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22-250 vs 220 swift

1K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  outofstater 
#1 ·
i know this has probably been discussed here before but i am in the market for a .22 cal center fire and i have been throwing the swift and 22-250 back and fourth. the swift i was looking at was a pre 64 model 70 and the 22-250 is a rem 700. i know there is a large price difference. but i was wondering what everyone here thought about the two different caliber. i read on other forums about getting the same velocities out of the swift as the 22-250 but with less pressure. and how 22-250 has a longer barrel life and list of differences goes on. i just wanted other people thoughts on the two calibers and which of the two guns you would go with.

thanks
 
#2 ·
Great guns, great cartridges...either will be fine on groundhogs and any other small game you'd care to take out out to 350 yards and maybe even 400 plus. Problem is those little 50ish grain bullets loose a lot once they get past 300...you'll have very little problem hitting them out to 500 but dropping them on the spot is another question. I'd look at availability of ammo, not only now, but in the future and the clear winner is the 22/250 remington with ease, you'll be giving up 100-200 fps but that's not a real big deal for what you'd gain in finding ammo. They both are at the top of the .224 league and have passed the test of time with ease..case life for the .22/250 is outstanding if your a handloader...size about 1/2 the neck, 34.1 grains of IMR 4064 and a 50 grain v-max and your in with a great load. IMR 4064 is the THE powder in my opinion and the V-max bullet is awesome. Price also, a pre 64 22/250--220 swift would command a pretty penny and I'd wonder about the barrel steel back then with throat erosion...heck you could buy a cheap version today and save yourself tons of cash. Either cartridge is a great choice and you can't go wrong with either.
 
#3 ·
You gotta decide if you want a classic, collector rifle or a 700 Remington. You also need to decide if having the hottest hotrod on the block is important to you or not. Then decide if you are going to buy ammo at the gunshop or reload.

If I had the $$ the clear choice would be the pre-64 Model 70. It will NEVER be worth less money than it will be the second you buy it. It is an INVESTMENT.

If you wanna have the king of .22's get the Swift. The .22-250 is close. But it don't get the cigar. A properly loaded Swift will outrun the .22-250 by a decent margin.

If you are not going to reload.......the Swift ain't for you unless you are wealthy.

My pet load for my Swift is a 50 grain Ballistic Tip over a book charge of IMR-3031 and instrumental velocity averages 4180 fps at 15 feet. Find me a .22-250 that'll even come CLOSE to smelling that......
 
#4 ·
No way would I throw the coin down on the pre 64 SWIFT with a smith borescoping it. I bought a swift in a Rem 700 classic a few yrs ago that was fried. It still shot ok, but would lead spray the target at 25 yds. Smith said it was the worst bbl he ever looked into. This is all from a gun most would consider " hunted with" . My .02
 
#5 ·
grovey said:
No way would I throw the coin down on the pre 64 SWIFT with a smith borescoping it. I bought a swift in a Rem 700 classic a few yrs ago that was fried. It still shot ok, but would lead spray the target at 25 yds. Smith said it was the worst bbl he ever looked into. This is all from a gun most would consider " hunted with" . My .02
As with ANY purchase......... due diligence.

Yep.
 
#6 ·
Is the swift a heavy barrel or sporter barrel, a sporter barrel may not have been shot as much but that's not always the case. I saw a sporter mod.70 pre 64 in my neck of the woods for $2000.00 but if you can get it for a good price that is a plus and the swift has the cool factor.
Drags
 
#8 ·
You had some excellent feed back on really telling it the way it is. Im not in to Winchesters or pre 64's etc., but that just me. The swift is a strong case and mentioned you can get over 4k fps, that's trucking. However there is a price to pay and I couldn't really say how many more rounds you are going to get if both guns was equal as being brand new. 22-250 is popular easy to get factory ammo and brass is probably easy to get. The last one I had I won at a gun bash. I couldn't get it to shoot so I spun the barrel off. Everyone else has no problem getting them to shoot and it is a fine caliber. I guess one thing to add since I said the same as everyone else has, if you would burn the barrel out of either one the Remington is the better action to build off. I think what made the pre 64's was they had outstanding barrels. Best of luck.
 
#9 ·
I handload so ammo is not an issue once I have brass. Does the 22-250 have issues with burning out the barrels with higher pressure like the swift does or is that all because of metal used in the earlier rifles. And I see they offer a 35 gr bullet in the 22-250 does that stabilize well out of most rifles
 
#10 ·
With the CFE223 powder you are supposed to get over 3800 fps with the 22-250 with the 55 gr bullets. There is a guy over at accurate shooter that knows a lot about swifts if you pm him he would probably give you some information. As far as barrel life goes the 22-250 has better barrel life than the swift but probably not a whole lot more, but remember if you burn out the barrel you are having fun and then you can rebarrel to a different caliber and have a new gun.
Drags
 
#12 ·
A lot of guns like different bullets, powder, etc., just like us with food. There are some that will almost take the same bullet from gun to gun and work. I woud not use anything under 50 grainer for hog hunting once you get out there you need to be able to kill it not saying the 3 wouldn't do it. Not to cut you short but if your that worried about barrel life ont get either because both of them used enough it will happen. I don't get out of bed with the intention of burning out a barrel but I have fun with my rifles. I use a custom 22-243 8 twist shooting a 75 a-max. Everyone told me it will burn out, when it does I will say I sure had fun at it and my barrels aren't cheap. I don't even load thinking for barrel life I load what gives me the best accuracy. Some guns that peak point of accuracy will be close to being hot others it wont. Either one of the 250 or the swift if you don't load it to perform you just as well go with a 223.
 
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