Conversions

[Drywall]

Trav,
The old mauser we have talked about is 8mm. Can't remember if I told ya that or not.

[Keith_Hixson]

I'm so confused!
I thought this was a post by Some Minister bragging about
Church Growth.


Keith


P.S. I know Boo........!

[82Rigger]

You got it, bud! The "Hornet" was the .223 that I was trying to remember.

When the .220 Swift first came out (wasn't it in the 30's or 40's?)
the big problem was barrel life due to throat erosion. Wondering how the "modern" Swifts are handling this, with better steel alloys and ball powders.

I never had a Swift, but my favorite "tack driver" was a Rem 700 Varmint Special in 22/250. I floated the barrel, mounted a Weaver T-10 target scope with fine cross hairs and handloaded as precision as possible...reamed case necks, uniformed and deburred primer pockets, weighed charges to plus or minus ZERO, and seated bullets in a zero-runout die.

Got some REAL LITTLE BITTY 10 shot groups off a benchrest...well under a half inch at 100.

[colmurph]

When I lost the sight of my right eye to glaucoma I gave my son my Ruger #1 in .22-250 with a Unertl 20x Sniper Scope mounted on it. AWESOME varment rifle!
Now I'm learning to shoot all over again as a southpaw.

You got it Col.-
Improvise,adapt,overcome.Sounds like a truly fine rig.

82-
Yes,relatively short barrel life due to throat erosion was a widely talked about concern with the .220 Swift.Also with the 264 Win. Mag. and the bad press really hurt both of these rounds popularity.My thoughts on the matter:
1.Believe the problem was overstated to begin with.
2.Think careful bullet seating and powder selection can make a considerable difference.
3.Seems to me that even with very hard use a .220 Swift barrel would last 10-15 yrs.Most folks that like it enough to give it that kind of use wouldn't be all that upset about havein to get a new barrel.
4.It can always be loaded down to 22-250 velosities for general use and the hotter loads saved for special occasions.
5. The same barrel life concerns applied to the .220 Swift could-in all fairness-be applied to about any Weatherby cart. for the same reasons.They still seem to have a pretty good following.

The above are thoughts,opinion,and conjecture.The fact of the matter is that the .220 Swift mentioned has been providing good service since the early '70's and accuracy remains as good as ever.

Good Lord! With those kinds of groups it sounds like you could deplete the housefly population from 200yds.!

[82Rigger]

My groups were measured with a caliper across the widest part of the pattern, in other words from outside edge to outside edge.
A "perfect" group, by this type of measurement, would be .224 inches (all shots in the same hole).

You may know this already...in competition, groups are measured from the CENTER of the bullet hole. Thus, a "perfect" group would measure .000 inches.

When I was shooting, the benchrest 100 yard world record 10 shot group was .009 inches (measured center to center). I guess you'd have to look real close to see that the hole was a mite bigger than a single bullet hole!

I concur with your assessment on the throat erosion problem in the Swift. Another factor that makes a difference is whether the barrel is cold or hot. A heated barrel will erode much faster because the steel is softer. Not likely to be a problem while hunting, but could be for other types of shooting.

As a general rule, I found that my most accurate handloads were well below the maximum loads listed in the manuals. With that 22/250 my most accurate loads were around 15% to 20% BELOW the listed maximum.

[locksly]

The 220-swift was chambered in stainless-steel barrells to stop the problems with erosion in the throat of the barrell. Winchester developed a method of blueing stainless steel barrells so people would buy them as most people wanted blue barrells then. These days people want the stainless barrell bright so they can show it off. The rifle Doc has down there has shot a few crows at 390+ yards.and I can not remember how many groundhogs.