Exactly as the title says. I bought a new 220 this past fall to hunt coyotes with but I need to know what the best round to reload would be that isn't going to blow a football sized hole in the pelts. Shot one not long ago with the Hornady factory loads, I think they're 55gr? And it put a nasty hole which made the yote not salvageable. The rifle is a Remington 700 Varmint SF with a heavy barrel if that matters. Thanks for any input!
Best 220 swift load for coyotes
- Thread starter Stanley91
- Start date
The Swift, IMHO, is the ultimate 22 factory centerfire. 
Try the 50 grain Ballistic Tip, and try to avoid broadside shots. I was able to break 4000 fps in my Swift with Vihtavuori N540.
Another bullet that seldom exits, but has a lower BC is the Speer 52 FBHP, which has a larger open cavity in the nose. I have had excellent success with this bullet on 'yotes.
Enjoy your Swift....it is a great coyote chambering! Dave.
Try the 50 grain Ballistic Tip, and try to avoid broadside shots. I was able to break 4000 fps in my Swift with Vihtavuori N540.
Another bullet that seldom exits, but has a lower BC is the Speer 52 FBHP, which has a larger open cavity in the nose. I have had excellent success with this bullet on 'yotes.
Enjoy your Swift....it is a great coyote chambering! Dave.
Thanks for the input guys. But I thought hollow points blew up pretty bad? It's not a huge deal if the bullet exits just aslong as it doesn't make a 6 inch hole in both sides lol thanks Dave I like it so far! I've only shot 1 coyote and a couple Ravens with it but it seems like a pretty decent rifle. Im hoping I enjoy it seeing as it took about 8 months just to be able to locate one
You want the bullet to explode nearly as quickly and completely as possible. It will produce a teeny entry hole and then detonate inside the body cavity and hopefully not exit. It will be the exit hole that is the problem. With a Swift you want the lightest weight and lightest constructed bullet you can get hold of.
Yeah I figured you would want the lightest possible load. I'll try find some hollow points. Does anybody have a reccomendation on powder? I have absolutely no experience reloading for these smaller rifles, just the larger .30 cals.
Speer hollow points work the best because they don't exit they just stay inside and use imr 4064 powder and federal primers. Those components seem to work well for me. I think the speer hollow points are called tnt's.
Just worked up a load for my pre 64 model 70'that uses a 50 grain Hornady sp over H380 powder in W-W cases, WLR primers. Good accuracy with a velocity of 3940. Can't comment on this bullet for yotes yet, will let u know how they work for me when I get a few
- Location
- sudbury, ontario
Well here's my two cents mine is a rugar m77 with 24" barrel ..... I'm using barns 36gr varmint gernade bullets with 44.7 grains of aa 2700 and its flying at about 4100 fps and as high as 4400 fps I have not chrony them but am going by load data ... On lead sled I got clover leaf pattern at 200 yds ..... Manitou land island is full of yotes and wolves in meldrum bay ..... It's being almost a year but pm me and I could get the exact weight charge .... I wanna put a longer barrel on it to go faster!!!!!! Weeeeeee love going fast!!!!
Last season I shot 60 coyotes and had the best success with the HP's, seems like the jacket is thick enough to prevent a splash but they rapidly expand and kill the animal. Id also recommend Bergers. Alot of times the big holes arent exit wounds they are bullet splashed from polymer tipped bullets at very high velocities hitting bone. Vmax and Blitzking have very thin jackets and can make a huge mess, not always but with velocities from a Swift it can happen.
I ended up finding some 22 cal 50gr speer bullets in the old reloading cabinet. They don't say hollow point they just say Speer spitzers on them. They're prob 10 or 15 years old. I loaded up 26 of them with 39.5gr of accurate 3100 I believe? First yote I shot got it a little low but in the shoulder right inline with his leg. Just left a tiny entry and no exit so I was happy with that, but shot one tonight about 2 inches below the spine in line with his shoulder and blew a nasty hole in it. But the bullet ended up exiting so put a big hole on entry and exit. But it wasn't very good shot placement on my part so that could've been part of it. I was sitting on the ground and the long grass almost completely hid the yote so I figured I'd try shoot it high but that was a bad idea. I have some 40 or 45gr (can't remember which one for some reason) ballistic tips that I'm gonna load up and try after as well. Going to shoot the rest of the speers and try for direct shoulder or shots with the dog facing me. I was pretty happy with the outcome of hitting the first one in the shoulder so I'll try it again. What powders is everybody using? I just looked up ballistics and found the accurate powder we had laying around at the time. If I can't find a load that doesn't consistently blow nasty holes I'm gonna have to start carrying my 17wsm with me ( I don't really wanna do that though) lol
