Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing 220 swift long or short action?

Building a 22 swift on a rem. take off barrel, already have a long action, should I get a short action or will the long one be ok ?

I made one on a long action, years ago. I shot the barrels out of two of them, then went 22/250 AI, really got tired of trimming brass every firing and super thick necks with brass flow into the necks.
Today, I would be all over a 22 Creed from the great brass that is available, cut half the threads off that Rem take off and chamber to the 22 Creed.

I hunted coyotes with the Swift, shot out multiple barrels with 52g Sierra at 3800 with IMR 4064, and later on shot the 50g Sierra spt at 4000 with 44.5g of AA2700 which is almost a uniformly accepted load for swifts as sub 1/2" groups abound.

As my swifts got long in the throat, I went to a 55g Sierra semi point which is very jump tollerant, then the 63g sierra. AA2700 is one of the coolest burning powders on the market, and you really notice the lack of throat wear vs IMR 4064, Varget, or R#15 which the Swift loves.

So, if you are stuck with the Swift option, run the long action, you will love all the magazine room. If you run into feeding problems, contact me and I will give you the solutions.

Good luck

I had a custom one made on a 700 short action.

I’ve never owned one but was always of the impression that the 220 Swift was best chambered in a long action and that the intent of the 22/250 was to get close to equal velocity in a short action.

Wrong. Look up Wotkyns original Swift. Gonna surprise you.

No such thing as a short 700 action, you need to go to Sako or Mark X action to get short.

I have fiour sako short action (A1) rifles, so I’m familiar with them. Unless I’m missing something, Remington makes two different lengths of actions. I had a 220 swift made on the short REM 700 action.

Your Remington may be shorter than a full length action, but it isn’t short like the Sako.

I understand that the Sako short action is shorter than the REM 700 short action. I have plenty of both.
But there is a Remington 700 short action. It is called that, the REM 700 short action.
It is not called the REM 700 “shortest” action.
Thanks for setting me straight.

ok thanks I was thinking the long action was the way to go , plenty of room in the mag and no feeding problems . I will be able to seat the longer bullets out , make it go bang till the throat wears out then i might try the creed !

Yeah, I'd build it on that long action. The swift is one of those rounds that can benefit from extra magazine space, especially with today's longer bullets. It's frustrating when you're trying to kiss the lands and you can't fit the rounds into the mag box.