Post by Travis on Apr 19, 2010 15:54:42 GMT -5
In my humble opinion I believe the .220 Swift caliber in a QUALITY bolt action rifle to be the best caliber for varmint hunting, bar none.
First of all, it is extremely fast at over 4,000 F.P.S. and known to be extremely accurate. Also, it is a round that can be "Ackley Improved" for a bit more speed and punch and NOT lose any accuracy whatsoever. The Ackley Improvement adds a bit more "Hot Sauce" to the already wicked round called the ".220 Swift" as it sits stock.
The .220 Swift was originally made from the 6mm Lee Navy brass and necked down to approximately .224" and the brass also had a SEMI rimmed casing originally. That may have changed with some ammo makers.
By what I mean by a quality bolt action I personally prefer something with a Mauser controlled feed design action or even a good Browning A-Bolt or clones thereof. Remington actions are OK, provided you opt for the SAKO type extractor fitted to the main body of the bolt itself. The Mauser action could be cock on open or cock on close type of design.
Ackley Improvement started with a man named P.O. / Parker Otto Ackley. This man was genius for his time. He would take standard calibers for example, the .30-06 Springfield and blow out the taper of the body and remove a good portion of the shoulder angle and in some cases shorten the neck slightly depending on stock brass design and then you would have more of a "Boiler Room" for powder / propellant capacity, thus giving the round a bit more "bang for the buck", in other words adding a bit more "Hot Sauce" to the platter.
Now the .220 Swift is known to be a barrel burner and Ackley Improvement will increase such barrel and throat wear substantially more, but the benefits are well worth it, provided you want such a conversion done to your rifle.
Said convsersion does NOT require rebarreling your rifle provided you have a rifle with the stock chambering already: I.E., .220 Swift to .220 A.I. . Now in the case of my chopped and hacked and Bubba'd K98K Mauser in 7.92x57mm, I'd need a new barrel in .220 Swift fitted to my action and then have a gunsmith, like Bear do a "chamber clean up" to alter it to .220 A.I. . And then a new stock, and have the receiver milled down to accept a good high power scope with Redfield J.R. mounts if applicable.
The .22-250.... Well, it is ok, but will never meet or exceed the .220 Swift even with A.I., in my opinion, same as the .243 vs. 6mm battle as well as the .308 vs. .30-06 vs. .284 vs. 6.5x55 Swedish.
First of all, it is extremely fast at over 4,000 F.P.S. and known to be extremely accurate. Also, it is a round that can be "Ackley Improved" for a bit more speed and punch and NOT lose any accuracy whatsoever. The Ackley Improvement adds a bit more "Hot Sauce" to the already wicked round called the ".220 Swift" as it sits stock.
The .220 Swift was originally made from the 6mm Lee Navy brass and necked down to approximately .224" and the brass also had a SEMI rimmed casing originally. That may have changed with some ammo makers.
By what I mean by a quality bolt action I personally prefer something with a Mauser controlled feed design action or even a good Browning A-Bolt or clones thereof. Remington actions are OK, provided you opt for the SAKO type extractor fitted to the main body of the bolt itself. The Mauser action could be cock on open or cock on close type of design.
Ackley Improvement started with a man named P.O. / Parker Otto Ackley. This man was genius for his time. He would take standard calibers for example, the .30-06 Springfield and blow out the taper of the body and remove a good portion of the shoulder angle and in some cases shorten the neck slightly depending on stock brass design and then you would have more of a "Boiler Room" for powder / propellant capacity, thus giving the round a bit more "bang for the buck", in other words adding a bit more "Hot Sauce" to the platter.
Now the .220 Swift is known to be a barrel burner and Ackley Improvement will increase such barrel and throat wear substantially more, but the benefits are well worth it, provided you want such a conversion done to your rifle.
Said convsersion does NOT require rebarreling your rifle provided you have a rifle with the stock chambering already: I.E., .220 Swift to .220 A.I. . Now in the case of my chopped and hacked and Bubba'd K98K Mauser in 7.92x57mm, I'd need a new barrel in .220 Swift fitted to my action and then have a gunsmith, like Bear do a "chamber clean up" to alter it to .220 A.I. . And then a new stock, and have the receiver milled down to accept a good high power scope with Redfield J.R. mounts if applicable.
The .22-250.... Well, it is ok, but will never meet or exceed the .220 Swift even with A.I., in my opinion, same as the .243 vs. 6mm battle as well as the .308 vs. .30-06 vs. .284 vs. 6.5x55 Swedish.
