Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Custom M-70 .264 Winchester Range Report Pics Up

Thought I�d post my experiences to date with this combination for the 6.5 loonies. Decided to post here rather than in the Custom Rifle section because I will hunt this rifle.

If anyone would care to post photos I�d be glad to send them along.

I owned a lovely M-70 Super Grade .264 Winchester, but could never warm up to the stock, which I feel is overly generous in the foreend, and feels "clubby" IMO. This rifle was built to replace the Super Grade.

The rifle started out as a Winchester 70 Classic Stainless, and was customized as follows;

Metal
The rifle sent off to James Anderson for metal work.
The action was rebarreled with a 26�, 1:9 twist #3 contour Lilja.
James reshaped the tang to the pre-war M-70 cloverleaf.
Bottom metal is Williams Oberndorff
Checkered Bolt Release
All metal was cerrakoated by Falcon Gunworks to match the finish of a Leupold Matte scope.

My only regret was not replacing the bolt handle with a Glimm three panel teardrop checkered handle, I may rectify this in the future.

Wood
I almost hesitate to name the stockmaker, as he appears to have fallen on hard times lately, and he as left a lot of good people in a bad way. However, I believe in giving credit where due, and the work is beautiful. Bill Soverns stocked the rifle, 14� LOP, ebony tip, inletted Dakota sling swivels, shadowline �serpentine� cheekpiece.
The walnut was a stick I supplied, I no longer remember where it came from, unfortunately.
Let's not turn this into a bash Soverns thread, but rather to discuss the merits of the .264.

Load Development
I have a lovely .270, with a second on the way. I�m not looking to duplicate .270 velocities with this rifle, have an eye toward 3300 fps with 130 grain bullets, and 3150+ with 140 grainers. I expect this to be a long range deer/antelope rifle, with no elk on the menu.

Rifle was broken in using Remington 140 gr Core-Lokts
All handloads have used Nosler Brass and Federal 215 Magnum primers.
Loads to date have been as follows, all for three shot groups.

130 grain
Berger VLD
63.0 7828SSC, 3.340OAL, 3 shots touching, group size .34�, not chronographed.
64.0 7828SSC, 3.340OAL, 3, group size .42�, not chronographed.
Worked up to 66.0 grains, accuracy fell off higher than 64.0

Retumbo with the 130VLD, accuracy around 1.25�, not chronographed, however the 130 Accubond with the same powder produced these results;
67.0gr, 3199fps, MOA
67.5gr, 3230fps, MOA
68.0gr 3247fps, MOA
All three loads hovered around the 1� mark.

Also shot the 130 Accubond, the only load to go sub-MOA was with 67.0gr Retumbo, for an average of 3199 fps, printing into about .75 MOA.

Loved the accuracy of the 130 Bergers, I�ll need to run them over the chrony.
Also purchased a box of 130 Swift Scirocco II, but in light of the performance with the 140 Berger, these may be for sale.

140 grainers
The long 140 grain bullet with its high BC made the reputation of the .264. I enjoyed working with the 130 grain bullets, but expect to eventually settle on a 140 grain as �the� load.

The 140 Accubond was the initial choice.

7828SSC was again chosen.
63.0gr 3095fps, 1.25 MOA
63.5gr 3092fps 1.5+ MOA
64.0gr 3149fps 1.5 MOA= .75 MOA this load showed potential, but when re-shot with a clean barrel averaged only 3115fps, groups opened up. Could it be this load likes the barrel dirty, with the resulting increase in pressure?.
64.5gr 3152fps 2.0+ MOA
65.0gr 3176fps 2.0+MOA
65.5gr 3206fps 2.0MOA

Shot the 140 Accubonds again, this time with Ramshot Magnum
67.0gr 3047fps, just under MOA
67.5gr 3052fps, 2+MOA
Velocity was low, so I moved on.

At this point I ordered 140gr Berger VLD, just to see if they�d shoot as well as the 130s.
Once again I turned to 7828SSC, which seemed to be giving the best combination of velocity and accuracy.
63.5gr 3119 fps, .83 MOA, hmmmmm�..
64.0gr 3144fps .54 MOA. This load will be my focus in the near future, and may prove to be "the" load.
64.5gr 3166fps, 1.5+ MOA
Next step is to reload the 64.0 grain load. If it performs .5 MOA with almost 3150fps again, load development will be complete.


So there it is so far. Theres been a lot of chatter around the 6.5s so I thought some of you might find this interesting, and perhaps, useful.

Again, if anyone wants to post pics, the rifle is serious gun porn.

Posting his gun porn:

Beautiful, by the way.

Thanks for the assist Mark!

That's a beautiful rig. Don't know anything Sovern, but that looks to be some excellent work. I've got a pre-64 in 264 that really seems to love the 130 tsxs and Ramshot Magnum. Makes for a heck of a long range sledgehammer.

very pretty rifle

Doug-

VERY nice!

Sweet rig

P.S. I think it was a mistake not going 1-8"

Man, I wish I could own a gun that looked that nice! Great looking gun!

I like the looks of your new 264. Mine is not nearly as good looking but has a 26 inch 1 turn in 8.5 inch barrel and the load that I have kept is 130 Swift Scirocco IIs pushed by 67 grains of Retumbo for 3225 fps.

8mmwapiti

beautiful wood!

VERY Nice!

RH

Very nice!!! Once Jr.'s #1 & #2 get old enough to start getting serious about chasing critters, I do plan on have a rifle that good looking built.

Just an observation, I did find it interesting to see that you had the metal done to match a Matte Leupold scope...and then mounted something else!

VERY nice rifle, all the way around.

Very nice looking rifle. Stock is well done.

Personally, I would leave the bolt handle, as that, more than anything, says "M70"

Doug, nice rifle! That a 3-9 Conquest?

Great looking rifle with all the right features...well done.

Doug,

BEAUTIFUL rifle. That stock is elegant.

Have fun using it.