220Swift inquiry.

M

murphy

Guest
Am considering building up or buying a new factory rifle in 220 swift. Rifle would have two uses which are,shooting crows in daylight and hunting foxes at night with a spot light. The crow work is not the problem,but I need to know if the Swift can be loaded back for night shooting. Say with a Barnes varmint grenade at 3000fps or is the case simply too big to shoot well at a reduced speed. I have an old but still good Rem700BDL in 223rem and one option is to fit a Lija barrel and re chamber for the Swift.Can the 223 bolt face be opned up to the swift head size or would i need a new bolt? All replies would be greatly appreciated. Murphy.
 
Yes the .220 can be backed down.

Yes the .222 bf can be opened up to accommodate the Swift. I'd definitely find a gunsmith that can open it up and re-install a Rem extractor. I'm guessing though that you'd be money ahead to just sell it and buy an action with the correct bf.


hth


al
 
I assume he wants to back off a maximum Swift load so he doesn't end up with huge exit wounds that devalue the fox pelts.

Sierra used to make a 63 grain semi-pointed 22 caliber bullet--I'm not sure if they still do. I used them in a Swift years ago and still have several hundred on hand. My old Sierra Reloading Manual shows loads for the 63 grain bullet with IMR 4895, 4064 and 4320 that produce 3100 fps. If I was calling in red foxes I'd try these loads.
 
I thought the same about saving pelts but I also thought the varmint grenade was pretty devistating. I have never shot them. I would only guess they are still pretty destructive at 3000fps.
 
Varmint grenades will blow stuff to little bits. If you don't want pelt damage don't use them, they are supper explosive!!
 
223 to swift

This is from lijas web site

Pricing
Pricing for our centerfire barrels is listed below. These barrels are finished on the inside, turned to one of our standard contours or tapers and finish ground to a 320 grit finish on the outside. Our standard length barrels are furnished 28" long, 27" of which is useable barrel. They require installation by a gunsmith. This installation work would include threading, chambering, cutting to the desired finish length and crowning and any outside finish work such as blueing, teflon coating, bead blasting, etc. We do not do any gunsmithing work or barrel installations on customer receivers. But we can make a gunsmith recommendation when requested.

With the barrells running about 400 for stainless, by the time you have a good smithy do the barrel work, you got about 700 to 800 bucks in the barrel. Add a 150 bucks or more for the bolt face, then bedding and opening up the barrel channell on the stock if the contour is diffrent, add another 200
bucks. Then true the action for good accuracy is even more. By my guess you would have 1100 to 1200 bucks in the rifle. Right now a low end Cooper is running 1250, put on fancy wood add 200 bucks. So I guess my question is why change out a good BDL, and wait for the barrell and smithy work when you could get a good varmint rifle in 220 swift for the same cost or close to.

I have a Cooper in 220 swift and it shoots like a dream. Accuracy is superb form hot loads 3700 to 3900 for 52 gr, to plinking loads in the 3200 to 3300 range for 52s.

Just my 2 cents
Good luck and Fun shooting
 
About the foxes and the swift.

I think I need to explain a bit as I seem to have created some confusion with my questions. First of all I need a powerful flat shooting rifle for day time varmint shooting. Second I shoot foxes at night with the aid of a spotlight. I have shot a lot of foxes with my 223 and find that explosive lite bullets at around 3000fps often dont exit so the pelt is in good shape. I live in Australia and we do a lot of night shooting here. We cant get Coopers but there plenty of Rugers here hence the Swift enquiry. Also I am a bit wary of semi custom rifles as I got my fingers burned with a Kimber.Thanks for your help and intrest Murphy.
 
In case you are interested here is my Ruger Mod. 77 MKII Target Grey S/S with the 2 stage target trigger in .220 Swift with a Bushnell 8-32x40mm with Mil-dot redicule. I also have a Night Blaster with red filter on top of scope and an "EL-CHEAPO" e-caller which can be found here:

http://www.varmintal.com/coy5-20.htm


I am very pleased with the accuracy of this rifle.

"Aim small miss small", :D

gt40

PS: This is how I drag em in my old age. :):)
 

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One consideration.
The Varmint Grenades are long bullets when compared by weight. I have no experience with .224 grenades but unless you go with a 10 twist you'll be using the 36gn pill only. The .50gn will not stabilize in an average 220 Swift tube.

I just shot some of the new .26gn .204 Grenades in my 204R. Easily got over 4500fps with good 100yd accuracy using N-133. The BC of the grenades is pretty low on average and not yet listed for 204. For night shooting this might not be much of a concern.
Have you considered a 204 chamber? It would fit your bolt head anyway.

Only tried two 62gn grenades as foulers in my 6BR 14 twist so far. Never hit the target at 100yds. I suspect they tumbled but no proof.
 
for a 36gr bullet a 1:16 to 1:14 twist will handle them. I shoot them out of a
1:14 twist 220 Swift with no problems.
 
To GT40 Cheeterman and others.

Was so excited when i saw that Ruger Swift I nearly wet my pants. Got to have one but first have to figure out which rifle to sell to help pay for it and also how to explain to the Missus. 36g varmint grenades shoot ok out of My 1in 12 223 but go through the target sideways out of my 1 in14twist 22hornet. Havent shot anything but paper with them yet. Most of my foxes are taken with 52g Sierra Match Kings because they kill well but dont leave much of a hole,or 45g sierra hornet pills because they usually dont exit at all. Thanks heaps for all the wonderful advice and all the best Murphy.
 
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