I bought an original Winchester 70 Westerner back in the early 1960's. It was extremely accurate right out of the box, in fact I used it for long range varmint hunting as a stunt! The original rifles had blackened stainless steel barrels to hold up better.
Thing to remember is that Winchester loaded the cartridge with a double diameter bullet that was slightly under bore diameter from the ogive to just above the canelure. Measuring an original factory cartridge will confirm this. This was done to reduce pressure of the heavier 140 grain bullet in the standard throat. The reduced diameter acted as a freebore of sorts. I found this out when handloading for it.
If building one today, I'd select a boat tail bullet around 140 grains that fit my needs and have it chambered for that particular bullet seated to conform to magazine limitations. A longer throat than necessary would act the same as freebore to reduce pressure if desired. Barrel would be stainless steel 26" minimum with a 1:8 twist. Some say that cryogenic barrel treatment improves barrel life with these over bore magnums. Powders available today offer far more flexibility and barrel life. Main thing is that the .264 Magnum is a very accurate cartridge when fired in a properly set up rifle, and kills out of proportion to its bullet diameter.
I use the Leupold 6-18x 40mm scope on a .220 Swift for varmint, it does everything my Bushnell Elite 4200's and Nikon Monarch's do with less bulk and weight. Good scope.
Last edited by WranglerJohn; 10/02/09.
