Author Topic: .264 winchester (Read 3371 times)

Dirt Bag · « **on:** November 26, 2009, 07:35:36 AM »

Any of you folks have experience with .264s?? Good or bad?
One time, they were hot stuff --- don't hear much of them now.
Just wonderin'.
Have a good one;
D.B.

LONGTOM · « **Reply #1 on:** November 26, 2009, 03:17:50 PM »

No personal experience but a friend had one after selling his 270 and lost a lot of deer with it.
On close in shots the bullets were just punching holes straight through with little damage.
I don't know what ammo or bullets he was useing.
This was back in the late 70s or early 80s.
I have one but never have used it.

LONGTOM

Siskiyou · « **Reply #2 on:** November 26, 2009, 03:23:49 PM »

I witness a hunter put down two bucks with one shot each on opening morning. Slam Dunk and down shots, exit holes about the size of a fifty cent piece behind the shoulders. Impressive!

JASmith · « **Reply #3 on:** November 26, 2009, 06:43:33 PM »

My uncle used one for many years in the '60s and '70s. He was very successful with deer and elk, claiming kills at 600 yards! I believe he used the 140 gr Sierra Game King for most of his hunting.

Silvertp · « **Reply #4 on:** November 26, 2009, 07:23:52 PM »

Ive got a .264 Mag in a Sako Finbear. It is a very accurate rifle and is deadly on game. As close as I have ever come to hunting deer with a laser with one shot kills the norm. With modern bullets it is a fantastic round for open country game from antelope through elk or moose.

I hope to put a .264 Mag bbl on my encore one of these days for a big game go to rifle. To me the .264 mag is quite mild in the recoil department and impressively deadly on the receiving end.

Silvertp

Dirt Bag · « **Reply #5 on:** November 27, 2009, 12:22:33 AM »

Thanks for the replies;
Several years back, I got to thinking about putting together a long range paper punch. Our old gunsmith, who's passed on now, always talked about .264s.... and how good they were. Well, I started reading about High BC match bullets, and talked to Sierra's tech folks about it plenty. Ended up putting one together. Bought a Sendero for the action and stock. Had it trued, and a Hart barrell fitted. 1 in 8 twist.. built it around a 140 grain MK or A max. Tech folks said don't be surprised if it shoots decent with light bullets too.
That's as far as it got. Found some factory ammo to fire form into the chamber, and get some of the fired brass sent off to have the dies made (Lee collet dies). Put a Weaver T36 on it for now, just for testing. We used to have a place where we could shoot long.... now it's a subdivision. Probably could shoot it at 100 yards, but that would'nt be much fun. Read a lot about 6.5-284, .260 Rem. etc. Wondering if it may have been overkill to use a belted magnum... figured that the case capacity would be there if we ever wanted to try to really push it.
Another toy.... or maybe another fiasco?
Have a good one;
D.B.

Nobade · « **Reply #6 on:** November 27, 2009, 01:56:18 AM »

I build them for folks occasionally. Super accurate, really fast, and don't last long. Great long range hunting gun, but for target work they sure wear out fast. Like 1000 shots.

JASmith · « **Reply #7 on:** November 27, 2009, 02:11:48 AM »

Quote from: Dirt Bag on November 27, 2009, 12:22:33 AM

....Read a lot about 6.5-284, .260 Rem. etc. Wondering if it may have been overkill to use a belted magnum... figured that the case capacity would be there if we ever wanted to try to really push it.
Another toy.... or maybe another fiasco?
Have a good one;
D.B.

In my Uncles' time, 4831 was about the slowest powder you could get. The rifle worked fine for him even though the cartridge might have been close to "overbore" at the time, much the way the 270 Win was before you could get 4831. Now, with powders like 7828 and Retumbo, you can get close to 3100 ft/sec from a 24 inch barrel (See e. g., http://www.ammoguide.com/ or http://www.hodgdon.com/). It is also the fastest 6.5 mm factory cartridge.

Hope you can find a decent place to shoot long range -- they are hard to find in many states!

P.A. Myers · « **Reply #8 on:** November 27, 2009, 02:38:18 AM »

All 6.5s tend to be very accurate. As the stats show it is a real powerhouse, notice the downrange performance. A friend used a Remington 264 WinMag to take pronghorn every year. All the pronghorn I have ever seen were at least 400yards and running.

Dirt Bag · « **Reply #9 on:** November 27, 2009, 01:42:26 PM »

Thanks much for the feedback boys. The new powders and a long barrell were what we had in mind at the time. Seems like we ended up getting a 29 incher out of that blank. Had a reamer ground to minimum neck diameter, and throated it for them looong, skinny bullets.
At the time the fast twist / heavy bullet thing was really getting going. Yeah, .264s were said to be barrell burners (like Swifts were then). We figured that with the new slow powders, moly bullets, the new barrells etc., that it could be well mannered and still be a race horse. Guess we'll have to dig it out of the safe and shoot it one of these days. It aint pretty, and it aint light..... what it ended up being was expensive.
Not really rifle country here in the midwest, and only a few of us tinker with them in our neighborhood.
Thanks again, and have a good one;
D.B.

BBF · « **Reply #10 on:** November 27, 2009, 02:38:07 PM »

This is one of those situation where Remington took a good idea from Winchester one step further and offered the 7mm Rem Mag as an alternative which caught on and is still much in demand putting the Win round into the twilight zone.

The opposite occured with the 244 Rem(6mm Rem). The slow twist meant light bullets for varmints while Winchester took this idea one step further with the .243 Win as a dual purpose cartridge.

I used H-570 and H-870 powders for 140 gr bullets and the old H-4831 for 125 gr PT's

Jaydub in Wi · « **Reply #11 on:** November 30, 2009, 02:28:37 PM »

I have one in a win model 70 26bbl. I haven't played with it much the last 2 years, because I've got other rifles too. It really likes 120X bullets(old style) with IMR 7828 and 95 gr V maxes with RL 19. The X bullet load exits almost every time on deer. I haven't tried the V max load on fur yet. Very accurate rifle and one of my favorites.

shotgun31 · « **Reply #12 on:** November 30, 2009, 04:49:16 PM »

I shoot a 6.5-06 and have (so far) had complete pass through on several deer and antelope. I use the 140 grain Hornaday Interlock, the Nosler Partition and the Berger VLD and the 95 gr VMax. All are superbly accurate.

It's different than my .270 Win. Both are killers but the 6.5 seems to have more penetration and hits harder "way out there".
Shotgun

JASmith · « **Reply #13 on:** November 30, 2009, 04:57:19 PM »

From the Hornady web site: sectional density for 6.5 140 gr is 0.287; sectional density for .270 140 gr is 0.261 -- meaning that for equal velocity the 6.5 will penetrate deeper. The greater SD on the 6.5 means it retains its velocity better so penetration is doubly helped in the smaller diameter.

Drilling Man · « **Reply #14 on:** November 30, 2009, 05:04:45 PM »

Quote from: JASmith on November 30, 2009, 04:57:19 PM

From the Hornady web site: sectional density for 6.5 140 gr is 0.287; sectional density for .270 140 gr is 0.261 -- meaning that for equal velocity the 6.5 will penetrate deeper. The greater SD on the 6.5 means it retains its velocity better so penetration is doubly helped in the smaller diameter.

That is only true IF the bullets are of "identical" construction. That means jacket thickness, taper ect., ect., ect., and they rarely are... Yes the greater SD is a plus, but bullet construction is more important.

DM

JASmith · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2009, 05:32:04 PM »

Quote from: Drilling Man on November 30, 2009, 05:04:45 PM

Quote from: JASmith on November 30, 2009, 04:57:19 PM
From the Hornady web site: sectional density for 6.5 140 gr is 0.287; sectional density for .270 140 gr is 0.261 -- meaning that for equal velocity the 6.5 will penetrate deeper. The greater SD on the 6.5 means it retains its velocity better so penetration is doubly helped in the smaller diameter.

That is only true IF the bullets are of "identical" construction. That means jacket thickness, taper ect., ect., ect., and they rarely are... Yes the greater SD is a plus, but bullet construction is more important.

DM

Thanks for calling attention to that not so subtle point!

Fortunately bullets of excellent construction are available in both calibers and from many manufacturers. So you can pick your bullet and know that a bullet of the same weight, model and diameter is likely to penetrate a little deeper from a .264 Magnum or 6.5-'06 than from a 270 Win.

Coyote Hunter · « **Reply #16 on:** December 02, 2009, 05:48:25 PM »

No experience with the .264 WM but I did a lot of research before deciding to build a 6.5mm-06 Ackley Improved on a standard Interarms MArk X action I had picked up. The .264's offer great ballistics with an excellent chioce of bullets. Providing it shoots well, I'll be hunting with a 130g Swift Scirocco II, BC .571, at 3200fps or better. At 700-800 yards it shold be right behind my best 7mm RM loads but with les recoil. A .264 WM should be even better.

Was shooting fire-form loads at the range last week, first time I had a chance t shoot it. Even with slow (2675fps) 140g A-MAX fire-form loads I was able to pick off clay pigeons on the 600-yard berm. I really think I'm going to like 6.5mm/.264" bullets....

Drilling Man · « **Reply #17 on:** December 03, 2009, 02:03:13 AM »

I went through a 264 Win. Mag. stage in my life, it wasn't long lived though, because the 7mm Rem. Mag. was so much BETTER on "bigger" game, i SOON forgot all about the 264.

Today, there's much better bullets available in 264, but then again, there are in 7mm too...

DM

Tonk · « **Reply #18 on:** December 03, 2009, 04:07:46 AM »

NoBad.... gave you the true out right facts, concerning the ".264 Winchester magnum" as a hunting or shooting rifle! Like Drilling Man, I too soon reaped the benefits of the 7mm Remington magnum and forgot about having a .264 Winchester magnum in my gun vault. Now for a long time, Winchester never made a .264 magnum even though they had all sorts of other calibers they pushed......reason was as NoBAD stated, they don't last long!!!

I did later down the road, put together a bit of a wildcat in the 6.5/06 (.264/06) and it has served me very well so far as hunting critters from groundhogs, coyotes to whitetail bucks. If a person used that 160 grain premium bullet, there is no doubt in my mind they could go after even bigger game such as bull elk or moose too.

My model 70 Winchester rifle with 24 inch barrel shoots very accurate for a coyote & deer rifle. I have put 100 grn bullets into a small three shot group that measures .525-MOA at 100 yards, velocity is 3150fps. It shoots 140 grn bullets at .675-MOA and velocity is 2800fps. It shoots 160 grn bullets at 1.25-MOA. I suppose my rifle shoots about 175-fps slower than the .264 Win mag or the 350 Remington mag but I don't miss that extra bit of speed one iota and I know my barrel is going to last 5 times as long.

Tonk · « **Reply #19 on:** December 03, 2009, 04:42:41 AM »

.264 Winchester Magnum: Several (1970) decades ago, a dear friend and gunsmith by the name of John Ray asked me If I wanted a .264 Winchester magnum rifle. Sorry to say, I said I don't think so but what would this cost? Well, he stated that he was going to make several of them on Mark X actions, Douglas premium barrels and Shelien barrels etc and he would have the figures the following week. He also stated that he planned on taking a trip to hand pick the blanks up at Warsaw, Missouri. He stated he wanted some very top line burl walnut. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided that I already had a very good shooting and hunting rifle, in my Belgium Browning FN, which was in .300 Win mag caliber.

I was soon very sorry, that I did not order one of those .264 Win mag rifles of John's, he later passed on after finishing all 7 of those rifles. I did get to shoot two of them and really was impressed with the shot groups they managed to put on paper at 200 yards. The muzzle blast was a bunch and the rifle kicked just a bit but afterwards and viewing those targets, I came away that day feeling a little down for not putting my name in the hat. The stocks on those rifle's (if you could find the walnut) were burl and would cost at least $600 dollars today for a blank. However, these rifles all shot very tight groups according to their owners and the two I shot were awesome to say the least, shooting 140 grn bullets. I managed to cut an MOA of 1.60 at 200 yards off a bench using that rifle with a Redfield 4 x 12 scope on top!

shot1 · « **Reply #20 on:** December 05, 2009, 08:58:04 AM »

Last fall I let my hunting buddy trade me out of a Rem 700 SS 270 Win with a 24" barrel. I got in return a Rem 700 with a 27 3/4" Shilen barrel in 264 Win mag that he had just had made up and had only shot less than two boxes of factory ammo in.
I replaced the plastic Rem stock with a Hogue over molded full bed stock and put a Meopta 3-12X56 scope on it. During my load work up I decided to use the Nosler 130 gr Accubond bullet because of the high velocity the bullets were moving. I tried the 120 Nosler BT. They shot great but were going 3600 fps and inside 300 yards they would have vaporized on the hair of a deer.
The load that I found that is very accurate is 66.5 grs Retumbo in a reformed WW 7mm mag case, CCI 250 primer with the 130 Accubond ten thousands off the lands. 3350 fps.
The first deer that I killed this year was with this rifle. I was hunting in East NC over a huge soy bean field. At 7:10 a.m. I spotted this buck at well over 300 yards away with the field glasses. He had four point on one side and a main beam with a brow tine on the other. He needed to be taken out. He started trotting down the edge of the field with his head down trailing and came into the bean field. I got the scope on him and when he was 275 yards away he stopped slightly quartering toward me. I placed the cross hairs on the center of his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. BOOM went the rifle and SMACK went the bullet and when the rifle came down from recoil the filed was empty. Upon inspection he was 275 yards away the bullet had entered the center of his right front shoulder and exited behind the left shoulder with a golf ball size hole. The deer dropped in his tracks. I killed two other bucks and one doe with this rifle between 98 and 111 yards and all were dropped in their tracks. I did recover one bullet from a buck that I shot at 111 yards that was facing me with a slight angle. The bullet entered the front edge of his left shoulder which it destroyed and then made soup of it's vitals and was found in the right ham when I was cutting up the meat. The bullet was a text book mushroom with the front half peeled back over the back half which still held the lead core and the recovered bullet weight was 71 grs. The 264 Mag is a very good long range hunting rifle. It is not a rifle that you want to shoot a bunch of times to get it hot and it is not a paper puncher or you will shoot the barrel out. My rifle and load sighted in 3 inches high at 100 yards is still shooting 1" high at 300 yards. I have not had a range any longer to test farther distance. I would say that it is on the money at 350 yards and about 2" low at 400 yards. Now that is flat shooting for sure. The Accubond bullets are the best of the ballistic tip and the partition. They fly like a ballistic tip and start to open up like one but hold together and keep on trucking like the partition.

Tonk · « **Reply #21 on:** December 05, 2009, 01:01:08 PM »

If you don't shoot that .264 Win mag but a 100 times a year, it will last you a long long time! Good Luck

billy_56081 · « **Reply #22 on:** December 05, 2009, 01:11:49 PM »

If this is going to be a hunting rifle and the barrel burns out at 1000 rounds SO WHAT! I heard the same thing on my 220 swift, I figure after 1000 rounds at a coyote I have had my fun and that $120 Adams and bennet barrel will have provided a ton of fun for me by then.