A buddy of mine has a Ruger 77 V 220 Swift. It has a 1 to 14 twist. What bullet should I reload for him for antelope. Wyoming has a 60 grain minimum for 22s on big game. What would you try if anything?

The plain old 60 grain Hornady SP is a good one I guess. Dober likes them a lot out of a 22-250 and they should work well from the Swift.

The Sierra 60gr Varminter will stabilize and has enough weight. Terminal performance may be dubious, but it's an antelope.

That'll work too.

Basically you need a 60gr+ bullet of length 0.77" or less with a flat base. Not many options.

ScenarShooter has hunted a lot with a 220 Swift. Maybe he’ll chime in.

Bullets are out there the problem is the one to 14 twist

I looked at the JBM bullet list, and the two already mentioned appear to be only options.

The 60 gr. Hornady would be your huckleberry...if not, the 63 Gr. Sierra SMP....made to shoot in the 14 twists...

OK thanks

I haven’t hunted with the 60, but I have a few 100 of them on the shelf. If Dober says they work I’ll take the man at his word. He tends to do good things with em. Ingwe’s Sierra is another the old boy swears buy. I plan on giving both a shot in a 222 Rem. Doubt I’ll be less than impressed.

Dober was the one who turned me on to the 63 Sierra SMP..

If he says it works...it does.



And it has for me, many times...

Years ago I killed some several deer with the 70 grain Speer semi-Spitzer from a 22-250 with a 1-14" twist. The shot under MOA and killed the deer pretty well. I expect the 60 grain Nosler partition will be better.

I've used the 63 Sierra quite a bit in 22-250s and 223s, it works great on pronghorn sized critters.

the 60 grain Hornady works well too but the 63 Sierra has shot better for me.

My first choice... then the 63 grain Sierra, followed by either the 60 gr HP Sierra or the 60 SP Hornady....

The 70 grain Speer out of a 22/250 is an awesome slayer of deer sized game...

saw a bear dropped with one out of a Swift once.... big black bear.. I don't think an 06 would have done any better...

I will take the 55 grain Nosler ballistic tip over anything mentioned here, and I have used all of them.
Admittedly not on antelope, but on pigs, and a lot of them, I can’t see they would be any more difficult to kill

Here's a little more reading.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/2745999

I have noticed that Speer is making their bonded Gold Dot in 62gr 224. I cannot find any info on the length of that bullet. It's going to be close.

I have found the 60 grain Partition to be a difficult/challenging/frustrating bullet to find an accurate load for.

Have you considered the 64 grain PP? I've never shot any game with a 220 Swift, but these bullets kill deer just as well as the 60 grain when fired from the 223 WSSM and 22-250 and aimed to hit the target behind the shoulder.

We are looking hard at the 60 gr Hornady SP

I wouldn't be afraid to give a 55 grain Hornady SP a try in a 14 twist either. It is the bullet I would use in my No. 1 if I were to use it for antelope.

They work for Antelope. I took a nice speed goat with one.
DRT.

A 60 grain Partition would be my first bullet of choice in a 220 Swift. I bet the 64 gr PP would work well too. I’ve killed feral hogs with them.

We've killed antelope and deer with the Hornady 60SP, with no problem. It will do fine.

Since they have a 60 grain minimum I would go with the 60 grain Hornady. Try both the HP and SP. Go with whichever shoots best.

Back in the late 90's, I bought a Mod 700 Classic in .220 Swift from a retired AF Colonel. He shot he Hornady 60sp in it for depredation hunts here in Utah. He and some friend shot several pick up loads of mule deer and antelope culling. I had that rifle made into a 6.5/284, which was pure dynamite, but later had that 24" Swift barrel put on a Model 7 and a Kepplinger single Set Trigger. I used the then available Federal Factory load using the 55gr Trophy Bonded Bearclaw. I killed mule deer and varmints in Utah with it, blackbuck antelope and axis deer in Texas. The old Rancher wanted the rifle so I traded it toward a Scimitar Oryx about a year later ( with a 6x47 Wildcat/85 xbt) My wife's cousin's husband ( wow that was hard) has used a Ruger 77 220 Swift since HS, about 45 years now...its wicked! Have a ball man...:)

PS. I shot a lot of those Sierra 63 smp in a regular 22-250 (factory twist) a 22-250AI in 9" twist and in the 224 TTH ( 8" twist) it is Jim Dandy also.

This is my thought exactly.

With option #3 being the 63 Sierra, which is the best-shooting 22 caliber bullet I've ever shot. They shot extremely well pushed to about 3500 in a 223WSSM. I never killed anything with them, but I would not be afraid to.

55 grain would be illegal, so that it the wrong suggestion.

Based on pig shooting, the 55 gr Ballistic Tip in a 220 isn’t a good bullet for anything like a deer. The 63 gr Sierra SMP would be my first choice, having used them on a few deer and pigs. My 220 has a short barrel (20”) and will not stabilize the 60 gr Partition, which would be my first choice if it would stabilize, which it almost does. If I had a longer barrel and could push the Partition faster, I think it would work.

Of the 60 gr Partition, the 64 gr Nosler BSB, and the 65 gr Sierra GK, only the Partition would stabilize under certain conditions. The 64 gr BSB keyholed and I have no idea where any of the Gamekings went, but it wasn’t on paper. I have heard from trustworthy hunters that the 55 gr Sierra GK bullet will work on deer and pigs. I have some loaded up, but haven’t tried them out on game. They are very accurate and print almost in the same place as the 55 gr Ballistic Tips.

Hale killed several deer and a couple of pigs with the 70 grain Speer in a 223 with a 9” twist. Shoots sub MOA and all shots have been complete pass through. Interested to see how people do with it in slower twist and faster rounds.

According to state law gotta be 60 gr minimum.

My bad.....didn't read very closely!!

One bullet I miss for this application id the old Nosler 60gr Solid Base.

It stabilized properly in 1:14" and was a great killer!

I shot my last box on a springbuch cull hunt in Namibia some years ago and I really miis them,

I don't know how big your deer are but the 55 Gamekings work on our whitetails here in western Missouri. Shoot through most with a 223 and shoot through better than half from a 22-250, behind the shoulder lung shots.

What type of terminal performance did you generally get? Was this in a 22-250?

The 64 g win power point works well on deer and is kind of short so it may stabilize. I used to load them for my little brother so he could kill deer with his 12 twist 223.

I've got some of the nosler Bonded solid base 64s and they look pretty stubby too but I haven't shot them yet.

Bb

I got pass-throughs most of the time but then, a springbuck is a lightly framed animal weighing somewhere around 60-80 lbs. Tissue damage was quite adequate even in lung shots that would not touch any heavy bones.

This was in a 1:14” 22-250.

In a 5,6x57 with a 1:10” twist I always had the impression that they would expand more, possibly due to cybe higher spinning rate.

Alvaro

They make a bonded solid base from time to time. Unfortunately it is almost a semi-spitzer in shape. I guess for slow twist barrels. The 55 & 60 grain Hornadays always worked for me in the 223 and 22-250 on deer. My only reservation is if the wind starts really kicking up the Swift would be limited in range.
Like the old bad joke of a Wyoming wind gauge being an anvil on a chain.

Nosler makes 60 gr. Partitions