Have any of y'all had any experiece with
swift scirroccos on game yet, I've got the
130 grainers shooting well out of my .270 win
but have yet to hunt with them. Just curious as to how these bullets have performed on actual game, and on game larger than deer(black bear, wild hogs, elk, etc). I was
thinking of trying some 165 or 180 grain
30 calibers next.

I was at Kenny Jarrett's shop yesterday trying to work up a solid load for my .300 Jarrett (no success). While discussing various bullets, the guys who do the loading and tuning for all the Jarrett rifles commented that they had not been able to get any of the Scirroccos (sp?) to shoot with acceptable accuracy. They still prefer the Nosler Ballistic Tips and some of the Sierra bullets.

A friend loaded them in his .300 Jarrett and shot several head of African game with them. He was disappointed with their performance. They over-expanded and did not penetrate as well as they should have. They apparently are too soft for .300 Magnum impact velocities at short to moderate range.

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Life member of the NRA and GOA. Do you part to protect our Second Amendment rights and our hunting heritage!

MWP,
That friend who used the Sciroccos in Africa should contact Swift and relate his experiences.
Real world accounts can be helpful in tuning the bullets for the future.

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!

I have not shot the scirroccos based upon several African field reports which have been related to me. Most everything that was shot with them died on the first shot, however, upon closer inspection, there were more than a few failures and poor penetration problems. For deer they may be great, however, on tougher/bigger game I would be looking for another bullet.

In a 130gr bullet for a .270, I would stick with Nosler Partitions for hunting situations. Their performance in the .270 is legendary and very well documented over 50 + years of hunting. For bigger game and elk I would consider the 150gr or 160gr bullet.

I don't have any experience with them on game myself, but I have used the 180 grain Scirocco in my .300 Weatherby Sako quite a bit at the range and accuracy has been extremely good. I've shot quite a few cloverleaf groups with these. Except for the report above, just about everything else I've read about them on this forum and others has been positive. I hope to find out for myself this fall how they perform on game. So far, I like them a lot.

Do a search for "Scirocco" and you'll probably find numerous threads on this subject.

I used the 180 grain bullets in a .300 win mag last year for elk and took a cow at about 40 yards. I don't know if the bullet expanded too quickly or not, but I do know that she died promptly with a 2" hole in her offside shoulder. I'm certainly not going to complain, and I plan to use them again this year.

I've had decent accuracy with the 7mm 150 gr version in a 7mm STW. Five shot groups were consistantly around 0.75". I took a whitetail @ 30-40 yards this year with one shot. Didn't find the bullet, so I can't say how the terminal performance was other than one dead deer.

If the animal dropped within a short distance from a single shot, all personal judgments aside regarding the degree of expansion or penetration, in that instance it certyainly was not a failure in performance.

In my testing the .284-150 gr Scirocco performed extremely well. It did not penetrate as deeply as the Nosler Partitions, but it made a much larger cavity and behaved in a controlled manner. It did indeed combine the high ballistic efficiency of the Nosler BT with the tenacity of a bonded core bullet. Penetration, by the way, exceeded most or all conventional bullets, so it is not sub-par on that score by any means.

It is worth noting that the Swift Bullet Co. does not recommend the Scirocco for extremely large animals, although I would not be hesitant to use the .308-180 gr Scirocco on game up to elk in size and if the .338 caliber ever materializes I do not think I will be afraid to use it on anything non-dangerous under 1 ton in mass.

I predict that the .277 caliber bullet will outperform any conventional 130 gr bullet by a fair margin. It may be used with confidence on anything one would normally use a .270 Win, but it may be unfair to criticize the bullet for not transforming a .270 Win into a .300 RUM.

"If the animal dropped within a short distance from a single shot, all personal judgments aside regarding the degree of expansion or penetration, in that instance it certyainly was not a failure in performance."

Well said, Harald. I never tire of laughing at the stories of "bullet failure" determined due to the animal falling on the spot it was shot; or to the accolades heaped on bullet performance such as "left a darn good blood trail which we tracked for over a half mile".

To date I have shot the grand total of one Mule Deer buck with a Swift Scirocco. I used the 180gr in my .300 H&H. Penetration seemed good and the deer went down in his tracks. I will probably use it again this coming year. I think it is probably a good bullet for deer sized game but would go to an A-frame or Partition for anything bigger. In the two rifles I have tried them in so far I have not been able to get them to outgroup the Ballistic Tip.

Hotweather,
I am the one MWP in SC mentioned having tried the Scirocco's in Africa. I have also made quite a few posts here about them. They are terrific bullets if you have one of those trackers who can track a mouse across a granite surface, but I cannot. Weight retention and penetration was very good, frequently over two feet, but when the two-caliber diameter bullet encountered the hide on the opposite side of the animal, it wouldn't cut through, and there was little if any blood. The animals from Impala to Zebra were all stone dead in very short order, but I need a blood trail for my level of tracking expertise.

I believe this problem arose from the ranges (most under 50 yards) and the high velocity 3200 at the muzzle. Swift mentioned in their early ads that the Scirocco was "optimized" for slower impact speeds. This may have changed in the time since I tested them (July 2000).

Also John Barnses gave them a very favorable review based on limited experience at the "slower" velocities, if Swift offered a "harder" bullet for higher velocities, I would be a loyal customer. Instead, I am limiting my use to the 308win and 270win.

Safe Hunting!
Clint