Winchester Pre-64 Model 70 220 Swift

[Scot43]

I my lifetime of varmint rifle ownership, I have owned no less that four 220 Swifts. When I sold my last one, I had convinced myself I probably wouldn't buy another one. But, with 16 varmint/predator hunting rifles in my rifle battery, there has been an empty spot left for the king of long-range 224 caliber rifles. I attended the Missouri Valley Collector Arms show in Kansas City this past weekend and what did I come home with? Yup, a Winchester pre-64 Model 70 rifle in 220 Swift caliber. It is in 98% condition, all original and mfd in 1951.
I've always found IMR-4064 and Reloader 15 to be the powders of choice and my preference is a 50 grain ballistic tip bullet moving along at around 4000fps….a coyote's worst nightmare.
Anyone else own and hunt with a 220 Swift? What rifle and what's your favorite load?

 

[witchhunter]

Got my first one in 1978. A Ruger 77V. I bought 2 boxes of 50 grain Norma with it, mounted a cheap Tasco 6-18 on it and sighted it in. One hole groups. I didn't know anything about taking care of a barrel. I shot 4000 rounds through it, then figured out I needed to rebarrel it. My son has it now with a fresh barrel. I have had three of them since. My latest is a 40X that I reamed out to an Ackley Improved, that solves the neck thickening problem inherent with the Swift. I would recommend it. They all shoot dots with around 40 grains of 4064, that works out to 4000 fps with a 50 Sierra. I can't imagine being without one.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Anyone else own and hunt with a 220 Swift? What rifle and what's your favorite load?

Yup. Have a 2006 Ruger KM77VT with a Nikon Monarch 6.5-20x, shown with my other dedicated rig, a 700 VLSF in .17 Rem:



I like a 55 gr. V-max over 44-45 grs. H414. Spitting them out at a respectable 3,800-3,900 FPS without being especially hard on brass or barrel.

 

[murf]

scot43,

50gn berger, 40gn reloader 15, br2 primer, 2.700 col. 3925fps through chrony and a max load.

55gn blitzking, 39gn imr4064 (caution: one grain over max (sierra manual)), primer???, 2.750" col. 3860fps through chrony and max load.

shot through a pre-64 220 swift. it killed quite a few woodchucks with the 55 grain load back in the day.

murf

 

[I6turbo]

I attended the Missouri Valley Collector Arms show in Kansas City this past weekend and what did I come home with? Yup, a Winchester pre-64 Model 70 rifle in 220 Swift caliber. It is in 98% condition, all original and mfd in 1951.

Just how selfish are you? You have to post pichers of this gun!