Reloading for .220 Swift
Long live the Swift! I shot one for years (Ruger M77 Varmint) and my sweet-spot load was 38grs IMR 4064 and a Sierra 53gr bullet. Start lower and work up. My max was 38.5grs H380.
Basically, any bullet in the 50-55gr weight ought to work. Other powders I burned were H380 and H414. All loads lit with a Rem 9 1/2.
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Thank you. I will try your recipe.
If one has a fast twist barrel (1:9 and quicker) then a 60 grain is good otherwise 50-55 and H380 is a very good powder to use.
Yes, the slower the better for bigger boolits. Mine was a 1x14, not in vogue much anymore!
Was it a Ruger with heavy barrel?
The load I currently use is 40.5gr IMR4831 with 75gr HORNADY ELDM @ 3384fps. 7 twist Krieger. Extremely accurate.
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I used Winchester 760 with very good results. That was 35 years ago. Been a long time now.
Love the .220 swift, used R15 for year’s with great results very accurate but can be temp sensitive. Have been playing around with 2000MR and it is looking good so far with great velocity.
The Swift is screaming fast and fun to shoot. The excitement comes from shooting small for caliber bullets. Feel free to try any powders listed in your reloading manual but my best experience has come from IMR 4064 and a 50g VMAX bullet. If you want lightening speed, you can try the 40g bullet as well but I prefer the 50g because it holds its velocity just a hair more downfield. Every powder I have tried delivered its best precision at the top of its velocity chart. I would suggest getting a bore scope and using SemiChrome solvent to clean the ceramic-like carbon ring ahead of your chamber before it builds up to ruin your accuracy prematurely. For a long time, we thought the barrels burned out really fast only to discover that this carbon ring caused accuracy issues long before the barrel was actually burned out.
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Yes, its a Ruger heavy barrel with the old standard 1x14.