.220 Swift
Encyclopedia
The .220 Swift is a semi-rimmed rifle
cartridge
developed by Winchester
and introduced in 1935. It was the first factory loaded rifle cartridge with a muzzle velocity
of over 4000 ft/s (1,219.2 m/s). Until the introduction of the .223 WSSM
the 220 Swift was the fastest commercial cartridge in the world.
The Swift is a large cased .224 caliber cartridge and bullet that was created for small game such as prairie dog
s, groundhog
s and other marmot
s. Upon its introduction it astounded the varmint hunting world by being fully 1400 ft/s (426.7 m/s) faster than its nearest competitor, which was the .22 Hornet
(also .224 caliber). It was found to be an extremely accurate cartridge as well.
Due to its very high velocity its bullet drop allows dead on sighting on game such as groundhogs to ranges out to 375 yard, and it is still considered an excellent cartridge for taking varmints by experienced Swift shooters.
The original factory load from Winchester provided a 48 gr bullet launched at 4100 ft/s (1,249.7 m/s). Handloaders could marginally improve on this but only at maximum loads. The Swift can be loaded with light bullets to reach 4400 ft/s (1,341.1 m/s). In recent times 75 gr .224" bullets have been developed for use in the large high velocity .22 caliber rifles for taking larger game and long-distance shooting. These only work in rifles that have rifling twist ratios appropriate for that size bullet. The original 1 in 16" and 1 in 14" twists will not stabilize .224 bullets heavier than 60 gr.
as a means of achieving very high velocities. However the final commercial version developed by Winchester is based on the 6mm Lee Navy
cartridge necked down. The 220 Swift was developed by Winchester and introduced in 1935 as a new caliber for their Model 54
bolt action rifle. When the Winchester Model 70
bolt action was first issued in 1936, the 220 Swift was one of the standard calibers offered and continued to be until 1964 when it was discontinued.
accuracy after well in excess of 2,000 shots.
Performance is currently matched by the newer .223 WSSM
but the Swift remains more popular. Even more popular however is the smaller, and slightly lower velocity .22-250
.
have vastly improved barrel life with the .220 Swift and other 4000 ft/s (1,219.2 m/s) cartridges, although they still tend to require rechambering or rebarreling much sooner than lower-velocity cartridges such as the .222 Remington
and the .223 Remington
.
caliber, but its use is prohibited in many US states and also in the Netherlands
, England
, Wales
and Northern Ireland
for large deer such as Red
, Sika
and Fallow
, but some states, such as Minnesota, currently allow smaller caliber rounds like the .220 Swift to be used. In the cartridge's early days during the 1930s, expert red deer stalkers such as W.D.M. Bell, the recently retired African elephant hunter, used the .220 Swift on large stags with great success, and extolled the caliber's seemingly magical killing powers, which they attributed to massive hydrostatic shock
waves set up in the animal's body by the impact of the very high-velocity bullet.
Critics of the Swift have maintained that the light 50 or bullet leaves inadequate margin for error in bullet placement for the average deer shooter's skills, and thus invites wounding, which would have otherwise been avoidable. There is, however, little debate about the Swift's proven effectiveness on small deer species, such as Roe
, provided very fast-fragmenting "varmint"-type bullets are not used.
Most factory Swift rifles come with a fairly slow twist-rate such as 1-12" or 1-14", designed to stabilize the lighter bullets popular in varmint hunting. Custom Swifts can have faster twist-rates such as 1-9" allowing them to stabilize heavy bullets, including those with a construction suitable for larger game.
P.O. Ackley maintained that the .220 Swift was a fine round for medium-large game and used it extensively for example when culling wild burro
s in the American West.
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
cartridge
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
developed by Winchester
Winchester Repeating Arms Company
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The Winchester brand is today used under license by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group, Fabrique Nationale of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Morgan, Utah.-...
and introduced in 1935. It was the first factory loaded rifle cartridge with a muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed a projectile has at the moment it leaves the muzzle of the gun. Muzzle velocities range from approximately to in black powder muskets , to more than in modern rifles with high-performance cartridges such as the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger, all the way to for tank guns...
of over 4000 ft/s (1,219.2 m/s). Until the introduction of the .223 WSSM
.223 WSSM
The .223 WSSM is a .224 caliber rifle cartridge created by Winchester and Browning based on a shortened version of the Winchester Short Magnum case.- History :...
the 220 Swift was the fastest commercial cartridge in the world.
The Swift is a large cased .224 caliber cartridge and bullet that was created for small game such as prairie dog
Prairie dog
Prairie dogs are burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. There are five different species of prairie dogs: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah and Mexican prairie dogs. They are a type of ground squirrel, found in the United States, Canada and Mexico...
s, groundhog
Groundhog
The groundhog , also known as a woodchuck, whistle-pig, or in some areas as a land-beaver, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but...
s and other marmot
Marmot
The marmots are a genus, Marmota, of squirrels. There are 14 species in this genus.Marmots are generally large ground squirrels. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Eurasian steppes, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in...
s. Upon its introduction it astounded the varmint hunting world by being fully 1400 ft/s (426.7 m/s) faster than its nearest competitor, which was the .22 Hornet
.22 Hornet
The .22 Hornet is a low-end vermin, small-game and predator centerfire rifle cartridge. It is considerably more powerful than the .22 WMR and the .17 HMR, achieving higher velocity with a bullet twice the weight. The Hornet also differs very significantly from these in that it is not a rimfire...
(also .224 caliber). It was found to be an extremely accurate cartridge as well.
Due to its very high velocity its bullet drop allows dead on sighting on game such as groundhogs to ranges out to 375 yard, and it is still considered an excellent cartridge for taking varmints by experienced Swift shooters.
The original factory load from Winchester provided a 48 gr bullet launched at 4100 ft/s (1,249.7 m/s). Handloaders could marginally improve on this but only at maximum loads. The Swift can be loaded with light bullets to reach 4400 ft/s (1,341.1 m/s). In recent times 75 gr .224" bullets have been developed for use in the large high velocity .22 caliber rifles for taking larger game and long-distance shooting. These only work in rifles that have rifling twist ratios appropriate for that size bullet. The original 1 in 16" and 1 in 14" twists will not stabilize .224 bullets heavier than 60 gr.
History
The prototype for the 220 Swift was developed in 1934-35 by Grosvenor Wotkyns who necked down the .250-3000 Savage.250-3000 Savage
The .250-3000 Savage is a rifle cartridge created by Charles Newton in 1915 and is also known as the .250 Savage. The name comes from its original manufacturer, Savage Arms and the fact that the original load achieved a 3000 ft/s velocity with an 87 grain bullet.-Background:Charles Newton...
as a means of achieving very high velocities. However the final commercial version developed by Winchester is based on the 6mm Lee Navy
6mm Lee Navy
The 6mm Lee Navy aka 6mm U.S.N. is an obsolete American rifle cartridge. It was the service cartridge of the United States Navy and Marine Corps from 1895, officially replacing the .45-70 Government round, and was the first small-bore high-velocity smokeless powder cartridge to be adopted by...
cartridge necked down. The 220 Swift was developed by Winchester and introduced in 1935 as a new caliber for their Model 54
Winchester Model 54
The Winchester Model 54 is a bolt action rifle manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The 54 was the first successful production run centerfire bolt action for Winchester....
bolt action rifle. When the Winchester Model 70
Winchester Model 70
The Winchester Model 70 is a bolt action sporting rifle. It has an iconic place in American sporting culture and has been held in high regard by shooters since it was introduced in 1936, earning the moniker "The Rifleman's Rifle". The action has some design similarities to Mauser designs and it is...
bolt action was first issued in 1936, the 220 Swift was one of the standard calibers offered and continued to be until 1964 when it was discontinued.
Acceptance
The Swift has the dubious privilege of being possibly the most controversial of all the many .224 in caliber cartridges, and has inspired equal heights of praise and criticism. Traditionalists have roundly condemned it as an overbore "barrel burner" which can wear out a chromoly barrel in as few as 200-300 rounds, especially if long strings of shots are fired from an increasingly hot barrel. Its supporters have maintained that the fault lies with poor-quality barrel steels and the failure of users to remove copper fouling after firing, and point to instances of rifles with fine-quality stainless steel barrels chambered for the Swift, which have maintained sub-MOAMinute of arc
A minute of arc, arcminute, or minute of angle , is a unit of angular measurement equal to one sixtieth of one degree. In turn, a second of arc or arcsecond is one sixtieth of one minute of arc....
accuracy after well in excess of 2,000 shots.
Performance is currently matched by the newer .223 WSSM
.223 WSSM
The .223 WSSM is a .224 caliber rifle cartridge created by Winchester and Browning based on a shortened version of the Winchester Short Magnum case.- History :...
but the Swift remains more popular. Even more popular however is the smaller, and slightly lower velocity .22-250
.22-250 Remington
The .22-250 Remington is a very high-velocity , short action, .22 caliber rifle cartridge primarily used for varmint hunting and small game hunting, though it finds occasional use on deer. This cartridge is also sometimes known as the 22 Varminter or the 22 Wotkyns Original Swift...
.
Drawbacks
The Swift's high-velocity performance undoubtedly comes at a price, because the high velocities and high internal firing temperatures do accelerate chamber and bore wear. But modern metallurgy and cryogenicsCryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
have vastly improved barrel life with the .220 Swift and other 4000 ft/s (1,219.2 m/s) cartridges, although they still tend to require rechambering or rebarreling much sooner than lower-velocity cartridges such as the .222 Remington
.222 Remington
The .222 Remington aka the Triple Deuce/Triple Two/Treble Two is a centerfire rifle cartridge introduced in 1950, and was the first commercial rimless .22 cartridge made in the United States...
and the .223 Remington
.223 Remington
The .223 Remington is a sporting cartridge with almost the same external dimensions as the 5.56×45mm NATO military cartridge. The name is commonly pronounced either two-two-three or two-twenty-three. It is loaded with a diameter, jacketed bullet, with weights ranging from , though the most common...
.
Hunting controversy
The Swift remains a controversial deerDeer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
caliber, but its use is prohibited in many US states and also in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
for large deer such as Red
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
, Sika
Sika Deer
The Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world...
and Fallow
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
, but some states, such as Minnesota, currently allow smaller caliber rounds like the .220 Swift to be used. In the cartridge's early days during the 1930s, expert red deer stalkers such as W.D.M. Bell, the recently retired African elephant hunter, used the .220 Swift on large stags with great success, and extolled the caliber's seemingly magical killing powers, which they attributed to massive hydrostatic shock
Hydrostatic shock
Hydrostatic shock or hydraulic shock describes the observation that a penetrating projectile can produce remote wounding and incapacitating effects in living targets through a hydraulic effect in their liquid-filled tissues, in addition to local effects in tissue caused by direct impact...
waves set up in the animal's body by the impact of the very high-velocity bullet.
Critics of the Swift have maintained that the light 50 or bullet leaves inadequate margin for error in bullet placement for the average deer shooter's skills, and thus invites wounding, which would have otherwise been avoidable. There is, however, little debate about the Swift's proven effectiveness on small deer species, such as Roe
Roe Deer
The European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
, provided very fast-fragmenting "varmint"-type bullets are not used.
Most factory Swift rifles come with a fairly slow twist-rate such as 1-12" or 1-14", designed to stabilize the lighter bullets popular in varmint hunting. Custom Swifts can have faster twist-rates such as 1-9" allowing them to stabilize heavy bullets, including those with a construction suitable for larger game.
P.O. Ackley maintained that the .220 Swift was a fine round for medium-large game and used it extensively for example when culling wild burro
Burro
The burro is a small donkey used primarily as a pack animal. In addition, significant numbers of feral burros live in the Southwestern United States, where they are protected by law, and in Mexico...
s in the American West.
See also
- 5 mm caliber, other cartridges of 5–6 mm (.200–.236 in) caliber.
- Delta L problemDelta L problemThe delta L problem is a condition that occurs regarding certain firearms chambers and their practical incompatibility with ammunition made for the corresponding chambering....
- List of rifle cartridges
- Varmint rifleVarmint rifleVarmint rifle is an American English term for a small-caliber firearm or high-powered air gun primarily used for varmint hunting — killing non-native or non-game animals such as rats, house sparrows, starling, crows, ground squirrels, gophers, jackrabbits, marmots, groundhogs, porcupine,...