.220 Swift

The .220 Swift may be the most versa-tile varmint cartridge on the market today.

- Jim Matthews

At the time of its arrival, there was no factory-loaded round that was faster and flatter across a prairie dog town, but peruse the latest ammunition catalogs, and a varmint hunter would swear the .220 Swift was ballistically inferior to the .22-250 Remington.

In Winchester’s 2017 catalog, there is a single load listed with a 50-grain bullet at a respectable 3,870 fps. Yet, when Winchester introduced the cartridge in 1935, it was promoted as having a 48-grain bullet thundering out the end of a barrel at a reported 4,110 fps. Remember, however, that when the .220 was introduced, there was still a huge buzz in the shooting community about the .250-3000 Savage (introduced 20 years earlier in 1915) breaking the 3,000-fps barrier. The Swift’s 4,000+ number was jaw-dropping.

Remington’s only .220 Swift load today is a 50-grain bullet at an even more anemic 3,780 fps. Hornady likewise only lists one factory load featuring a 55-grain bullet at 3,680 – the exact same velocity as its 55-grain load listed for the .22-250.

What’s going on here? While the original 4,000+ reading may have been a little optimistic, even today’s reloading manuals show that it’s possible to push a 50grain bullet nearly 4,000 fps. Most show maximum loads that reach into the 3,850- to 3,950-fps range, and Western Powders still lists one maximum load with Accurate 2700 at 4,035 fps. All these loads are still about 100 to 200 fps faster than what is generated with a 50-grain bullet in the .22-250 Remington at the maximum end of the velocity spectrum.

Let’s go back to the Winchester catalog for a second. For the .22-250, there are seven different loads, and two of those have velocities topping 4,000 fps – both with new lightweight, lead-free bullets. The 35-grain Ballistic Silvertip LF (lead free) is rated at 4,350 fps, and the 38-grain Varmint X Lead Free is 4,090 fps.