I bought a pile of rifles in an estate sale and one of them is a pre 64 220 swift. Cool gun but the rifling is...well...kinda worn . Not uncommon with a 70 yr old barn burner. The throat maybe toast.
So my question is, how much rifling does a bullet need? If it is visible but well worn is it still "good".

Cool thing is it has a 20x or 24x JW Fecker target scope. The thing is over 20" long.

Back story is there are 6 guns, 4 M70's/1 custom 98 from Wallach and Homes NY/1 Sako High power Mauser, all shooters in great condition. If they could only talk!

Perry

The only sure way to find out is to give it a good cleaning and shoot some groups with it.

Rifling wears at the throat from gas cutting and erosion, far less so from friction, so the result is lower velocity, and lowered accuracy from the bullet getting a wobbly start. So how much is too much; the answer is, any.
The only way to find out is to shoot it and see if it meets your needs. It might, or might now, depending on how well you need it to shoot.

Here's my take...I've posted this several times, but here's the short story...

I bought a 17 Rem CHEAP, couldn't see any rifling...used 2-3 cans of foamy sh** to clean it, loaded some rounds and worked up a 1/4-3/8" load for about 500 rounds more, barrel was so rough for the first 9" it would shred cotton patches, used J&B to smooth out, chopped barrel 1/2" a couple times, when it wouldn't shoot below 3/4" groups I replaced the OEM Rem barrel with a Shilen, that went over 3000 rounds before replacing with another Shilen.

One thing I've observed is...it's the last couple inches that determines accuracy...a good crown and relatively sharp rifling makes all the difference.

The only way to know for sure has been stated...CLEAN IT, SHOOT IT, work out a good load and let THAT determine if you bought a jem or a joke.

EVERYONE wants the answer to your question and there AINT one.

I've had 4 Swifts over the years and STILL have one...I found the hokey BS about barrel burning just that...most have gone well over 4000 rounds at minute of sage rat accuracy because I didn't strain the boiler room, didn't get them hot and cleaned somewhat frequently...basically only when the accuracy fell off, i.e., opened up to ~3/4" from 3/8-1/2" "normal".

You can always just rebarrel and have a totally RAD shooter with that scope...you lucky *&$*)&@.

Luck

Thanks for all the answers. I'll post back after I shoot it.

Perry

If all else is done properly then it depends on the quality of steel used.Keeping the barrel cool also helps.I had two ss Palma barrels of one maker not last a quarter of the rounds I got out of my Kriegers.They just melted like butter.My smith liked them because they were easy on his tools.

I have owned and shot many pre 64 shot out 220 swifts. Clean the gun thoroughly and you may find it is not shot out. They get dirty and start opening the groups very fast.

The US military did some testing of the M-16 to see what the effects of a worn barrel would be.
After about 50 thousand rounds, the rifling being tested was gone in the first 50% of the barrel.
As for accuracy. that rifle still met military standards for a combat rifle.
Ref: John Bunch; Master Armorer, USAF; Director - USAF Blue Team.

You could also try throating it out a bit too, freshen it up and seat the bullets out.

The rifling is so faint, someone who did'nt know barrels are rifled wouldn't notice it.

Perry

quote:

Originally posted by perry:
The rifling is so faint, someone who did'nt know barrels are rifled wouldn't notice it.

Perry

Not a good sign.I look a lot at the rifling.Good rifling is accuracy and accuracy is everything.

Shot both Swifts today. Both shot well. With factory Remington 50gr psp the target gun shot .63" group, field gun shot .78" group. Guns were shot off a wobbly work bench with no rear rest. VERY pleased with the results.

Perry

/There ya go...when all else fails go shoot them. Ive seen some double rifles, Winchesters with bores that resembled a tramp steamer stove pipe, that shot outstanding groups. other shot all over the target,if they hit the target...I will say that hivelocity calibers are less likely to shoot well and low velocity heavy bullet caliber seem to shoot most of the time. Your 220s are exceptions, and that's a good thing.

"ACCURACY"...what does that mean anyway??? That depends on what the shooter requires...I just acquired a 1903A3 and looked up the "accuracy" requirements on the CMP site...4 MOA was what the military requirement was. That seemed to be a bit loose for my taste, but the person I bought it from had several large, tall trophies for winning Military Service Rifle matches with it. My father always wanted one and I've always wanted one since my days in HS Cadet Corps as it was one of my training rifles. The 'accuracy' was secondary in this case..

The throat is so deep 220 gr Nosler Parts just barely seat in the case and are close to 3.75" long. Haven't had a chance to chrono the load or target but with a 54 gr loaf of IMR4831 and stuffed into the rifling to correct the headspace I can hit pine cones out to ~75 yds with OEM peep sights and my bad eyes...or at least make them jump...any critter in the way would be dinner...for some other critter.

Some people thing anything over 0.000" is cause for a new barrel....some "minute of dinner plate or deer, Elk" etc is all that's required.

"Accuracy" depends on the whole system being tuned...or not...but empirical testing is ALWAYS required and then let your requirements be YOUR guide.

And, as postulated, there are many ways to improve accuracy...I acquired and earned lots of goodies in the distant past "fixing" inaccurate rifles so I have to snicker a little behind my hand every time I read about "lousy" accuracy...

Luck