New, to me, 220 Swift---

Oh my!

I just about fainted picturing my Swift, stock skyward, with tomatoe vines coming out her barrel!:o:eek::o:eek:

I hope there are no nightmares tonight!

Tim must be related to Steven King!
 
super fast bullets are very fun. My brother has a 17 Remington build on a CZ 527 that is very fun to shoot. I would put the 17 Remington and the 220 swift in the same category. They are awesome for varmints! :D
 
I am just discovering the wonderful world of fast cartridges myself and falling in love the 204 Ruger. Off the shelf Hornadies will group under a MOA and are cooking out of my 26 inch barrel at 4100 + FPS. handloads are not as fast ( 3600 + FPS) but shot the best group of my life this morning (.192 5 shot group) with one
 
Sorry guys, what was I thinking----- it's a very slightly used Ruger model 77, one small scratch in the stock, but the rest is pristine---Doug, owner of the gun shop, sold the gun new to his friends son some years back, but along came the black guns so this one got stuck in a closet, lucky for me. The bore checks out perfect and I got out to the range this afternoon---put a new Bushnell Trophy 3-9 on it, got it sighted in and it's putting three in the center at 50, ran out of time today, but on the next day it's even a little warm, I'll fine tune it at the hundred---it's already shooting minute of coyote so I'm a happy man !!
 
Houndawg---you got on there while I was typing---got to second you on the .204---I've had two of them and just wanted a slightly heavier bullet, but the .204 is by far the most accurate round I've ever shot---sold the last one I had to a good friend that just had to have it and he says it's his most accurate rifle and get this, it's a Ruger 1B---how's that for an eye opener?
 
I've had a Browning A-bolt in .204 and the Ruger #1--both unbelieveable accurate---wish now I had kept the Ruger, but I'm a slow learner---
 
So a TAC20 shoots a 40 grain bullet at 3925 fps? Honestly, that's not particularly impressive. I think I just saw somebody on this forum talking about shooting tiny bullets in his Swift at something around 4400. Could be that's a bit above max load, or at least very close to max.

I'll admit to not knowing diddly about a TAC20, so off I go to Google.

Why do folks have to bash the classic 220 Swift? I've seen articles where folks are crying about short barrel life and there was another article about the horrors of having to deal with the Swift's semi-rimmed case, and how those awful cases can get hung up in the magazine. Well...it just ain't that darned complicated. My suspicion is that they are trying to justify using something else. A fellow can probably get tired of saying things like "I love my new rifle, and it's almost as fast as a Swift". Almost. :)

I'm going to have to admit now that I just love teasing 22-250 guys. They're so defensive. It's even more fun than teasing 243 guys or those Glock people.
 
TAC 20 is shooting that 40 grainer at 3900+ is good, what you need to pay attention to is that that there slug has a ballistic coeffecient of 285-290. that's opposed to a 55 grain boat tail around 235.

In English that translates to 500 yard woodchuck/coyote gun and I'll save you the trouble,the 220 or 22-250 fade at about 400. That TAC is slightly more accurate than a 204 IMHO and has the benefit of Lapua factory brass.

603, if I hand out any more info here I'm gonna have to charge you for the lesson.:D
 
I'll save you the trouble,the 220 or 22-250 fade at about 400.
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That depends entirely on your load. I shoot a 22-250, firing a 55 gr BT at 3,980 fps out of a 28" barrel. Zeroed at 250 yds, it drops only 27" at 500, and 50" at 600 yds. That is not exactly "fading". What typically "fades" out beyond 400 yds is the shooters' ability, and that is not what we were discussing.

While I admit that the 20-caliber rounds are impressive, they still have not impressed me enough to lay out the $ for one. But then I am an old fart and I have been shooting a 22-250 for over 30 years. I am willing to admit that a 20 caliber hyper velocity cartridge will perform as well as a 22-250 or 220 Swift, I have not seen all the owners of these rifles scrapping them for a fast 20.
 
Hello, everyone. I have a custom Mauser double-set triggered sporter built by Bob Womack Jr. in the late 40's. Caliber is .219 Donaldson Wasp. Cases are made from .30-30 brass (darned case froming dies cost more than rifle!)
Anyway. this has a Mod. 70 .220 Swift 26" brl. the appearance of the outside surface looks like it was vapor blasted..matt black-blue. But the muzzle is left bright. one small spot on muzzle edge is worn & copper color is visible. I understand these early Winchester Swift brls. were stainless. They were copper plated & in turn, had iron plated onto the copper..hence the matted porious look.
 
Friend Scorch, same speed BC 50% higher. Can't really make it much easier than that. As far as not migrating to the 20's, read anything published the last year or so that was out in Small caliber news or better yet go over to http://saubier.com
 
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Friend Scorch, same speed BC 50% higher. Can't really make it much easier than that. As far as not migrating to the 20's, read anything published the last year or so thsat was out in Small caliber news or better yet go over to http://saubier.com
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That's just a "flavor of the week" argument. ;)

If having super high velocities and high BCs are the goal, why not go to .10, .12, or .14 caliber? The step from .22 to .20 caliber is insignificant, in comparison.


How is a BC of .285 "50% higher" than a BC of .235?:confused:
 
The .235 was an error should be lower, so it's on the order of 35-40%. If yo think that's not sgnificant, I'm gusssing it's time to buy a bow. As to flavor of the week you may wish to check the influx of the 20's for about 7-10 years now.

The 17's, 14's etc all suffer from lack of BC capability.

Really, you msay wish to study up on the available material which is abundant because the forum retorts are a bit embarrassing....for you.
 
I don't hate the swift, you just have to seperate lore from reality. It's nice but there's a ewason the 22-250 pretty much buried it. Hell I love'em all. I shoot a .225 and an R2 Lovel & a straight 219 Zipper.
 
Introduced to the world in thirty five,
She promised to be the fastest alive.
Winchester named her the .220 Swift,
Firearms thinking began to shift.

She built a reputation as quick and precise,
Used on varmints she is an amazing device.
50 grain bullets at a 4,000 feet per second pace,
She was not to be out raced!

As new cartridges began to compete,
The Swift would not concede defeat!
So despite the 22-250 and TAC Twenty,
Miss Swift continues to be plenty!

The haters want to plant her barrel down,
Deep, deep under ground.
But Miss Swift will remain loved by me,
And many old shooters who know her true identity!
 
...separate lore from reality....
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The only lore was that it burned up barrels operating at design pressures.

Reality on the other hand, was that it was significantly faster at equal pressures,
and just as fast at significantly lower pressures.

Otherwise, all the lies were true. ;)
.
 
I see that the 20 cal Sierra 40 gr Blitzking has a BC of .287, whereas the 22 cal 50 gr version has a BC of .248. I compared those two because of the similar max velocities. The Nosler 55 grain Ballistic Tip that I shoot has a BC of .267. The diff in the Sierra bullet BC's is less than 16 percent, not the 30% to 40% mentioned above. Anyway, there's not a hill of beans difference between the 220 and the 22-250, though we do love to argue about it. Regarding the 20 calibers of various names, that's going in the wrong direction for what I need. I have pigs to shoot and a 20 cal bullet might not be enough for a big pig to be aware that I've shot him. I want them to at least notice. Truthfully, I want more than notice from the pigs. I want to take them to room temperature and I prefer them to fall where they were previously standing. That's a 'two thump' shot. Bullet thump followed by ground thump.
 
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