The old man just got this one in a trade. I am looking forward to working up the loads for him for this one.


Dad's Swift:


Vitals:

.220 Swift

Remington 600 action

Factory stock

Aftermarket trigger set at 1.75 lbs. I am not entirely sure of the make but it is sweet.

24 inch (supposed to be a Douglas) barrel that measures .800 (As close as I can figure about a # 7 or Heavy Varmint contour) at the muzzle.

Glass bedded and floated

Japan built Bushnell Banner 6-18 scope (Came on the rifle)

Weighs 10.28 lbs

Doesn't show any signs of being shot a whole lot.

I figure this is a late 70's build:

Love my Swift. With 55gr Hornady SPs it's tough on our southern whitetails. I know my 22-250 is more practical when it comes to a hot 22cal, but the Swift seems to be the one I always grab out of the safe.

Have two Swifts. Both great shooters. Had I known 40 years years ago I could put a Swift on a 700 action, I would have been shooting them over the .22/250!

This is something I have never heard before.


Was the prevailing wisdom at the time that the Swift would not feed properly in the 700 or were there additional/other reasons?

The 55 grain Hornady is one of the first bullets I want to try in this Swift.

Crow killing sum beach there.

I used to shoot 53 grain Hornady Match HP's in mine. They would cause beak, claw and wing to go in seperate directions when you hit a crow flush.

A bang poof. You gotta love it.

Try it on a Canadian Goose, seems like it's snowing for 5 minutes afterwards.

I saw two different fat, sassy gobblers this morning (250 yards or so across a pasture) that would have been just perfect test fodder for the Swift if only the Luddites with the NCWRC would let us use rifles for turkey hunting.

Has anybody ever tried the Hotnady 55 grain V-Max factory load in their Swift?

Back when Hornady first introduced Swift loads (somewhere in the 90's?) I used a bunch of their 55 grain factory ammo with the spire point, not v-max. My rifle loved them. Now I use 55 grain v-max's in both Swifts if memory serves correctly, but in handloads.

Back then I tried some of the 40 grain factory fodder that someone was producing, but the rifle didn't really care for it.

What powder are you running with the 55"s?

IMR 4064 isn't a bad place to start with the Swift.

Nailed it.

Thanks for the info on 4064.

Both of mine like IMR4064, but one rifle likes W760 for a particular bullet weight. Can't remember the details off the top of my head.

Did you ever run any 4350 or RL 15 in the Swift?

hill, I don't know why I thought that, but we never saw a swift on the 700 until Rem. produced some.. Had one of those, and shot it out, then made a couple with custom barrels.

hill, I have shot 4350, 4064, 3031, Re 15 and H4895.. All worked well, but I use the latter, because I have a lot of it.. Speeds and accuracy are right up there.. Now I mostly shoot 50 Vmax or Blitzking..

Thanks for the powder info. I think I have all of it except 3031 on hand.

I personally haven't.

A friend that helped me get started into handloading was a big Swift fan, he suggested 4064 and 760 which is all I've ever experimented with in the rifles. When a guy in his 70's gives you advice on something he's been working with for 50 years, it's pretty spot-on.

I'll have to scare up some 760 to try too.

I managed to get groups under .4" @ 100 meters with a 52 gr Speer HP over RL 15. Regularly.