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MY Favorite Rifle

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airedale Grand Master

airedale

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When I was a kid the landscape in NY was a bit different than it is today. I grew up in the country and half of all my friends lived on family farms. Farms were everywhere and that meant there were hay fields and where there were hay fields there were Woodchucks and back then lots of them. I remember well the very first one I took, I was hunting with a friend with my single shot open sight Savage 22 which I think was a model 120. This Savage had to be cocked by pulling the rear of the bolt cocking piece after a shell was chambered. Anyhow we spotted a Chuck out in a hay field and I crawled on my stomach to about thirty yards, the Chuck stood up and I took and made the shot and the kill. I became instantly obsessed with those critters.

 

As I got a little older my Dad started letting me use his Winchester 61 in 22mag which increased the killing range quite a bit over my 22. After a couple of years I graduated up to Dad's Sako 222 and I was pretty much in heaven with that rifle. I put away a lot of Woodchucks with that gun and out to 275 yards or so it was deadly, I also shot my first Buck with that rifle.

 

Well when I was old enough to get a decent job and earn some money I finally purchased my first Varmint rifle, a used in good shape Remington 700 ADL in the then fairly new factory 22/250. That baby added an easy 100 yards to the kill zone and I took full advantage of it's longer range.

 

While I was happy with that Remington 22/250 I still was not satisfied, I dreamed of owning the top dog of Varmint calibers and in my mind that meant the 220 Swift.  Problem was nobody back then produced a factory 220 Swift rifle. Winchester dropped the Swift and came out with a lesser cartridge than the 22/250, they called it the 225 Winchester. The Swift always had some bad press about being a barrel burner and, hard to handload for, short case life and the list went on, a lot of that bad press was mostly crap! I think Winchester pulled a boner by discontinuing the Swift and an even bigger boner redesigning their model 70 rifle.

 

In the early seventies I was reading through a Gun Digest and came across an article by Outdoor Life firearms editor Jim Carmichel about Bill Ruger putting in production his model 77 in the 220 Swift with a 26 inch medium heavy varmint barrel. Carmichel who was a huge Swift fan himself gave the preproduction model a glowing report. Man I was excited, I was drooling so bad I must have looked like a mad dog.

 

To make a long story short it was not long before I had one of those Rugers in my possession, she was topped with a straight 12X Leupold scope. I used Jim Carmichel's pet load of 39 grs of IMR 4064 under a 52 gr Sierra match bullet for about 3950 fps and hit accuracy paydirt right off the bat with half inch groups at 100 yds. To say the least me and that Swift back then were a Woodchuck's worst nightmare, I made so many spectacular shots with that rifle that I could not begin to tell about them.

 

What pretty much sums up my thought on the Ruger 220 Swift was on a warm summer day outside of Norwich NY on a hilltop overlooking hundreds of acres of huge hay fields. I had a case guard box of 50 reloads and had just put down number 37 without a miss, I looked down at that rifle and said to myself this thing should be illegal!

 

Al

 

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airedale Grand Master

airedale

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To see a Woodchuck these days is actually a rarity, they have virtually disappeared. I drive through country where I use to see scores of them in the big open alfalfa fields now I see none. Lots of theories on why their numbers have tanked. I have to believe that the demise of the family farm is one of the reasons and the changes in the way farming is done these days. Farmers do not like them and there are some kind of killing  devices that can be put down their dens to kill them. Another theory I have had run by me is the huge increase in Coyote numbers in the last 25 years. I was at the NY State Houndsman banquet some years ago and one of the guest speakers was a state biologist that studied the eastern Coyote. He said that upon examining the stomach contents of just about every summer killed Coyote they could get ahold to perform tests on had Woodchuck in them. He flat out said if anyone there wondered where the woodchucks disappeared to he felt the Coyotes had to have had a big effect on their numbers. I have noted that when I do see a Woodchuck it is always very close to roads or buildings and just maybe they survive in those places because is it is not comfortable habitat for a Coyote to hunt. When it comes to numbers I find it is the same with Cottontail rabbits and Pheasants. 

 

The old Ruger 220 Swift has not killed a Woodchuck in many years, their numbers are so low I don't hunt them anymore.

 

Al

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CFD914 Newbie

CFD914

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Are there any limits in NY for Rifles/Shot guns? As I learning more, I am enjoying the various styles of actions (lever and bolt) as well as calibers and their uses for target practice at the range. I am curious if there are any limits that you can purchase and keep at your home?

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dbHunterNY Proficient

dbHunterNY

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awesome gun.  definitely relating.  i always wanted an accurate varmint rifle.  i happened to be in the gun shop just browsing.  found a very lightly used Savage Model 12 stainless laminate varmint rifle chambered in .223 that I was drawn too.  wasn't impressive caliber choice, but I had to have it for some reason.  pretty accurate and use it to shoot woodchucks with.  definitely my favorite gun.  I've made great shots.  I get just under 100 on good summers but only really hunt my parent's 350 acre farm.  getting less of them in easily picked off areas and more next to roads and other places that's hard to get clean and safe shots.  same situation here.  most of the farm is hay fields so there's still plenty of opportunity.

​this weekend i'll probably be out with it.  seeing some chucks starting to wake up to look for partners.  hope you get a chance to take that out.  be a shame to let it sit there with a cool barrel.

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airedale Grand Master

airedale

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Hey dbHunterNY, 

That Savage 12 Varmint rifle is a very good one and the 223 chambering is a very good varmint round also. That Savage rifle has long had an enviable reputation for fine accuracy, they are pretty heavy to carry up to the top of those hills down your way. I am happy to hear you have decent chuck hunting and hope you and your Savage have continued success this coming summer.

 

Al

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dbHunterNY Proficient

dbHunterNY

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Hey dbHunterNY, 

That Savage 12 Varmint rifle is a very good one and the 223 chambering is a very good varmint round also. That Savage rifle has long had an enviable reputation for fine accuracy, they are pretty heavy to carry up to the top of those hills down your way. I am happy to hear you have decent chuck hunting and hope you and your Savage have continued success this coming summer.

 

Al

 

i'll try to post up a thread with stories and pictures once things get rolling.  maybe it'll get more off season less controversial traffic on the forum.  definitely a fun time and looking to take some youth hunters out.  very good practice to hone your shooting skills.

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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Nice story  Al...Also a classic rifle and classic scope...

 

My humble beginnings were similar..I shot my first woodchuck with my Dad's Stevens M15 single shot .22, which also required pulling back the striker to cock it manually..

 

After that my folks bought me a Winchester M69 A, which became my main chuck rifle...A couple years later I moved up to a Rem M722 in .222 Rem, but I still used the .22 a lot more because .222 rounds cost $3.00  per box of 20 but I could buy .22 LRHPS  for  85 cents for a box of 50...

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