The mystique of thee 220 Swift

Originally Posted By: UtahcallerWhen it came time to rebarreling my rifle I decided to chamber it in .22-250 Ackley Improved. Needless to say my friend doesn’t trash talk anymore he realizes that his Swift can’t touch my Ackley in anything. So now all he can say is the whole “Nostalgic Factor” B.S... Best decision I ever made......

I tell people all the time that if wanting a fast stepping .22 centerfire to look more to the .22/250 than the Swift. Brass is easier to find and cheaper too. The 100-150 fps less speed is nothing much to quibble over. And like you said if you Ackley the round then you have the .220 Swift speeds.

BUT that does not make it a .220 Swift. There is just that satisfaction I get shooting distant critters with that gun that I do not get with my .22/250. I don't know what it is exactly. Just seems more right when you flip a pasture poodle with that old nostalgic cartridge. Like preferring to drive a 1964 Chevy Impala SS over a brand new one. Just something about it. I guess you just have to be Swift owner to understand. Most of us do.
 
I always get a kick out of that “Classic vs New”statement. Considering the .220 Swift was designed in 1935, and the .22-250 was designed in 1937 it just had a different name at the time 22 Varminter.... kind wish they had stuck with that name. But both are Classics.
 
Originally Posted By: UtahcallerI always get a kick out of that “Classic vs New”statement. Considering the .220 Swift was designed in 1935, and the .22-250 was designed in 1937.

But dont forget that the Swift was factory round and the .22/250 was a wildcat and it would stay a wildcat for 30 more years after the Swift introduction. That's pretty significant to me.
 
Originally Posted By: UtahcallerI always get a kick out of that “Classic vs New”statement. Considering the .220 Swift was designed in 1935, and the .22-250 was designed in 1937 it just had a different name at the time 22 Varminter.... kind wish they had stuck with that name. But both are Classics.

Don't go mixing real facts with a forum member's version of "facts" here. That can be really bad juju. Any 220 Swift that can talk might post bad things here directed at you, or maybe even send you nasty PM's if the rifle is truly upset with your information.
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I own both and have owned both for years in various rifles in both 220 Swift and 22-250. They are two peas in a pod that were created almost at the same time. The 22-250 has hung around longer as a popular cartridge for various reasons with one significant reason being because its a better cartridge design for a fast stepping varmint cartridge that results in far less case stretching.
 
Funny you should mention that, I own only 1 factory round a .204 Ruger. All my others are Wildcats. Why? Because they are better Chamberings than the Standard factory round. I’m even very close to rebarreling the .204 Ruger to .20 Tactical then I can say I don’t own a factory chambering.......
 
One of the things that made it easier for me to pick the .220 Swift over the .22/250 was an Outdoor Life article that was written by Jim Carmichael. He was talking about Bill Ruger taking him on a tour of the Ruger factory and discussing reasons why they decided to start offering the Swift chambering was the accuracy of the round. Mr Ruger said that they could take a M77 in .22/250 that was shooting 3/4" 100 yard groups and re-chamber it in .220 Swift and shrink the group size to 3/8". I think that article did more to help me decide on buying a Swift more than anything else.
 
I really do understand that. Just like the story I told in an earlier post. I will always be greatful to my friend that was always spouting off about his Swift being “King”. I might not have ever decided to rechamber to Ackley Improved. But like I said he doesn’t talk much anymore about it. Better Brass, no trimming, and higher velocities. Yeah I’m glad I went with the 22-250AI.....
 
^^^I read about that in Jim's Book of the Rifle. Influenced me also as I owned 2 Swifts, both Ruger tang safeties. One bull and one sporter, both were accurate. Like an idiot traded them away for other stuff. I don't even own a hot 22, haven't for awhile but if I come across a good deal on a Swift sometime in a moment of weakness it's coming with me.
 
Originally Posted By: 204 AR If I come across a good deal on a Swift sometime in a moment of weakness it's coming with me.

You got it. While I like my .22/250 and it shoots well it stays in the safe much more than my Swift does. Last year a friend gave me a gallon jug of once fired .22/250 brass and that will last me the rest of my life. I literally have thousands of rounds of .220 Swift loaded right now so it looks every doubtful that I will ever put much of a dent in that .22/250 brass.
 
The name of this thread is the Mystique of thee 220 Swift.... not my factory ride was a little slower than yours I so I put a little nitrous on it aka AI but you cant have it so its fair lol....
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You know kind of like it transgender excelling in women's competitions LOL
 
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Well I suppose if we were to make it fair, with regard to crowing about the 22-250AI VS 220 Swift, we'd let the Swift guys Ackley Improve their Swifts, then watch all the 22-250AI chest powders shrink back into their shoes, because the 220 Swift Ack Imp gains a whole lot more than does the 22-250 improved.
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Originally Posted By: B23 The 220 Swift Ack Imp gains a whole lot more than does the 22-250 improved.
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If I ever needed anything more speedy than my .220 Swift I consider something like a .220 AI. But for over 40 years the standard Swift case is all I have loaded and as I said earlier, I have well over 1,000 of them loaded ready for action right now. Besides, I rarely load anything full throttle any longer. A 50 grain Vmax or Ballistic Tip at 3800 fps seems to kill just as good as one traveling at 4000 fps does.
 
All of the chest bumping, hooraws, and claims that "mine is better than yours" can be summed up by saying that if you shoot a coyote at 200 yards with a 220 Swift, let's say that you hit the top half of an individual strand of hair on the coyote. With the 22-250 aimed at the same place with the same shot and all else equal, you might hit the bottom side of the same stand of hair.

It makes for exciting internet chatter but "mine is better" is not worth much more than the thickness of a stand of coyote hair in real life. And then you have "mine is best" champs who load the "King" down to where it acts more like a fairy princess..... But it still talks to them from a gun safe because its mystical.
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Yeah you are totally right there’s always something better and faster. If I wanted something faster than my 22-250 AI I would look at a 22-243 AI again better case design and better brass than a Swift AI......I just wonder, if the Swift is so great why doesn’t every Rifle Manufacter produce it like they still do the .22-250. If it is so Amazing like everybody is saying “The King”. You’d think everybody would want a piece of the action. But to the contrary it has disappeared into history. Except the few that get custom barrels chambered in the the cartridge. Just sayin
 
Originally Posted By: Utahcaller If it is so Amazing like everybody is saying “The King”. You’d think everybody would want a piece of the action.

And that did happen once upon a time like 50 years ago. No one was making .220 Swifts at all. Then when Ruger started selling the Model 77 and Number 1 in it, then Savage, Remington, Cooper, and I dont remember now if there were more. But they made rifles in Swift for one reason: people wanted them. Now interest has waned and factories are not going to make guns if they dont sell. Simple. Like I said earlier, it makes no sense to buy a .220 Swift these days when there are a plethora of fine .22/250's out there. When I got a new barrel installed on mine my gunsmith urged me to get something other than another Swift. A .22/250 or a .22 BR or 6 BR. But I had lots of brass and ammo, and was just too in love with that fine old round. There is a reason why so many of us still call it The King. It rules our hearts. Just sayin.
 
The Swift has never been a big seller. Winchester was the first to produce Swift rifles in the pre-64 Model 70. Sales were so poor over the years that the .225 Winchester cartridge was introduced in 1964 along with newly-designed rifles by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and Winchester moved totally away from the cartridge.

Ruger was definitely the first in the "modern era" (early 1970's) long after Winchester gave up on the cartridge, but Ruger too gave up the ghost within a few years as few rifles sold in spite of Ruger's marketing efforts. Since then, other rifle builders have tagged onto the cartridge with great fanfare marketing, and like Ruger, sales were never great as most potential buyers yawned loudly and moved on to something else. Still even today, Ruger occasionally builds a few Swift rifles but you have to look for them as they are few in numbers.

The biggest gripes early on about the Swift were that it was a barrel burner and that cartridge lengths quickly grew and grew as cartridge were reloaded until rifles became unsafe (a fact in many cases). That is as much a knock on reloader knowledge as it is of the Swift cartridge itself, but the two combined in keeping its popularity down. Mild steel in the early Model 70 rifle barrels helped to contribute to the Swift's early demise based on gun scribe reports.

In that same time span, the 22 Varminter hung on as a popular wildcat cartridge until Remington took the leap and finally legitimized it as the 22-250 Remington in 1965 that still exists today with large volumes of rifles and cartridge/bullet choices.

I once saw a gun rag article written by the late Bob Milek who labeled the 22-250 as the "Varmint Duster Supreme". It never gained Kingly status but it isn't hard to find rifles and ammo just about anywhere that you look. The "King" is almost a ghost today as far as factory options are concerned, but that has been its life-long history.
 
It is amazing that much of the same hogwash written in the 30's is still being regurgitated today. I read one old article that claimed the swift was so fast it would essentially vaporize a deer.
 
Originally Posted By: McflyIt is amazing that much of the same hogwash written in the 30's is still being regurgitated today. I read one old article that claimed the swift was so fast it would essentially vaporize a deer.

Saying today what killed the Swift in the post 1930's doesn't make it any more of a fact today than it was back then. The results of it are the fact that the Swift never had a large following at any point in time.
 
Actually, the first Swift was produced for the Model 54, then is 1935 Winchester made it a production caliber for the Model 70 and it lasted until 1964 and was discontinued. Or at least that what it said on Wikipedia. Pretty good reading about the Swift.I still prefer the 22-250AI but thats just me.
 
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