Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Any 220 Swift shooters here?

Swifty52: I am also a long time Swift enthusiast (40 years or so now).
One of my seven current 220 Swifts is a Remington 40XB-KS single shot, and it uses that fine and durable Norma brass to attain its excellent accuracy.
I am using Winchester brass in the rest of my Swifts though - to date I have not had any specific issues/objections to the Winchester brass.
Can you enlighten us on your 220 Swift Winchester brass troubles?
By the way I also own a Ruger #1-V stainless Rifle in caliber 22-250 Remington similar to yours - I just purchased this Rifle from a friend of mine and I am just starting load development on it.
What does your #1-V in 22-250 prefer for bullets/powder?
Dandy stable of Varminters you have there.
Long live the 220 Swift.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I know where there is a Winchester M70HBV in 220 Swift for
sale if anyone is interested drop me a PM.

My old Swift is a tang safety Ruger 77V that came to me with a bulged barrel. I sent it back to Ruger for a new barrel and it has been my go to varmint gun for 20 years. When the 40 grain Ballistic Tip first became available it was my favorite ground squirrel bullet.

I still have my Swift but it doesn't get much time afield now. Alaska offers some varmint shooting but nowhere near the opportunity that Eastern Washington did. The Swift is a might hard on fox hides with any bullet.

My favorite fur bullet for coyotes was the old Speer 52 grain hollow point. It's a ballistic dog next to many of the available bullets but I had few exit wounds with it. My Swift never found a 40-55 grain bullet it didn't like. Some shoot a little better than others but it seems to be happy with most any bullet. Not surprisingly it has never done well with bullets heavier than 55 grains.

I have had nearly every 22 centerfire at one time or another. I never did have a 225 Winchester or 224 Weatherby but have had a few 22-250's and enjoyed them. The Swift though has always been my favorite of the 22 centerfires.

Mart

I have generally had a Swift or two around for about 30 years now. The first was a tang-safety Ruger bought from the used rack of a local store. I cleaned the barrel thoroughly (it needed it) and it started shooting 3/4" 5-shot groups with the right load. This depressed one of the employees of the store, who'd put it up for sale because he thought the barrel was shot out. It got used on a lot of rockchucks, some foxes and coyotes, and a few antelope, all with the 60-grain Nosler Solid Base at about 3650 fps.

Had a heavy-barrel Remington 700 and a Ruger No. 1B for a while. Both were half-inch rifles, though the Ruger needed a Hicks Accurizer to do it. Both killed a lot of PD's.

My present Swift is another tang-safety 77 sporter I got off the Campfire Classifieds. It came properly bedded and free-floated, with the trigger nicely tuned. It shoots about any 55-grain bullet into .6 or so at around 3750 with 42.5 grains of Ramshot Hunter, but I tested some of the new 55 Varmageddons and the first shot out of the gate was .43. They blow up PD's EXTREMELY well!

Am thinking about a fast-twist Swift right now, but that's as far as I've gotten.

Maybe we should rethink fast twist just as I refer to normal capacity magazines and single stack insead of hi-cap and convenional? The historical norm Swift 1/14 with a traditional cup and core bullet on the light side will make people smile with a much longer than most extended point blanc(k) range with no real worry about actual measurement to the yard but just as with the .223/5.56 and assorted larger bore I suspect something faster than when introduced will be the new norm.

I like my own 26" heavy barrel 1/14 but I'm pretty sure I'd like a .204 Ruger for what I do now with the Swift and a faster twist in the Swift to do more than the .204

I have a couple... a Remington Classic, and a Ruger V/T... the one with the blued action and SS barrel, in a laminate stock.

]

I had a Swift once in a Remington Classic like you mentioned and I need my head caved in for ever getting rid of it too.......it was the best sporter weight barreled rifle I ever owned.

I have owned several Swifts since then and still have a 700 VSSF in one. It is a great caliber and not a very finicky one to load for in my opinion. All the ones I have owned shot several different powder/bullet combos very well.

WhopperStopper,

Shot my .220 Swift just this morning. Mine is a tang-safety Ruger, that I bought used in the mid '80's. I have no idea how many rounds it had thru it when I bought it, but the bore looked in good shape.
I ran another 1,000 rounds or so thru it, and the accuracy began to decline- three shot groups an inch or more at 100 yards, not acceptable 'prairie dog' accuracy. I made an attempt to remove copper fouling, and the accuracy improved, although not what it was years ago.
This past week, I decided to make one last attempt at restoring accuracy before pronouncing the barrel 'shot out'.
I spent three days and 7 or 8 applications of Wipe Out, removing a half a penny or so of accumulated copper fouling.
To make a long story shorter- after free-floating the barrel, and loading up some 50 gr. V-Max bullets, I was surprised to see accuracy restored to its old familiar .5"/100 yd form!

Best combo was H-380 and a 52 SMK or 55 BK, but as usual 380 was a little unstable on 90+ degree days and a dog town. But Varget and those bullets was much more stable, and performance was good year round.

Swifty

That's one of my fav rifles from the campfire no doubt about it. Now about those sweat pants your're wearing......

Hope alls well your way Shrap!

Dober

Praire dogs, hot loaded high B.C. 55gr. bullets, is there anything else?

This is known as an "oxymoron"

Love the Swift! At this time I have 2; a 80s Savage 112 single shot and a pre-64 Md 70 Varmint.

Both are good shooters with 4064.

Dennis.

The Swift is a long-time favorite of mine.

I own three as I recall... the Remington VSSF, a Ruger No 1V and a Ruger Mk II. They all shoot sub MOA with the same load... a Sierra 55gr SBT over 37.5 grains of IMR 4064

I had my Ruger #1 V at the 200 yd line the other day and consistently got tighter groups with the 50 gr V Max Hornady and Varget than I did with the 55 grain V Max with Varget. The 50 grain bullet was 200 fps faster so I am going with that this season. Varmints beware! (Has anyone ever traded their .220 Swift for a 22-250? I doubt it.)
whelennut