. i dont think i could sell it if i had too. the bergers are def good for accuracy, i took them out to shoot a few p dogs earlier in march and they were not that explosive like the v maxes, but dead is dead i guess. this gun shot sierra 52 gr and horn 53 gr match bullets well also. the hor were shot with h380. reason why i switched was i found h380 very dangerous as far as temp sensitivity. it would shoot fine in 60* temos but took it out on a 90* day shooting dogs and i blew a couple primers. didnt care for that so i switched it up a bit. im glad i did cuz the bergers seem to be more consistant.
thanks
Foster

spot shooter,
i do like the rl 15, but i did notice that it is a very dirty powder and can be difficult to clean up. i dont shoot more than about 20 rounds before i clean it out good.

R-P brass
52 gr A-Max
40.5 grs RL-15
Fed 210M primer
COL 2.750
Velocity, an easy on the throat 3964 fps.

1/4" load at 100 yards in my Ruger #1V Swift in calm winds.

Gunner

It isn't the bullet causing that, 380 is known for swings. If the load was developed at 60 deg. then back it off 1 grain at 90. velocity will stay the same or be very close.

Spotshooter,

if you can find some AA2700, then that is your huckleberry for the Swift. Burns cleaner than 380, meters extremely well and will give the best velocities in anything from 40 to 55 grains. 4500 fps out of 26" tube with 40 BK's, 4100 out of 52's, 3900 from 55. It is also more temp stable. other powders that work real well, Varget, 4895, AA2520, and Benchmark. Never got 15 to work as well as the others in mine.

i agree, i knew the bullet wasnt the problem, but when i switched powders to the rl 15, the hor would shoot so i tried the bergers and they shot incredible.

Hadn't thought about R-15 being dirty...

I'm definitely going to bore coat her like I've done to all my Varmint rifles.

My latest Swift is a sporter-weight Ruger 77, a tang-safety model that wasn't shot much when I bought it 2-3 years ago. I fooled around with some newer powders and found Ramshot Hunter did really well with 55-grain bullets. Depending on the bullet, the most accurate powder charge varies from 42.5 to 44 grains. Hunter is also very clean-burning, and pretty temp-resistant.

Big Game was the most accurate powder with 55's in my previous Swift, a Ruger No. 1B. It's also very cleaning-burning, and in my tests just as temp-resistant as the Hodgdon Extremes.

I Like Varget 38.7 grs. and 50 grains Hornady V Max bullets.
My Ruger #1V has been to the dogtowns many times. It has 2,500 rounds through it and it shoots better now than it did when new.
I try not to abuse it.
whelennut
.

My load: 38 Grains of RL15 and a 55 Ballistic Tip @ 3800fps. One hole 3 shot groups. RL-15 Dirty?? Not in my experience.IM%4064 is a close 2nd, oh and BTW, I have been loading Swift since late 1960's.

Jerry

I've used IMR 4350 for years behind a 60 gr Nosler Boat tail Solid base ( no longer in production ) as my only loading in my Ruger 77V with great results. Had to fill in as an antelope/mule deer gun on one trip where I had a problem with a 264 Win Mag, and preformed well.

In 4 swifts that I shot the barrels out of, between 44.0-44.5g of AA2700 with a 50g Nosler ballistic tip, fed primer, ? case shot minus 3/8" groups at 4000 fps. This is a classic load for a swift, others copied my load and found the same results. The powder charge will change a little as you might imagine with different lots of powder. AA2700 is real easy on barrels compared to IMR 4064 that I had shot for years.

My most accurate Swift loads were with IMR 4064 and 50 grain Bergers. I would not shoot the 55 grain Ballistic Tips nor 52 grain Amaxs with anything. I think the twist was about 1-15" (pre-64 Winchester) would shoot 60 grain partitions into about 5". I pretty much stuck with 40s and 50s because of that slow twist. Really liked Ramshot Big Game too- a LOT more fun to load than 4064- too bad I didn't discover it sooner!

Mine ended up liking 40 grain Nosler Varmaggedon bullets with 44 grains of H414 under them which is a max load that runs around 4,200 FPS.

A friend of mine and I took two of his boys out to prairie dog hunt this weekend, and I shoot the 220 Swift 21 times, WOW - it's now called the "what prairie dog" gun

We'd spot for each other, "there's a prairie dog by the big yucca plant" ... Quick muzzle flash, "what prairie dog"