Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .220 Swift--anybody using Hunter

I am itching to try something new in my Swift. I just bought a pile of Berger 52gr FBV bullets and looking around, see that I have several pounds of RS Hunter.

Anyone familiar with this powder in the Swift?

Or would I be better off sticking with RL15? (another powder I have plenty of)

The new Enduron powders have me curious too....so if anyone can make an argument for them, I wouldn't be opposed to picking up a pound or two.

RL 15 will get her done.

IMR-3031 is the schizz in my tang safety 77V with 50's and 52's

I found accuracy with 43.3 grains of Hunter pushing a 53-grain Varmageddon at about 3840 fps. I'm using some Nosler brass I found. If you try it and find a good load, I'd be interested in your results.

Forgot to mention...I'm using Remington 9.5 Magnum primers.

Swift is rough on barrels.

AA2700 has one of the lowest heat index's of any powder that will work well in the Swift.

I shot 44.5g of AA2700, Rem 9 1/2, 50g bullets at 4000 fps into tiny bug holes with Standard Deviation less than 10 fps!
You will see an improvement in barrel life using this AA2700. 2700 goes through a powder measure like water, as the flakes are tiny balls.

Many, many people are using AA2700 in the Swift as it works great from 50-55g bullets, fast and long barrel life.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the replies. I am going to move ahead and try Hunter.

River Rider, I will report my results when I finally get around to trying it.

I worked up to 44-45 grains of Hunter with 50 and 55 gn Ballistic Tips. Got good accuracy and 3700fps with the 55 gn bullets.
My preferred powder is Reloder 16. Smaller groups and considerably higher velocity than Hunter. Speer Manual #15 has data.

Cheers,
Walt

Wow, hadn't even realized they published a 15th manual. Had kinda given up on Speer. Their online data showed promise though. Wish they would show the pressures they're testing to though.

I got better results with IMR4064:

Agree, 44 grains AA 2700 52 Sierra 5 shots

Sounds like my next .220 load to try out, I love the 52/53 grainers on coyotes.

I have heard good things about IMR4064 for the Swift, but also heard it was one of the worst for burning out barrels. What has been your experience with that.

I've gotten excellent results with Hunter in the Swift. In my last rifle it worked the best of any with 55-60 grain bullets.

Does Hunter burn cooler then AA2700? I am wondering if they might have applications for the 17 Rem. which probably has similar barrel life concerns.

I shot the barrels out of 4 Swifts.

IMR 4064 is very, very accurate, but eats barrels if you are shooting colony varmints. Shooting ones and two shots here and there is not such a big deal.

AA2700 with 50's at 4000, Rem brass and rem 9 1/2 will make a True Believer out of you.

As the barrel gets the leade shot out, go to the Sierra 55g Sierra semi point, then the 63g Sierra.

Swifty52's groups are typical of what 4 of us with Swifts shot.

For coyotes, we shot the 52 or 53g Sierra match. Some barrels like a flat base, some like a boat tail, and I am talking groups like Swifty52's groups.

Tejano, for our 17 Remingtons, we found if we slowed down the bullet to 3850 and used 22-23g of H322, we got tiny groups with long shot strings in between cleanings. You would be in the relm of 26-28g of Hunter or AA2700 with the 25g Remington and berger match 25g HP.

Tagged.

I have no qualified opinion, being on my first Swift. Barrel was trashed when I swapped into it about eight years ago but still shot "ok" if you're not very demanding...but I had it rebarreled it a while back and I'm somewhat demanding of my .22 centerfires.

These guys have convinced me to give AA2700 a try. I'm not too heavily invested in 4064, so I'm willing to try a pound and see.

I see you’re shooting 53 gr Nosler Varmageddons. What twist barrel do you have?

I think the original barrel was 14. I swapped into the rifle about 12 years ago, then after I bought a Lyman Bore Cam a couple of years back, and discovered the bore was pitted from chamber to muzzle. That would explain why the rifle rarely shot under 3/4 of an inch. I had Pac-Nor rebarrel it with a 1:12 barrel 24 inches long. Had I been aware of the availability of the 70-grain Accubond I would have gone with about 1:9, I think.

The Swift AI is a real monster, strong case to AI also pushing heavies.

I've have been told that AA 2700 is the same powder as H 414 & Win 760....

can anyone confirm or deny that?

don't own a Swift, but thinking 22.250 here...

I do not believe they are the same. Similar, but different countries of origin if I'm not mistaken.

I'm putting a lot of faith in you guys telling us AA2700 is the nuts...I've got an 8-pounder arriving here at work today!

I'm mistaken. AA2700 is made in the USA according to the Accurate Arms website. Still ain't the same as 760/414, though.

Don’t know if they are the same. Never could get 2700 to work in my 22.250 for some odd reason it just didn’t perform or group as well as H380, 4895 or some others that are faster.

2700 is a tad faster than 760, I use a fed 210 in the ai version.

I have shot many kegs of it:

6/250
6/250 Ai
243 Ai

220 Swift-50 & 55g

6 XC and 6x47 slow twist, medium weight bullets are next

About 1700-1800 rounds with .100 leade growth, then a barrel set back

I shot some 53-grain Varmageddon / AA 2700 loads this morning. Based on what we're told here, I started out at 42.5 and had to stop at 43.25 grains where I saw some awesome accuracy potential but also signs of overpressure starting at 43.0 grains. I did not shoot anything beyond 43.25 grains (which gave me the best group of the day). Gonna try again ASAP, starting way back at 41.0 and going to 42.2 grains, 0.3 grains at a time. I was getting well over 3900 fps at 42.5 grains and see no real advantage to going beyond 43.0 grains unless that's where accuracy lives.

One thing I noticed was that barrel definitely did not heat up as quickly (I was shoot in 85-degree weather). Accuracy was not bad, just saw nothing really outstanding. I'll keep on playing with it.

Be hard not to try a 55 grain Gameking BTSP for accuracy.

50 or 55 BT, BK or any boat tail, and yes the top is where the accuracy lives. I am guessing the pressure problem is due to the flat base
was told by Sierra that the 53 match flat base has more bearing surface than the 52 SMK which was causing a 100 + FPS drop in velocity for the same load. This may also explain the pressure at a full grain under book max.

Tag

I tried Varget and then stopped experimenting.

Damn I got 12 pounds of Vargay left and I still don’t know why I bought the 2nd 8 pounds other than it was there. It doesn’t excel or shine in anything. In the Swift it was a pooch. I can pop a 50-52 out of a 223 using 12 grains less powder and get damn near the same velocity as a Swift using a max charge of Vargay.

It's pretty good in .35 Whelen, Swifty. I have yet to try it in anything else.

Never heard of Vargay ,When most put that in I thought it was 6,and 6.5 Gaymoor

Varget never worked for me either in a swift.....but in a 223 with 65-70 grain bullets I have never found anything better

For a swift H414/W760 is the Chit

414/760 same powder, 2700 is pretty close some say one is faster, some say slower. 2700 was just there, plus it was recommended as not as hard on barrels. True so far. My 2nd barrel so far has bore that out. 😄
I still shoot a fair amount of 4895 and 380 but not like I used to in the Swift. H380 is kinda rough on bores.

Now for Vargay. It works for just about anything which makes it gay just like the 270. My experience says that while it does work it just doesn’t excel or shine brighter over other powders.
25.06 110-120 bullets it was a total pooch compared to 4831SC, MRP and RL22 by about 200 FPS. Not bad ES/SD but good lord 2750-2800? Damn that’s a dog, and confirmed out of 2 rifles.
243 70-105 again a pooch. Again low ES/SD but nothing that another powder couldn’t do and with more velocity.
220 Swift turns it into a mediocre 22.250.
22.250 is turned into a 223
223 it kinda works but so does H335, H380 and a few others but Benchmark sent those dogs to the bench too.

Shot today.

Odd deal...the 41.0 grain load shot the first four into 0.16 inch (I'm shy one piece of brass), then the second group of five shot into 0.88 inch but with four of them going into 0.37 inch. Extreme velocity spread with that one was 172 fps (NOT a typo!). Velocity average was a touch over 3800 fps which is not bad at all, but I will not tolerate such an extreme spread. I might try that charge with a different primer, but I saw a lot of potential with the 41.9 grain charge of 2700. Five shot groups measured 0.54 and 0.58 inch...the dispersion was mostly horizontal, which I believe to be my fault. both groups superimposed would span about 0.60" except for one shot I pulled horizontally just a hair which would make the superimposed groups span about 0.75 inch, all shots included. Average velocity was 3881 fps. All this was done with Federal 210s and I plan to shoot that same load with Rem 9.5, Rem 9.5M, and Win WLRMs. Never know til you try.

The 41.0 grain charge is intriguing. I really wonder if another primer would settle it down. I guess I have to try that with the other primers, too. I'm not concerned with the 81 fps difference, just the extreme spread.

Hey guys, went out and shot a 22.250 and 243 today with Vargay. Max charge with 53 Varmageddon 22.250 barely 3500 fps. 243 max charge 70 grain SMK 3150. WTF. Almost out of that lot 8 pounder, if the next one is just as bad then it’s fertilizer.

Got a new to me M77 Sporter barreled Swift on the way and I'll be working up some of these loads!

JB had an article in Handloader 263 on the Swift and talked about Hunter powder. I tried it and it does work great. I don't have much imagination , so I just used the load he used in the article, 44grs of Hunter with a 52 gr Sierra HPBT. It groups 5 into 3/4" or less in my Ruger 77V. Try it you'll like it.

Many years ago, per some gun writer, the gold standard load in the Swift and 55 gr bullets was 38.5 gr of IMR 4064. I worked my way up to that and found he was correct. That’s my load to this day, over 35 years. If I was going to try something else, I’d give R15 and H4831sc a try. But...it ain’t broke...

On my second barrel. Same load.

Am I the only guy that runs 3031 in his Swift ??

I am still shooting the very first load I ever tried in my 77V tang safety..............well..........technically the second load. Started with 52 gr Hornady HPBTM's over top 38.0 grains for an average of 4080 fps. Got some 3-shot groups in the .1's at 100. But .3's are more the usual for 3 shots or 5. But the Hornadys were unreliable on groundhogs. You'd shoot one at 400 yards and the bullet worked fine. Then shoot another one at 40 yards and get no expansion. No way to predict when theyd work and when they wouldn't. So I went to 50 gr Nosler BT's over the same charge. Picked up exactly 100 fps and 5-shot groups are in the .4's. Difference is.................the BT's expand. Violently. Most groundhogs shot center mass are nearly halved and quartering shots on coyotes leave them basically gutted.

Ran out to the range yesterday to try out some 55-grain Ballistic Tips with AA2700. The BTs seem to be an easier bullet to get to shoot than Varmageddons. When I first tried AA2700 I was seeing things I didn't like long before I got to the charges that many have recommended...something about my rifle's chamber, maybe, or it could be the Nosler brass I'm using. I don't see the need to get the last few fps out of the rifle anyway.





Charge was 40.9 grains of AA2700 and they clocked about 3765 fifteen feet from the muzzle (24" barrel). If the load will do this consistently I will be perfectly satisfied.

I use this load too but I stop at 38.0 grains