Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Help with .264 Win Mag???

Just traded for a TC Custom shop unfired 26" heavy blued barrel in .264 Win Mag for my Encore. Started gearing up for loading the thing. My Sierra manual mentions this round was designed for a " two-diameter bullet" so the long forward part of the bullet extends up into and rides on the lands. All factory ammo is made this way. I tried a round from a factory box of Rem. and sure enough, the bullet will slip in the muzzle almost all the way to the case neck. I have never heard of any round being designed this way. It would seem to be a good way to insure bullet alignment to the bore- and allow the long 140 grain bullets to be seated way out. However I don't see any .264 bullets for handloading built this way. Anyone with .264 Mag. experience please comment. Should I just stick to the (very limited) factory loads? I hear that Remington downloads this round compared to the Winchester load?????? Rick

Rick,

I do not have a lot of experience with the .264 WM, just enough to get addicted to it but there is no reason not to handload for it.



Factory .35 Remington ammunition is loaded the same way.

So what do you think of the .264? I have always used .243 Win. and .257 Imp. or 25-06 for deer here in Ky. Now that we have an Elk herd here in my back yard I thought I might need a bit more firepower some day, if I can get lucky enough to draw a tag.

Rick,

Factory .264 Remington bullets (140 gr) in bulk are available from Midway and probably other wholesalers as well. I have a fair supply of them on hand. I have never checked them to see if they were a two diameter bullet, but could, easy enough. I use them in the 6.5x64 Brenneke. Graf & Sons lists them for $64.08/500 and that is shipped prepaid to the 48 with only a handling and Ins. charge of $4.75 added per order.

If I were you, I would avoid boat-tailed bullets that come in green boxes. Sooner or later, you will find the performance sadly lacking. Personally, I try to avoid boat-tailed bullets altogether for hunting applications. JMHO. Hope this helps...the9.3Guy

Been trying to draw one of those tags as well since I am close here in WV.

I used the .264 last march to take two animals in Africa. One was a bushbuck about the size of a small whitetail, the other was a wildebeest at 200 yards. I was using 125 Partitions and both dropped in their tracks. The wildebeest could not understand that it was dead and I hit it two more times while it was on the ground. All three Partitions completely penetrated.

Rick,

You are correct that the Remington 140 gr. is a two diameter bullet. They are easily recognizable because they have two cannelures.

They measure .264 at the base and up to the forward cannelure. Just forward of the forward cannelure, they measure .2605". Since they were expressly designed for the .264 Win Mag, I'd say they are a good bet to use if your rifle likes them. Hope this helps....the9.3Guy

Rick:

I think you are correct about the 2 diameter bullets.

But I don't see it as a big issue with handloading. I just checked, a Win PP Factory load is 3.31", my load for a 125gr Partition is 3.26" and a handload with the 140gr Sierra BT is 3.24". Somewhat shorter, but what does it hurt?

What powders are you using? From what I've seen H870 seems to be the top choice. Rick

Rick, a 264 WM has been my primary deer rifle for the last 10 years. I have mainly used IMR7828 in mine, but H450 and H4831 seem to work equally well. I get lousy accuracy with H870 in my rifle. I use 120 Barnes X bullets for deer and they work flawlessly in the 264. Do heed the advice above to stay away from boat tailed bullets that come in a green box! Another 264 shooter described them to me as a "varmint bullet" and my experience bears this out - they are to soft for 264 velocities.

You might want to find a copy of the Feb. 2005 Handloader magazine as Mule Deer did an article there with results of load development with some of the newer powders.

Incidentally, the Remington 7mm 150 PSPCL is also a two diameter bullet.

I have only tried Ramshot Magnum and IMR 4064. Both worked fine but its not hard to get a Sisk rifle to shoot good.

Would suggest you be patient, there are several experienced 264 shooters here that are sure to chime in.

Marc, Thanks for the input. I know all about the "green box" from my .25 caliber experience. I also tried the "X"bullets for awhile in my .243. Seemed to coat the barrel with copper even when moly coated. When loaded to the same velocity, the "X" bullet printed to the same point at 100 yds. as the ballistic tip, but when you step back to 200 yds. the "X" bullet shot about 3" lower on the target than the BT!! This was all I needed to quit using the "X" bullets. This was several years ago so maybe they have made some changes now. I am sure they perform well on game, just seemed to me the pure copper bullets don't hold velocity as well as lead cores do. And cleaning the copper out was arduous. At any rate, my daughter and myself have taken over 35 whitetails with the little Model 7 .243 with the ballistic tip, all 1 shot kills. This .264 will be my first experience with a caliber over .25. If it ruins my shooting I'll go back!!

I had a model 70 supergradwe for a while, beautiful rifle, but finicky to load for. My only two loads that were any good were great, but all else looked like buckshot at 20 yards. My loads were both with H4831sc 65 grains with 120 ballistic tips at just under 3400 fps and 64 gr of H4831sc with 125 partitions. I traded the rifle off because one day when I was getting ready to go hunting, loading my quad and then ran back inside to get my 3006 because I didn't want to get the pretty stock dirty.

For a long range deer load, it's pretty hard to beat the 125 Partition at about 3300. VERY flat shooting, hammers the deer, near or far (penetration and expansion is always good), and the recoil is very low. My current 264 likes IMR7828.

H870 is the classic powder but none of my 264s have "liked" it and it has been discontinued anyway.

Keep us posted on your results!

rick243, I have shot over a thousand shots thru my TC encore .264 mag. There are some intricacies to get it to shoot great with this cartridge. I have to go now but I'll chime in with details later. I shot 5 deer the week before last with mine on a crop damage permit. All dropped in their tracks. reflex264

Rick

I dont shoot a 264 win mag, i shoot a swede, but i would NOT use a 140gr core-lokt out of a mag even if it was for deer. It is a good bullet but at slower velocities, there are tons of great 6.5mm bullets,especially for elk. I would shoot a 130gr Barnes TSX or the 125gr and 140gr partition.There are also the 120gr and 140gr Swift A-frames but they are a little expensive.

Marc,

If you or anyone else has that copy of HANDLOADER with MD's article on loading for the .264, could you please post the loads that he posted in the article? Especially the load using Magnum powder in the 140 gr. slug. Last night, I tore UP my house looking for that issue of HANDLOADER, to no avail. And I bought FOUR copies of it so that I would always be able to find one! No $hit! I musta stashed 'em somewhere safe! Thanks in advance!

140 Speer Magnum 69.0grs 3240fps group .88"


reflex264

I'm back. I never got a satisfactory load with the 140 Cor-Loct. The Encores chamber begs to be custom fitted. They are still using the same reamer they cut mine with. This is complicated but worth it. Take your ejector out of its position on the bottom of the barrel. Place the barrel back in the frame. Chamber a factory round and close the gun with a sheet of copier paper in between the case head and the breach face. Pull the paper out noting whether there is any resistence. If it slides out easily you will need to fit your brass to the chamber to ever get the full potential out of it. You will need about 10 fired cases and a feeler gauge. Start (after unloading the live round by inserting the feeler gauge in between the barrel and breach face until you find a gauge that just starts to not go. Write down this measurement. Subtract .003" from the number on the gauge. If a .010" gauge fit that would be a .007". With your shell holder in the press raise the ram to TDC. place the feeler gauge on top of the shell holder and gently screw the die down until it stops against the feeler gauge. Lock the ring on the die. Insert the first fired case. Size the case. Place the case in the chamber with the ejector still removed. Close the breech slowly with the paper in between the barrel and breech face. If the barrel won't close with the paper you will need to take off another .001". This is tedious but be patient. Contimue .001" at a time untill the paper slides out with just a small amount of resistence. When you reach this point you are done. The throat will now be the same as mine except the difference in barrel breech clearance. Mine clears at .006". If yours clears at .006" load some 120 ballistic tips at oal of 3.26". If yours clears at .009" just add the .003" to the oal. Simple huh. In Winchester brass with a CCI 250 primer load 63.0grs H4831sc. This will be your starting point. Max is 65.0grs. These barrels require a little break in. After breaking in expect some nice little groups. If your not seeing the accuracy you want yet check side to side movment between the barrel and frame. Mike Bellm sells oversized hinge pins that reatly improve the fit. If your planning on shooting anything up to an elk the 140 Speer Grand Slam is hard to beat. Load to oal of 3.31" Mine shoots them best with IMR7828. Work up to 65.0grs. The CCI250 is always more accurate in my gun than the 215Federal but give them both a whirl. I have used the 120 Ballistic tips to kill a pile of deer on crop damage kills and it has done a great job. Don't try to break shoulders with it and you shouldn't have any problems. The Grand Slam has completely penetrated large bodied deer from end to end. The Speer 120 and 140 Hot Cores also do a great job. My gun absolutely will not shoot a Partition which broke my heart. I tried every combo known to man with them in 125 and 140 grain. Please feel free to contact me. I plan on trying Ram Shot Magnum in mine. reflex264 shot with the 120 Ballistic tip.

buck with the 140 Grand Slam


.264 Encore

Thanks Reflex and everybody for all the info. I already have all the Bellm tricks, trigger job, selection of hinge pins, hammer spring. My encore shoots great with the .243 barrel with factory loads. I also pillar bed the forends (I make all my buttstocks and forends) to each barrel which really shrank my groups. Can't wait to try this one out. It seems that you guys really like your .264 Wins. Wonder why it was never popular? Rick

It got a bad rap as an over bore barrel burner and the early bullets were not up to the task. Speaking of bullets, I don't find the Barnes X to foul any worse than a regular jacketed bullet in my rifle. Some years I have only fired 4 rounds all year, two to check the sights and two to kill two deer. Fouling is a non issue. I have about 600 rounds through my Win 70 and the throat has that dry lake bed look, so I don't plink with it nor practice with it anymore. I am sure the partition and some of the other good bullets work fine. I just started with the Barnes and it works very well so I stick with it.

Reflex, that Encore looks like a handy rig. Impressive group. Decent buck too. Do you know what your Encore weighs? I like to backpack hunt and my Mod 70 pushes the scale at close to 10-1/2 lbs. with sling and full magazine. I have toyed with the idea of getting a single shot to reduce the length and weight.