Short History of the .220 Swift Cartridge — Great for Varmints
A History of the .220 Swift Cartridge
by Sierra Bullets Ballistic Technician Paul Box
This cartridge was introduced by Winchester in 1935 in their model 54 rifle. A year later, it was added as a standard cartridge in the model 70. What might not be common knowledge to some reloaders is that the prototype for the Swift was developed in 1934-35 by Grosvenor Wotkyns by necking down the 250 Savage case, but in the end, Winchester chose the 6mm Lee Navy case for the foundation for this cartridge.
This cartridge was far ahead of its time and for that reason it received a lot of bad press. We’ve all read the horror stories through the years. Many of those stories were just simply repeated from previous articles even the wording was just slightly different. So how bad was the Swift? Let’s take a deeper look.
Some of the early Swifts had soft barrel steel and some of the rare ones even had barrels that were .223 in bore size. This stemmed from the fact that the .22 Hornets prior to the end of World War II were .223 in bore size and some of these barrels were chambered in the Swift. It was rumored that the Swift peaked in pressure far too quick. I’ll bet they did with a turkey extra full choke barrel.
Burn rates of powders were limited at that time as well, so the Swift was limited in its true ability due to that. It was almost like building a funny car for drag racing when only kerosene was available.
One of the longest lasting black eyes was that it shot barrels out so fast. If you get the barrel branding iron hot and fail to clean it often this can happen. Common sense will go a long ways here. Keep the barrel as cool as you can and properly clean it every fifteen rounds or less will go a long way to improving accuracy life of a Swift.
So what is the real truth about this cartridge? I’m glad you ask. I’ve been shooting the .220 Swift for over 43 years now. It is one of the best varmint cartridges I’ve ever owned. It is not hard to load for, it doesn’t suddenly peak in pressure and it isn’t the barrel burner that you’ve heard. Hodgdon powders once reported a Remington 40-X with over 3,000 rounds of full power loads averaged .344” for five, 5-shot groups. My findings have been the same. It isn’t as hard on barrels as it has been made out to be.
I’ve also read that down loading it slightly will help in barrel life. This is true, but if you buy a thoroughbred you want him to run. Barrels are threaded on the end for a reason. If you have enough fun to shoot out a Swift barrel, just rebarrel it.
The bottom line is enjoy the .220 Swift for what it was meant to be. The popularity of the Swift has slipped in the last twenty years and few factory rifles are now available in this caliber. There is no reason for this and I know the Swift will always have a strong and loyal following.
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Tags: .220 Swift, 22 Hornet, Hodgdon Powder, Paul Box, Sierra Bullets
I’ve hunted with an Improved Swift (the Rocket) at 4000fps with a 55 grain Barnes.
Fantastic results.
I’ve shot a 220 Wilson Arrow for the last 29 years, with the same barrel, (Hart) my round count is currently 9,950. Not a single shot was fired under 4K fps…
My current load produces 4,550 fps w/ 40 Vmax. I was able to get 3/8″ groups in the beginning and now things have opened up to 5/8″. Sam Wilson said he never saw an Arrow that wouldn’t go 5,000 rounds.
This wild cat is very easy to form and it really smashes gophers:)
Great cartridge, it’s my go to gun for predator hunting. I been shooting the Swift for 25 years and would recommend it to anybody.
I have two, a Ruger and a custom mauser.
Most fun is setting a box of those moon rockets on the bench next to a couple of AR shooters.
The Swift is a terrific old cartridge, very accurate. Finally jumped in and built a 220 Wilson Arrow from a Win. pre war model 70. Great Gawd, what a performer. Managed to shoot a five shot group at 100 yds. measuring .046.