[Ron AKA]

Quote:       Originally Posted by wirehunt

I know of a guy with a 6.5/06 AI that has a lot of trouble gets bullets to hold together.

That's why I like the Nosler Partition. Pretty hard to blow them up at any speed.

http://www.nosler.com/images/partition_bullets.jpg

Ron

[mike_r]

Hi, I own a .264 winchester magnum and it is by far the best flatest shooting caliber around. I admit, when it was introduced in 1958, they had the reputation for being barrel burners. The caliber never caught on because the 7mm mag was introduced. Still, out to 500 yards the 7mm mag does not even come close to the ballistics of the .264. Because the .264 is a very over bore cartriage, I highly recommend a 26 inch barrel. It is not a gun where you want to go out and pound round after round through it at the range. When I sight mine in I will take a shot wait a few minutes before taking another. I also clean mine afted 10 shots. Todays barrels will last if it is properly cared for.


This is what I reload withand have the best luck:

I use ONLY Winchester brass. The reason is because it seems to me this brass last alot longer.
I am shooting the SIERRA GAME KING SPITZER BOAT TAIL 140 grain.
I use H4831 powder and I load it to the max with 62.0 grains.
It has a SECTIONAL DENSITY of .287
It has a BALLISTIC COEFFICIENTS of .531 (which is amazing)

Although factory ammo for the .264 is usually not stocked and somewhat expensive.....
My gun likes the Winchester SUPER X 140 grain POWER POINT.
Sometimes you can get lucky and find it for around $34.00 per box but average is $40 to $47.
I hope this helps....

[jaeger]

Not to throw another caliber into the mix but I once considered getting a .264wm and actually went with a .25-06. velocity was only down by 30 fps at the muzzle with the .264 shooting a 140 gr and the 25 shooting a 120. Works on the same game just cheaper to shoot and easier to find.

[gunone296]

I have shot the 264 extensively for more than 25 years, and have loaded everything from 85 to 140 grain bullets. The powders that work best fo me are AA8700 and H4831. With these two powders adn proper bullet selection I was able to take everything from long range prairie dogs to coyotes, bobcats and whitetail. The lighter bullets were exclusively for prairie dogs. I am aware that the 8700 has been discontinued but have a supply so am still using it. When that is gone will work with another slow powder.

It is true that other cartridges are easier to find ammo for and some may be balistically equivelant but for those like myself that enjoy something other than ordinary cartridges it is great.

My ideal cartridge is the 284 winchester. Now that is a cartridge that was ahead of its time.

[salasj]

I finally loaded 140gr XLC ahead of 65 grains of IMR 7828 using winchester brass got velocities of 3,300fps. I use this load on my deer hunt it worked. I shot my buck at 75 yards the buck dropped liked somone kicked its legs out. I also killed a nice 6x6 bull shot it at 245 yds no problem. My rifle seems to like barnes xlc. I bought a box of winchester and a box of remington 140 grain and used the chrony on them. I was suprised to see the Winchester rounds were coming out at 3200fps. The Remington rounds were a disappointing 2850fps. I asked the local gunsmith and he said Remington rounds sometimes come out with lower velocities than posted on the box. Has anyone ever heard this?

[Gus B]

Hello, I have all three calibers. The .264 is a custom job with a mauser action made in Finland and a thompson custom 28 inch barrel. I hunt small-big Game with 87 grain Sierra with 4831. The velocity when loaded heavy and shooting at about 4000 ft of elevation is in excess of 4000 fps and as high as 4200 fps. I am not givin the grains as the action on his rifle as made to handl up to 70,000 chamber pressure. The recoil is about like a 30-06 firing a 220 grain bullet. Moving up to the maximum weight I will normally fire in this gun, 120/125 grains the velocity is about 3,800 fps and the kick is much more noticable and I am only good for abut 5 rounds in a 30 min. period. With either bullet 500 yds is an easy shot using a 4x12 scope. It's my favorite.
The 7mm mag is a Ruger M-77 and has a 24 inch barrel. The kick on it is just a bit more than a 30-06 and I consider the gun a nice piece but nothing special. Its good to about 500 yds but not beyond and the accuracy is lacking, about 4 inches whereas the .264 will treble the holes. The 25-06 is just a neat rifle. It is also a Ruger M-77 but with a bull barrel of 26 inches. I normaly shoot 87-90 grain. The velocity is 3,800 fps and can be pushed a bit more but loses accuracy. I hunt big game with it using 100 grain Sierra and 4831. It has a velocity of 3500-3600 fps depending on the load. A 500 yd shot is also pretty easy with the 100 grain though I wouldn't recommend taking anything larger that a couse deer or javalina at that range though it is very accurate. The kick is the same as a 30-06. Hope this gives a bit of insight from someone who has owned them for 30 years and longer.

[samuel]

Wow! Your getting so much more out of those guns than I ever heard of I am just astonished!How do you hold the bullets togather?Never mind,I don't want to try.Keep up the good work and posts.It does sound like you should use a wash cloth between your shoulder and the stock.The wash cloth can be used for other purposes. sam.

[788Ham]

Salasj, I have a.264 my granddad gave me back in ' 72, a custom job from The Colorado School Of Trades in Lakewood, Colo. A Mauser action, Douglass barrel, Timney trigger, set at 4 lbs., what a shooter. I shot an 4 point elk at a measure 325 yards, 140 gr. Hornady spire point, 4831 pushing it, one round, and one nice bull. I've shot 100 gr. 110's, but for hunting I use the 140's, like I said, a superb round, I also do my own reloading. It has a 26 inch barrel.

788Ham

"He was just too high strung" Doc Holliday

[samuel]

Quote:       Originally Posted by salasj

I finally loaded 140gr XLC ahead of 65 grains of IMR 7828 using winchester brass got velocities of 3,300fps. I use this load on my deer hunt it worked. I shot my buck at 75 yards the buck dropped liked somone kicked its legs out. I also killed a nice 6x6 bull shot it at 245 yds no problem. My rifle seems to like barnes xlc. I bought a box of winchester and a box of remington 140 grain and used the chrony on them. I was suprised to see the Winchester rounds were coming out at 3200fps. The Remington rounds were a disappointing 2850fps. I asked the local gunsmith and he said Remington rounds sometimes come out with lower velocities than posted on the box. Has anyone ever heard this?

Max load is 58gr. of IMR 7828 at around 3000fps.The best mfg,d load Winchester offers is a 140gr at 3020fps. sam.

[samuel]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Ron AKA

I dug out my old Lyman reloading manual, and found my memory was pretty good. Here are the loads for 4831 powder. Wt in grains, and velocity in f/s. Bullet Wt - Suggested load, Velocity, Max Load, Velocity 87 - 68, 3438, 72, 3816 100 - 65, 3323, 69, 3555 140 - 60, 3059, 64, 3226 The next best powder looks to be the 4350, but I never used it so could not comment on how it performs. Here are the numbers: 87 - 63, 3473, 67, 3676 100 - 61, 3344, 65, 3510 140 - 55, 2960, 59, 3145 It used to be the other powders such as 4350 were much higher priced than the 4831, so I never really considered using them. As always, start with the lowest load, and then work up, keeping an eye on what the primer looks like. The flatter the primer and the more obvious the dimpled rim around the firing pin indent, the higher the pressure.

Max load for IMR4831 with a 140gr bullet is 55.2gr at 2907fps according to their web data.I don't find IMR in the Lyman but max for H4831 is 63gr at 2976fps.Hodgdon gives max as 61gr H4831 at 3065fps.All kinds of data.This is one I would be starting out real low and working up. sam.

[SwedeSteve]

^ Sound advice there.

[Old Steve]

I built a .264 Win Mag on a Winchester US Model 1917 action in 1958, new barrel by Ackley, Fajen stock blank, Dayton-Traister speedlock and trigger. glass bedded, it never seemed to shoot well, I quit hunting because of family expenses and it sat mostly in the closet till last year. A friend offerred to help, found a defective scope (rattled) misaligned mounts. New scope, realined mounts, loaded 64.5gr H4831 behind 123gr Lapua Scenars, new Nosler brass. 3 shots to get the scope on target, put the next 3 in touching holes. this with a medium sporter weighr 26" barrel. Also hit a 500 meter 12x16 steel plate about 4 inches below dead center with a single round based on calculated trajectory, 16 MOA adjustmant if I remamber correctly.

The cartridge suffered initially because of poor and exaggerated advertising and very poor design of factory bullets, This was stupid because the military 139g boattail bullets for the 6.5 x 55 Swedish Mauser were available everywhere. That combination won about every match in Scandinavia for decades, and Norma had plenty of hunting bullets available. There are deer and elk there too. Npte also that the factories alluded to new and unobtainable powders, and never published any loading data.

If you want to handload this cartridge, I most strongly encourage the purchase of the "Quickloads" program, I have found a great deal of nonsense in reloading manuals, do you really believe that the publishers actually test (and measure pressures) the thousands of different combinations they publish, I have founds loads listed that run 115% of case capacity. Of sbout a dozen different powders that are in the range for this cartridge, Vithavouri N560 appears about optimum, H4831 a close second. Quickloads will repeatedly state they are not to be trusted implicity, but a great many loads in 22-250, 243 and 308 have checked very closely with calculated velocities, yes, go easy and don't load to max pressure on first test, but I and several others that use it believe the data is very reliable,

As far as the 7mm Rem Mag being a better choice, the .338 Lapua is even better, but the 123 and 139 g 6.5mm boattail bullets available from Lapua or Sierra, will accurately outrange anything with comparable recoil by about 200 yards in the .264.

By the way Nosler and Winchester brass are available, with the exception they go out of stock as fast as they come in. The cartridge isn't all that obsolete, someone is buying it.

Also note that the .284-6.5 cartridge has been winning many/most 1000 yd matches, and the 6.5-06 has exactly the same case sapacity. That and AI reamers are available from PTG

[wirehunt]

I must remember to go pick mine up on Monday

[samuel]

Old Steve:No,I don't believe the publishers of loading data test anything except maybe paper,ink,binding and glue.Their job is to manufacture and print books.However I do believe The companies that furnish loading data either test thousands of loads or furnish data tested by someone else.Some of the elaborite testing and equipment I have personally seen.Can you post any incident where a load data book reccomends 115% case capacity loads?What is the difference in "quickloads"posting load warnings and others posting the exact same warnings?I think quickloads is a fine source,but no better than any other source and they don't test their loads,they calculate. ,,,sam.

[Old Steve]

Samuel
As far as I am interested, if a book says "Hornady" on the cover and gives an address to contact Hornady, Hornady is the publisher. I use their book as an example specifically because I have not used it much and have never found any problem with it. There are others. "Quickloads" is a trademarked computer program and doesn't publish any data whatever. It does store a great deal of data on various powders and bullets provided by their manufacturers, and uses that data to calculate probable performance. We design spacecraft and bridges and electronic circuits by computer simulations, mostly we get it right, and you can design ballistic systems by simulation too. The "Quickloads" simulation isn't a gun and doesn't test anything, it merely provides a computer simulation of what will likely happen with any particular assembly of case, powder, bullet, and barrel. It is up to you to test it if you care to. I and many others I know have done so and tend to trust the results, but we do load below maximum calculated pressure on a first test.

And I never meant to suggest that all the published data is wrong, but much of it is well below maximum pressures as established by SAAMI, and some of it is wrong, your call.

[OKIE2]

hI guys I just found this site today.
and this is the post that led me to here.
the 264 is one of the greatest calibers you can have. I have 2 of them one an older remington ADL 24 inch barrel and the new sendero stainless.
One of the guys mentioned the 25-06 this was my favorite for 25 years
shooting crows at long distance with 87 grain ballistic tips or anything we could find driving the back country roads. One of you memtioned the 6.5 rem. mag I have had one of these for 15 years I built my self on a 110 savage with a 26 inch barrel from E R Shaw. For all of you that has never had the chance to shoot this little jewel you are really missing something.
It has the same powder capicity as the 6.5-06 and the 6.5x284 and will beat either one of them and with some bullet weights will beat the 264 too. every one here seamed to like the 4831 and the 4350 powder but you are missing some other very good powder for the 264 and that is the
RE 19, 22 & 25 plus the VV 160 and the VV 165 as for the 140 grain for the 264 I never hunt deer with anything but the 100 grain ballistic tips I have taken several deer as far as 250 yards with it and all of them dropped right where I shot them one shot. another caliber I have don't any of you under estimate is the little 270 wsm which I also have with the 135 grain bullets. I have a project going now that I can't hardly wait for is I have a new 30 inch stainless 264 mag barrel coming that is 1 inch diameter at the muzzel that I am going to put on the Remington 264 that I have with the 24 inch barrel. if you all really want to know how different calibers compare to each other join Ammoguide.com for $18.00 a year they have the best site on the net for this kind of thing also have a very good ballistic computer free called (SHOOT)THAT IS INTERACTIVE ON THE GRAPH JUST MOUSE ANY WHERE ON IT AT THE BOTTOM IT GIVES YOU THE YARDAGE AND BULLET UP & DOWN IN INCHES.
I have read guys downed elk with a 223 so why do you need a 416 rigby cannon with 400 grain bullets and a 20 inch barrel.
my 264 mag
http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/u...GTON264MAG.jpg
FOR ALL THE LOADS OF THE 264 WINCHESTER MAG HERE YOU ARE
http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/ai.cgi?...fAhk&catid=110
6.5 REMINGTOM MAG
http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/ai.cgi?...UfAhk&catid=22
6.5-06
http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/ai.cgi?...fAhk&catid=184
6.5X284
http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/ai.cgi?...fAhk&catid=108
270 WSM
http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/ai.cgi?...fAhk&catid=267
25-06
http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/ai.cgi?...fAhk&catid=120