Thanks for the inquiry. I have been shooting the swift for many years. I'm sure people have told you what they think are the bad things about the swift, like it is too fast (burns up barrels), not as accurate as the 22-250, or has poor case life. Those are only rumors. The swift is, without question, the best factory cartige of its kind. That is, only if you do it right.
All guns are different. Mine has an abnormaly long distance from the front of the bolt to the rifelings. My OAL is 2.76. Most swifts should be at about 2.67 to 2.7. To get the most out of your gun you should, set the bullet depth so that the bullet is as close as possible to the rifelings, but not touching them. Some guns such as mine that require a large OAL cannot shoot anything lighter than a 52 gr. bullet, because the bullet is not long enough to press into the case far enough to be safe, yet still be close to the rifelings, so I only shoot 55 gr. bullets. When examining the ballistics for the swift shooting a max load with any grain bullet the 55 gr. has the best combination of energy, trajectory, and velocity. So it is almost pointless to shoot any other grain bullet anyway. Any bullet lighter than 55 gr. starts getting too fast and is harder on the barrel.
First off before you even shoot your gun. There is a lubricant/cleaner, that I highly recomend treating your barrel with. It is called TETRA GUN oil. It is the best stuff I have found. It is rare however and if you cannot find it in a store tell me and I will give you a representative's number to call. That lubricant will improve your velocity and accuracy slightly but will decrease where on your barrel by about 40%. It is amazing, after taking four shots in a row with it, the barrel temp was the same as if I had only shot twice. It takes about 15 shots before the gun will start shooting good groups, but the good thing is that you only have to apply it every couple hundred shots. Moly coated bullets are also an option to decrease barrel wear, but the problem with them is that it can be wiped off the bullets, so each bullet tends to have a different ammont of coating on it, which increases group size.
Due to the large taper on the swifts case the case is prone to streaching. Most of the powders that I have tried have streached the cases an undesirable ammount when loaded to the max except Reloader 15. Not only does RL 15 not streach the cases terribly it also attains the highest velocities. 39 gr. of RL 15 should put you (depending on eleveation and barrel leangth) at 3900-4000 ft second. This is plenty fast for most applications. If you are thinking of trying some 60 or 63 gr. bullets in order to get more energy I wouldn't bother. The 55 gr. will have more energy than the sixty gr. will, just because the bullet is going so much slower. And plus, velocity is more important than energy. A 44 mag has twice the energy at 25 yards than the swift does at 500 yards but the if you shoot some .25 inch steel with the 44 at 25 yards it won't even dent it. If you shoot .25 inch steel at 500 yards with the swift (even with a high expansion varmit bullet) will bore a perfect hole right though it. It's all about impact, faster you hit something less time it has to absorb the hit. In fact I had the oppontunity to shoot a deer with the swift at 523 yards this season. It hit, dead center in the shoulder (which was a bad shot on my part since I pulled it five inches to the left, (should have just went for a head shot)) but the bullet (55 gr. sierra sp bt) opened up nicely and even with hitting the shoulders and two ribs the bullet went went all the way though. So if anybody tells you that the swift is too light for dear don't believe it. Hell, I take the swift elk and bear hunting sometimes.
When loading I usually use winchester primers (they fit a little tighter) with norma cases or nickel cases are nice if you can afford them. I shoot the cases six times and then throw them away they could probably be shot more but six seems to be a good number.
Hopefully I did not fill you with too much info, as you can probably tell I am a bit of a fanatic, (Mechanical engineering major as well, so I get pretty into it).
quote:
Originally posted by Hoghead:
I just bought one. Does anyone have any input for me??? It is the factory ported and fluted barrel. 26in. Thanks.
