Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 264 Win. Mag.

What bullet weight? 140? Up to 65 grains of 7828 is a common one, but my gun can't handle it. Even 63 grains is a little warm, but I get half inch groups and 3200 fps. Win 780 and 140s up to 65 gr is accurate and will push 3250. Remember, I do have a longer barrel and quite a bit of free bore. I seat my bullets out to 3.4".
120 TTSXs and 67.5 grains of 780 at 3515.
130 gr Accubonds and 66 grains of 780, just 3250 but super accurate- .5-.7" range.
75 grains US869 with 140s, 3215 fps.
71.5 gr H4831 and 100gr Ballistic Tips is my accuracy load, sub 1/3" stuff mostly, 3730-3750 fps. 62 grains of H4831 with 140s shoots pretty well, but velocity is a bit lower in the 3150 range in my gun.
Reloder 22 I've only taken up to 58 grains before moving on to other stuff. Velocity with that attempt was just under 3100. Never accuracy tested it.

exbio,

Thanks a lot. I copied that and pasted into a Word file and saved it for later. Good info and places to start.

And, yeah, 140gr. Accubond probably. Got some 129gr. SST's to play with, but if they'll shoot, the AB's will probably get the nod. Feel like the bonded bullet at high speeds will hold together better, not to mention that hihg B.C.



David

My only caveat is to stay away from any load that's 'compressed'... This round has a high enough pressure curve w/o that little additive..

I try to find loads for the magnums whereby the case is roughly 85-90% full.. Pay close attention to the books recommended starting loads and work up carefully.. Every rifle will have it's own little foibles.. oh, and use a chrono...

24" and 26" are close enough together that if powder A noticeably outruns powder B in a 26" barrel it will do it in 24" as well.

oh, and use a chrono...

Always! A chrono is a priceless piece of equipment for a handloader. Don't know how I did without as long as I did. I ALWAYS compare folks' "pet loads" with book loads before I fly into building cartridges. Usually pick a good starting point and load 1 or 2 of each chargeg up to what I think might be max. I'll take those and shoot them through the chrono checking each for any pressure signs. If none, and speed is acceptable, I'll pick a couple and load a few of each and test for accuracy, shooting over the chrony as well.

I read somewhere that the 264 has a pretty spikey pressure curve, for whatever reason. Little extra precaution is due I suppose.

Thanks guys,

David

Yes, due to the shorter throat from the original bullet designs that were 'stepped'..

I've never had problems reloading for this round.. Just gotta pay attention is all..

Someone else here sent me these from a John Barsness article using 140 Speers in a pre64 M70. 64 gr RL25 at 3130, 65 gr MRP2 at 3114, 65 gr MagPro at 3207, 65 gr Retumbo at 3171, 69 gr Magnum at 3240.
For what it's worth, my rifle couldn't touch the Magnum or MagPro loads, Retumbo pretty much mirrored my gun, MRP2 velocity was shy in my gun but safe, RL25 was safe but the velocity was a bit shy of JB's.
Oh and I forgot H50BMG, 64 grains at 3000 fps.
I think the only slow powder I haven't tried is N170. Used N165, N160, RL19 in the lighter bullets also.

Nice. I'm getting some great info here, guys. Keep it coming.

My 264 has a 26", 1 turn in 8.5", 3 groove barrel. My loads that I have been using are 130 grain Swift Sirocco with 67 grains of Retumbo for 3225 fps. And the 95 grain Vmax with 72 grains of RL-25 for 3600 fps.

8mmwapiti

This is the second barrel,the first one was high pressure and slow.Greydog throated the second barrel"normal",so I use more powder than JB did and without the spikes I had before.With my powder exploration,with a 264 and new powders you kinda on your own,I found Magpro and Magnum to be the best for groups.

After reading most every post on the 264,this is after all the home of the 264cult,we all seem to have a lot of different best powders. I think maybe 264s are much more picky about powders than the run of the mill cartridges.

From what I've heard it seems a bit finicky.

DW

I'm really looking forward to trying that 130-grain Swift bullet.

AWESOME info. Guys I scraped my 6.5x284 build to do a 264WinMag!!!

The Cult264 picks up another victim. Welcome to the club.

David

Sorry Bearstalker, we kinda hijacked your thread didn't we? Working out good for all though, I suppose.

The 264 WM can be Love/Hate for sure. Once you find the "sweet" spot you'll love them. Sometimes getting there can make you hate them though

Great thread. I've had a pre-64 model 70 in .264 for 25 years now. It loves 63 grains of H4831 and 120 bt's and 125 partitions - both are .5 inch loads.

Just picked up a Montana 1999 in a McMillan and 26 inch barrel off the board here a few months ago and working up loads for it. Last weekend I had the following results:

68 gr. Magnum with 130 Nosler AB's = 3279 fps but 1.2 inch groups
63.5 H4831 with 130 Nosler AB's = 3217 fps and .805 avg. groups
67.5 gr. Retumbo with 120 Barnes TSX= 3182 fps (don't know why so slow) but .566 avg groups.

Going to try some RL25 and Magpro based on some posts here. Thanks!

Sell it... Life is too short to befriend unlucky rifles.

Yer a good man, obviously..