[redmist3455]

Recently got a Ruger M77 in .220 swift. I'm new to this caliber. Can anyone tell me about it?

 

[DoubleR]

We have a 220 Swift and will NEVER sell it.
We mainly use it for varmints but had an occasion during a hunting season that we were hunting coyotes and a big buck walked by. The 220 Swift took down a big buck no problem. Funniest part of that deal was I had just surprised my hubby with a new deer rifle for that deer season but because he was coyote hunting he didn't have it available.
What are you thinking of doing with it?

 

[Guest]

Great caliber the .220 Swift. I had one for a number of years on a Springfield action. Sudden death on coyotes and the like. Sadly it was stolen and never recovered.

Have fun with that new rifle.

 

[DoubleR]

Great caliber the .220 Swift. I had one for a number of years on a Springfield action. Sudden death on coyotes and the like. Sadly it was stolen and never recovered.

Have fun with that new rifle.

Very sudden! You should see what it does to rabbits and ground squirrels! Lol!
I'm sorry for your loss! I would be more than upset if ours was stolen!

 

[redmist3455]

I'm looking to do some competition shooting with it. I will probably do some coyote hunting with it too. Where I live, coyotes are a real problem. They kill people's cats, eat their trash, and have even attacked people. One of my neighbors had one break into her house. It killed her chihuahua. My sister had one attack her cat. So I will most likely be putting some lead into those things.

 

[DoubleR]

Wow! That's not good! Glad you'll be able to make a dent in the problem!
Have fun with it. It's a great round.

 

[redmist3455]

What's the running cost of .220 swift right now? I got a box of 100 rounds with the rifle for free(the gun was a gift from my uncle and he reloaded the ammo for me).

 

[DoubleR]

Nice! I'm honestly not sure. We reload everything. I haven't looked at boxed ammo prices in a while.

 

[redmist3455]

No need, I just found the price on the Internet. $1.90 per round where I live. That's a good way to learn trigger discipline!

 

[DoubleR]

lol! It's a lot of powder.
It does help to encourage trigger control. Lol

 

[redmist3455]

I'm going deer hunting this fall. Would .220 swift be good to bring? I'm just hunting whitetail, and they aren't going to be terribly big. I don't try to preserve the head when I hunt. I'll either be doing head shots or neck shots. It's always been cleaner for me that way.

 

[DoubleR]

Hubby took his (see comment above) with a neck shot and he was using a varmint round. Lol!
I really wanted to whip his hind end! Buy him a new deer rifle he'd wanted so badly and he used the swift! Lol!
"Well I wasn't planning on seeing a deer at that time of the day."
Excuses! Excuses!

 

[redmist3455]

What kind of distances should I shoot . 220 swift at?

 

[DoubleR]

I don't really know how to answer that one. We shoot rabbits and squirrels at 500 or more yards down to right in front of us.
The deer he neck shot was about 50 yds.

 

[mark]

I have a M77 in 220 Swift that I bought back in the late 70s for hunting jack rabbits when there was a market for them for mink food and their fur.
Awesome long range accuracy. Big problem was sometimes all that was left was mush. I miss those days. Not many jacks left. I go out plinking almost every day in the winter, and I have only seen 1 this year. There used to be hundreds in the tree belts, in the winter. No rabbits now, but plenty of hawks. Not many jacks make it to adulthood.
Coyotes get their share also.

 

[22shooter]

22shooter. I have owned a77 220 swift over 20 years. Best ground hog gun. I have a medium heavy barrel and 20 power scope Great round and gun. Thanks.

 

[spikedriver]

I've never used the Swift but all the old timers I shoot with have used them in the past. Generally they liked it but all of them hand loaded and all said they fried their barrels pretty fast. But they loved them for making small critters disappear.

 

[Tommycourt]

Over 30 years ago I had a .220 Swift and they are a very fast round (around 4000fps) and super accurate. Back then reloading didn't cost like it does now and there were quite a few guys shooting them so brass was not a problem. Only problem you might have is throat erosion due to the speed of the round. Keep it clean and oiled but if you do a lot of shooting with it, you will eventually wear the barrel out. Takes a lot of shooting to do it, but expect some wear. You should be good out to 250 yds. for shooting varmits. We used to hunt prairie dogs in South Dakota. I also carried a .222 magnum with me when I shot the sod pups.

Tommy

 

[VThillman]

With modern bullet design, a 68 grain bullet that ain't designed to disintegrate on impact ought to work OK for small to medium deer. There still might be excessive spoiled meat with a 'vitals' hit, and a shoulder hit ain't so good either, but your neck shot (just behind the ears is good) won't spoil much. That weight bullet is apt to tumble if the rifling twist is slower than 1 in 10, even with the push a Swift gives it.