Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Was bidding on a 220 swift

Put a bid of 800.00 right away, lost track of it and it turns out someone bid in the last minute 850.00 so lost it, but won a lot of other auctions, so no big deal, not sure I wanted to spend anymore on a Ruger, they I think we’re hard on barrel life.

Already have a lot, but always nice to see what is out there.

Will be bidding on a Ruger no 1 in 458 win mag, am sure it will go way over a thousand.

Will try to post a pic tomorrow as it has what they describe as a flash hider on it?


“flash hider style muzzle device.”

Parts, I 'm not sure what qualifies as hard on barrels my first 77v in 220s was used and I put over 3000 rds thru it then got careless in a dog town one day and burned the throat. If you stay with ball powders they last longer.
Mb

There's a reason there's not a whole lot of old 220 Swift rifles on the market. They wore out barrels and other calibers became dominate.

The 22-250 is good and brass is plentiful.

My veterinarian had a 220 swift and thought the barrel was shot.
I took it, and cleaned on and off for a couple of weeks - then he and I both shot 3/8" groups @ 100 meters.
He still shoots it after 20 years, or so.

You can ruin a 220 swift barrel in a PD town if you’re firing 30-60 rounds an hour all day.
Try that with a 22/250 or even a 223 and get back to us with the results.
I’ve been a 220 swift advocate for 40 years, and am in the process of having another built as we speak. I do not use them on PDs any more, only cause of the recoil, you lose the sight picture.
They’re hell on coyotes, which is what I use my swifts on.

I had a really nice 77 in 220 swift on gunpost last summer. With dies. The gun was 95%. Sporter barrel. It took two months to sell @ 1000$ and I didn’t charge shipping, tax or a 15 point buyers fee. Went to a nice fella in Manitoba which made me happy.

I think good ole Hoppes no.9 contributed to a lot of "shot out" Swift barrels.

I have one in fact. Buddy got it for a song because it was shot out.


A week of working on it off and on with some good copper solvent made a tack driver out of it.


Shoots like a dream now.

Hahaha!

Missed your post.

Parts;
Morning sir, I trust all is going as well as possible for you all so far this week.

We were up for a couple nights in Kelowna over the weekend, exploring Lakeshore and downtown for some good ethnic food and found a few really good places.

A long time friend and hunting partner and I were talking about Ruger 77 rifle prices the other morning when we were headed down from calling coyotes up the mountain behind the house.

He's been a lifelong fan of them as have I, so I'll admit bias here and now.

His brother had a 77 with the varmint weight barrel back in the day. Someone had installed a Canjar set trigger on it and my oh my was it a dream to shoot.

As I recall he used it mostly for coyotes as well as marmots, which we could shoot on public land back then.

It was the factory barrel and it would shoot bullets it liked into small groups, that much I recall, though for sure in those dinosaur days we likely didn't see some of the groups newer rifles will produce.

Good luck on the .458 too, they're not super common in my experience.

All the best.

Dwayne

Yeah, Jim. I judiciously used liberal amounts of Sweet's, then Wipe-Out, each "rinsed" with Hoppes. Worked well.
Just took a while to "mine" all the copper out!

As an aside, and not to derail the thread, but what bullets are all you "Swifties" getting the best accuracy from?
I loaded up a couple hundred rounds ~20 years ago, with Speer 52? gr HP's (the ones with Carlsbad Caverns in the nose) - and I need to resupply.

I like 50 grain ballistic tips in my swifts.

my Ruger #1 220 Swift always rides in my truck ,i did let my son`s girlfriend Emily use this Ruger #1 220 Swift this fall during 2023 deer season and she got a huge doe with this single shot and now thats her favorite rifle and cartridge. this Ruger #1 has a Brux barrel with a 10 twist and shoots 60 gr. Nosler Partitions good .

My #1 has the original barrel. Will it handle the 60's?

Maybe.


Might be going fast enough.


The 60's did okay in my M77 22-250.

Weren't supposed to.

On second thought....probably not.

You should sell it to me.

I shot alot of 4064 in mine with nosler 50 &52 gr hpbt. When the throat started going I back off a little and shot the 52 Speer. With some reading and research.lead me to ball powders that didn't build heat as fast. H380 &760 are what the second one uses..mb