Swift Scirocco Bullets

Scirocco bullets (pronounced “cy-rock-oh,” or “shy-rock-oh”) are made by the Swift Bullet Company and officially known as “Swift Scirocco II.” These are elite-level projectiles made for highly accurate medium- and large-game hunting, especially long-range. Loaded into premium ammo by a handful of major and lesser-known companies, this is one of the top names in trophy and safari hunting.

When you come across Scirocco, should you make the purchase? Are they as accurate, consistent, and effective as advertised? What are they good for?

Let’s learn more about these premium bullets to see if they should be in your chamber.

What is a Scirocco Bullet?

To less-familiar ammo users, the Scirocco line may seem like any other hunting bullet. It doesn’t have one significant innovation that makes it unique, but instead leverages a variety of features and enhances them for greater performance.

For example, Nosler’s Partition bullet, an excellent projectile, uses a dual-core design separated by a hard metal wall. Berger’s Hybrid ammo combines tangent and secant ogives for enhanced performance in the chamber and target. These bullets have one significant feature that makes them unique.

Scirocco ammo, however, uses features found on many bullets, such as a polymer tip and boat tail, but perfectly tunes and enhances them for maximum performance.

Scirocco Bullet’s Main Features

Black Polymer Tip

Swift Scirocco II ammo is most noticeable thanks to the black polymer tip. This tip helps maintain the bullet’s aerodynamic design, creating an accurate projectile that stays stable and consistent further down the range.

Bonded Jacket and Core

The black polymer tip is highly visible, but, arguably, the most important feature on the Scirocco line is hidden: the bonded jacket and lead core. Swift uses a bonding process that locks the copper jacket and lead core together, creating better weight retention, which in turn creates deeper penetration. The bonding process helps the bullet hold together on impact, ensuring deep wound channels while facilitating bullet expansion.

Secant Ogive Nose

There are two basic types of ogives: tangent and secant. Scirocco ammo uses secant. We won’t dive too far into the physics and engineering of ogives, which are (basically) the tips of the bullet; all you need to know is that a secant ogive creates less drag, enhancing accuracy, consistency, downrange speed, and overall performance.

Boat Tail

Many bullets utilize a boat tail, which improves bullet stability, thereby creating superior accuracy. The boat tail on the Scirocco bullet is angled at precisely 15 degrees, which has proven to create the best results.

Longer Shank

The Scirocco brand has a longer bullet profile compared to typical projectiles. While this can complicate seating and chambering, it allows the bullet to have a higher ballistic coefficient and greater aerodynamics. Essentially, when a bullet is longer, the long-range stability is enhanced. This is yet another feature that makes Scirocco bullets more reliable for long-range hunting.

All of these features enhance the performance of a cartridge, making the Scirocco more accurate and consistent. They are ideal for long-range hunting, and have been trusted by casual American deer hunters as well as elite safari trophy hunters.

Are They More Accurate?

The only real way to verify accuracy is to use the ammo in a controlled setting and compare the results to other cartridges. But we can still leverage manufacturer data (which, we admit, can be flawed) to compare different ammo. Because Scirocco is hailed for its accuracy and ballistic coefficient, we’ll compare a handful of rounds for trajectory and long-range speed.

We’ll see if they have a higher ballistic coefficient and look at 300-yard velocity, as this tells us whether the round maintains speed. We’ll also look at bullet drop to see if they have a straighter trajectory than others.

This is an extremely small sample, and only looks at one cartridge with one grain weight. But it does provide a window of useful information. With these stats, it appears Scirocco does live up to the hype. It has a high ballistic coefficient compared to similar rounds, and maintains excellent speed downrange.

While the CX Outfitter from Hornady shows less drop and faster downrange velocities, it starts with a faster speed, which means recoil will be a bit stronger. Scirocco bullets, it appears, do more with less.

The same trend is seen across other cartridges loaded with Scirocco bullets. The round has a high ballistic coefficient, creating better aerodynamics and overall performance. It tends to outperform rounds with similar muzzle velocities, bringing less drop and faster downrange speeds.

Available Scirocco Bullets

Swift Scirocco II bullets, manufactured with the signature black tip, are available in numerous calibers, making them ideal for a vast majority of popular hunting cartridges.

Hand-loaders (or commercial manufacturers) can order Scirocco bullets in the following diameters:

• .224 (62 Grains)
• .224 (75 Grains)
• 6mm (90 Grains)
• .25 (100 Grains)
• 6.5mm (130 Grains)
• .270 (130 Grains)
• 7mm (150 Grains)
• .308 (150 Grains)
• .308 (165 Grains)
• .308 (180 Grains)
• .338 (210 Grains)

With these bullets, hand-loaders can create nearly every popular rifle cartridge, including .223 Remington, 6.5mm Creedmoor, .270 Winchester, and all the .308-caliber rounds, such as .30-06 Springfield and .308 Winchester.

Manufactured Scirocco Ammo

Scirocco II is a line of bullets, not ammunition. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a hand-loader to enjoy the benefits of this ammo, as numerous manufacturers load factory rounds with these high-quality projectiles.

Federal

Federal, one of the largest ammo manufacturers in the country, has loaded Swift Scirocco II bullets into as many as seven cartridges, including the 6.5 Creedmoor, the .270 Winchester, the .308 Winchester, and the .30-06 Springfield. When this article was written, some of the Federal products were listed as “Discontinued,” so, while the products are still on the market, future availability may be limited.

Federal Swift Scirocco II ammo is available in:

• 130-grain .270 Winchester
• 130-grain 6.5 Creedmoor
• 150-grain 7mm Remington Magnum
• 165-grain .30-06 Springfield
• 165-grain .308 Winchester
• 180-grain .300 Winchester Magnum
• 180-grain .300 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM)

Remington

The largest organization loading Scirocco ammo (from what we could find) is Remington. This company has ten calibers with a total of 12 different products ranging from a 90-grain .243 Winchester, perfect for deer or hog, to an 180-grain .300 Remington Ultra Magnum, ideal for large or dangerous game. Remington brands their Swift Scirocco II ammo as “Premier Scirocco” and says that these rounds “hit the mark when it’s time to take down a big bull, buck, or bear.”

Remington Premier Scirocco is available in:

• 90-grain .243 Winchester
• 130-grain 6.5 Creedmoor
• 130-grain .270 Winchester
• 150-grain .30-06 Springfield
• 150-grain 7mm Remington Magnum
• 150-grain .300 Remington Ultra Magnum
• 150-grain 7mm Remington Ultra Magnum
• 165-grain .308 Winchester
• 180-grain .30-06 Springfield
• 180-grain .300 Winchester Magnum
• 180-grain .300 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM)
• 180-grain .300 Remington Ultra Magnum

Fiocchi

An Italian company with a strong American presence, Fiocchi offers reliable, budget-friendly hunting and defense ammo, including Hyperformance ammunition loaded with Swift Scirocco II bullets. They have nearly 30 Hyperformance products, which are loaded in different bullet types, including seven loaded with Swift Scirocco II rounds.

• 90-grain .243 Winchester
• 130-grain 6.5 Creedmoor
• 130-grain .270 Winchester
• 150-grain 7mm Remington Magnum
• 150-grain .308 Winchester
• 165-grain .30-06 Springfield
• 180-grain .300 Winchester Magnum

Sako

Sako is listed as one of the companies using Swift Scirocco ammo, but their use of the bullets is a bit unclear. (The ammo industry, like many industries, can be protective of seemingly trivial information.) From what we could find, Sako’s Arrowhead II ammo is loaded with Scirocco II bullets, but they simply brand it as “Arrowhead” instead of “Scirocco.” This product line is not found on their website, but various boxes labeled Arrowhead II are found on random ammo websites.

Norma

A company familiar to European and African hunters, Norma is starting to create a toehold in the American market, offering a large menu of premium hunting and target rounds, primarily for rifles. They have a small selection of hunting ammo loaded with Swift Scirocco II bullets, most notably a 6.5 Creedmoor loaded with 130-grain Scirocco rounds.

Quality Scirocco Ammo from Leading Companies

If you are looking for reliable hunting ammo for your rifle, visit our site today. We have a huge variety of options, including Scirocco cartridges from top American and international companies. When you need the best ammunition, we are your source for great prices, a full selection, and outstanding service!