Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 264 Win Mag and the Berger 140 gr VLD Hunting

Does anyone use this combo for hunting and what is the best load in your rifle for vel and accuracy ?

John Burns runs that combo....

He's killed a couple does with it, all inside 150 yards though....

71 grains ramshot magnum. WW case and WLRM primer. .010" off lands.

Thinking about starting with IMR 7828SSC and the Berger 140 gr VLD with either Fed 215 or WLRM Primers.

RL-33 with the 140 VLD has worked well for me. 77 grains

1000 yards





Works on elk as well as steel

will pick up a pound of Rel 33 and try it

I know you had some consistency issues with RE33 in your .300 Winny.... have you seen anything similar with it in the .264?

It definitely is temperature sensitive

My .264 is a dedicated hunting rifle. RL-33 is the only powder I could get the velocity I wanted. The rifle shoots about MOA. Pretty sure it's the barrel and not the components causing groups that big.

I had good results with both H1000 and Retumbo in mine

What kind of velocity are you getting with 33? I have a pound of it I need to try. I've had a hard time getting my 264 to shoot vlds well.

Bb

COAL may be the reason. Get the Berger VLD jump protocol on line and give it a try.

DF

Here it is. Saved you the trouble.


Getting the Best Precision and
Accuracy from VLD bullets in Your Rifle
Solution - The following has been verified by numerous shooters in many rifles using bullets of different calibers and weights. It is consistent for all VLD bullets. What has been discovered is that VLD bullets shoot best when loaded to a COAL that puts the bullet in a �sweet spot�. This sweet spot is a band .030 to .040 wide and is located {centered} anywhere between jamming the bullets into the lands and .150 jump off the lands.
Note: When discussing jam and jump I am referring to the distance from the area of the bearing surface that engages the rifling and the rifling itself. There are many products that allow you to measure these critical dimensions. Some are better than others. I won�t be going into the methods of measuring jam and jump. If you are not familiar with this aspect of reloading it is critically important that you understand this concept before you attempt this test.
Many reloaders feel (and I tend to agree) that meaningful COAL adjustments are .002 to .005. Every once in a while I might adjust the COAL by .010 but this seems like I am moving the bullet the length of a football field. The only way a shooter will be able to benefit from this situation is to let go of this opinion that more than .010 change is too much (me included).
Trying to find the COAL that puts you in the sweet spot by moving .002 to .010 will take so long the barrel may be worn out by the time you sort it out if you don�t give up first. Since the sweet spot is .030 to .040 wide we recommend that you conduct the following test to find your rifles VLD sweet spot.

Load 24 rounds at the following COAL if you are a target competition shooter who does not worry about jamming a bullet:

.010 into (touching) the lands (jam) 6 rounds
.040 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
.080 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
.120 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds

Load 24 rounds at the following COAL if you are a hunter (pulling a bullet out of the case with your rifling while in the field can be a hunt ending event which must be avoided) or a competition shooter who worries about pulling a bullet during a match:

.010 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
.050 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
.090 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
.130 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds

Shoot 2 (separate) 3 shot groups in fair conditions to see how they group. The remarkable reality of this test is that one of these 4 COALs will outperform the other three by a considerable margin. Once you know which one of these 4 COAL shoots best then you can tweak the COAL towards or away from the lands .002 or .005. Taking the time to set this test up will pay off when you find that your rifle is capable of shooting the VLD bullets very well (even at 100 yards).

Regards,
Eric Stecker
Master Bulletsmith

3250

Find a load at long range with an Audette. Perform a seating test for accuracy with the load chosen from the Audette.

Be happy

BTW, just read Mule Deer's article on the 26 Nosler in Handloader.

The .264 can't be beaten.

If you push the 26 Nosler as hard as you're pushing the .264, you don't think you could exceed that performance with more case capacity?

DF

I think his article shows that a slower burning powder will do that. Also the VLD has less bearing surface than the 140 partition or Accubond. It can be pushed faster than either with less pressure.

What is a good load to start with using IMR 7828SSC

I run 65g of regular 7828 with 140's in my 264. It's more of a max load than a starting load though. It runs about 3200 with most bullets in my 264.

Bb

Mine loved the 140s .015 off over 66gr of 7828SSC. Using the OCW method I have yet to have any trouble getting the VLDs to shoot.

* After reading BB's post.... That was max load in mine as well, start lower of course.

I'm guessing 64 gr would be a good place to start