I picked this up in about 1990 because I liked the looks of the rifle and not because of any wild thoughts about the Swift Cartridge. Most of my loads have been 22-250 level with 50 grain bullets at mid 3600s.
It got a moderate amount of use back when I was hunting and I won't specify what all I shot with it. I will say that I picked my shots and never lost a game animal with it- or a varmint. Back then, I was shooting .4-.9" groups at 100 yards with every load I tried except the 40 grain bullet SR 4759 loads that developed 22 rimfire magnum velocities. Those did 1 to 1.1" I loaded it from 222 Remington velocities to sub max 22-250 and got the same sort of accuracy across the board and with bullets ranging from the Sierra Match Hollow points to the old Nosler solid base- pre ballistic tip. the 50 grain BTs were particularly useful.
I started out today with a box of those Ballistic Tips loaded in 11-1993 with 43 grains of IMR 4350 and recording 3640 fps. Pushing 13 years old and I shot my worst group ever with a full load in this rifle - 1.1" at 100 yards. This is not bad as I was using a make-shift bench rest and am not that good a rifle shot anyway. The Ruger has a 6 pound trigger pull but I just work around it. Refining my sight picture, I shot this one. Three shots, then clicked over a quarter minute and two more. One of the three touching is a 40 grain Federal V-Shok. I just wanted to see if it would work with the same sight picture
The hole one inch down was already there and was my aiming point.
the Federal VSHOKS claim 4250 fps and are probably not far from that. Haven't chronographed them. They claim a 5.5" drop at 300 yards with a 100 yard zero. Should be pretty flat with the rifle sighted like mine- about zero at 200 yards.
I never let much copper fouling build up in this rifle and have never gotten the barrel particularly hot.
It got a moderate amount of use back when I was hunting and I won't specify what all I shot with it. I will say that I picked my shots and never lost a game animal with it- or a varmint. Back then, I was shooting .4-.9" groups at 100 yards with every load I tried except the 40 grain bullet SR 4759 loads that developed 22 rimfire magnum velocities. Those did 1 to 1.1" I loaded it from 222 Remington velocities to sub max 22-250 and got the same sort of accuracy across the board and with bullets ranging from the Sierra Match Hollow points to the old Nosler solid base- pre ballistic tip. the 50 grain BTs were particularly useful.
I started out today with a box of those Ballistic Tips loaded in 11-1993 with 43 grains of IMR 4350 and recording 3640 fps. Pushing 13 years old and I shot my worst group ever with a full load in this rifle - 1.1" at 100 yards. This is not bad as I was using a make-shift bench rest and am not that good a rifle shot anyway. The Ruger has a 6 pound trigger pull but I just work around it. Refining my sight picture, I shot this one. Three shots, then clicked over a quarter minute and two more. One of the three touching is a 40 grain Federal V-Shok. I just wanted to see if it would work with the same sight picture
The hole one inch down was already there and was my aiming point.
the Federal VSHOKS claim 4250 fps and are probably not far from that. Haven't chronographed them. They claim a 5.5" drop at 300 yards with a 100 yard zero. Should be pretty flat with the rifle sighted like mine- about zero at 200 yards.
I never let much copper fouling build up in this rifle and have never gotten the barrel particularly hot.
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Old ammo ain't necessarily bad...