Never hear anything about the 220 Swift on here.Anybody got one?

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Back around the 50s there was a lot of varmint shooting going on and the .22 caliber high power rifles were the kings. With the servicemen returning from WWII and then Korea, more people were interested in shooting and gun magazines proliferated. Articles were written about everything from the .22 Hornet to the .220 Swift and everything in between. Roy Weatherby even came out with a .220 Weatherby Rocket, a .300 H & H magnum cartridge blown out in the shoulder and necked to .22 caliber. The rule of thumb was that if you could drive a bullet fast enough you wouldn't have to worry about bullet drop over a longer range. In other words, you could sight in your rifle for, say 300 yards (i.e., hit point of aim at 300 yards) and anything between your muzzle and perhaps 400 yards would be hit. As soon as people began actually shooting with rifles and bullets instead of pen and paper it was discovered that very light bullets (in the 50s about all you could get for high power .224 bullets were 45 gr, 50 gr and 55 gr. These bullets were so light that they were very susceptible to wind deflection. By the time people did more experimenting with barrel twist, heavier barrels, shorter or longer barrels, synthetic or free-floating wood stocks, better optics and so forth, much more was learned. Also, a host of new calibers came out (.222 Rem, .223 Rem [5.56mm], 22/250 [had been only a custom varmint cartridge based on the 250/3000 case but finally was produced commercially], and others) and the 220 Swift sort of drifted into obscurity. Around 1980 or a bit earlier Sturm Ruger produced a 220 Swift and it was snapped up by the buying public. After that the other major manufacturers re-introduced the cartridge and it enjoyed a surge in popularity. Today people seem to be focusing on the .223 (5.56 mm) assault rifles. Also, really accurate bench rest shooting seems to have focused on shorter and lower power (lower than the 220 Swift) cartridges, mostly custom made cartridges, rifles and all handloaded. Some people bought them because they loked the balistics, others because they genuinely wanted to use them. But the ammunition is very expensive and unless you handload you can't really get that great performance from them. They shine in the west for shooting coyotes and some people have shot small deer and antelope using heavier bullets. Not recommended, however. I had one, barely shot it and later sold it. Yes, they did have a reputation for wearing out barrels but you can push anything too fast and cause harm to barrels. Slower and more care will give good accuracy in most rifles. Have fun....Show more

Well everything revolves around the 223, 7.62x39, 54R and 308 and the 270 and 30/06 on here to the new generations and many have never heard of it anyway. It had a rep of burning up barrels back in the day with hot loads. Only because the owners pushed em to it wanting higher and higher velocity. It's no worse than the 22/250 with conservative loads and with the high grades of steel these days they will last just as long as anything else out there, only running max charges every now and then would help benefit it as well. Keeping it at 4000fps and below will help impair throat erosion. The problem with the 220 Swift is the faster it shoots the more accurate it is with the small light bullets and the slow 1-14 twist rates in most guns....Show more

I have an older Ruger Model 77V (bull barrel) with the red buttpad and tang safety in 220 Swift. Great rifle, but I usually use my 22-250 for varmint hunting....Show more

I have a friend who had one. I dom't know if he still has it or not. I once knew somebody who shot one near a house and the concussion from the blast was great enough to shatter a window, so he said. They are noted for being extremely accurate--and at extreme distances there are almost no other cartridges that will deliver that level of accuracy--not even the faster .204 Ruger, that starts to lose ground to the .220 Swift after 300 yards or so. They fell out of disfavor because a) they really aren't necessary for the shorter shooting distances in the Eastern U.S. and b) they tended to see considerable barrel erosion before the average life expectancy of 4,000 to 5,000 rounds for many other similar calibers....Show more

I love mine, the rumor about burning up barrels in 1000 rounds is untrue. If it was true, I would have had to replace my barrel 15 years ago, I have a round count of 3800 rounds in mine, with no significant loss of accuracy. Instead of being able to shoot 1/2" groups at 100 yards, it's opened up to 5/8". I fail to see how that's a problem....Show more