.22 Swift for Deer

BrownTrout

In this weeks Irish Shooter's Digest, there's an article about used rifles and it gives a list of Deer - Legal calibres and illegal bullets to use for the deer.

The 22 Swift is listed as illegal.

I thought with 60 grain bullets you could hunt deer with this calibre?

hiddenmongoose

I had a swift for deer along with a 308,2 years ago npws rang me to tell me the following season they would no longer be licencing swifts.That same year the barrell burned out and I decided to step down to 223.I have heard guys have since licenced swifts for deer but thats just hearsay,What I know for fact is npws told me they would no longer allow me hunt deer with my swift.

J.R.

This is the chart in the article - from the Irish Deer Society.




Similar older thread here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056888309

gunny123

I thought the swift had nearly identical ballistics to the .22-250, or slightly exceeded them. If the 55+ grain bullet makes the 1700 ft/lbs limit, can they legally refuse you ?

Cass

This crops up almost yearly and the NPWS, Irish Deer Society and ISD have all made this mistake before. The law says:

• .22 centrefire
• 55 gr minimum bullet weight
• 1,700 ft/lb minimum at the muzzle

The caliber must be able to satisfy all three criteria above to be legal. The chart is wrong and in the link above they said the included it for simplicity sake.

The NPWS have over the years tried to stop people getting a license on the Swift, but they've also said (then retracted) that the ,223 is deer legal. IOW they do make mistakes.

The important part of all this is to remember that the NPWS, IDS, ISD, etc. cannot legislate or overwrite the legislation.