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.

Veddy well done. Thats one to be proud of.

Thanks for all the kind words all.

Bob, yes, 3x9 Conquest for load work.

Pointer, I had Falcon coat to match the matte Leupold, plan was to replace with a 4.4x14 Leupy down the road, the Zeiss was sitting idle, and is a scope I trust for load development.

Now I'm looking hard at a Z5 Swarovski.

The mineral streaking in that stock is damn near perfect to what turns my crank. I saved that photo for future reference.

awesome piece of wood, and a fine rifle.

my hat's off to you.

Scott, I looked long and hard for that blank. Damn near perfect to my eyes as well. Had I known it would turn that well, I might have been seriously tempted to omit the ebony tip, just to enjoy the grain the full length of the stock.

BTW, why the 1 in 8 over the 1:9?

Thanks Splatter!

A little extra twist never hurts anything and especially with today's bullets that are as long as the LIE....

I grew up near the LIE, so I can relate.

Those long Bergers have a BC over 6, and thus far show promise. The two cartridges pictured are the 140 Accubond on the left, and the 140 Berger on the right, both at 3.340.

Stunning! The craftsmanship looks beautiful and the whole project looks well thought out.

Congrats on your new custom!

Terry

Thanks Terry!

Credit rightly belongs to Anderson and Soverns, although I will take blame for the thinking part.

8mmWapiti, I've yet to be able to get decent consistent accuracy for a Scirocco, yours shoot them well from the get go?

nyr- No worries. Just one of those things that I noticed. Still a great looking rifle.

Heck of a rifle! Congrats...

I guess that rifle is alright.

Wood and blue metal. A man after my own heart.

I'd be proud of that one for sure.

JM

Loves me some .264

Obviously not too much since I have to give you a death threat for you to bring it Coues hunting!

Beautiful stock - beautiful rifle.. I just LOVE the .264WM.. And that example pictured is da bomb...

Congrats.. I wish I had the skill to do that kind of woodwork.. But as C. Eastwood once said, 'a man's got to know his limitations'...

Won't the cloverleaf tang tend to split the stock?

JohnMoses: Technically wood and cerrakote metal . I wanted a stainless barrel on the .264, so cerrakote was the best option.

I guess it turned out OK.

Dakotadeer, recoil is negligent, rifle weighs almost 9lbs as she sits, the stock surrounding cloverleaf will outlast me, I suspect.

Lee, sent you a PM.

Got it.. Back atcha...

The 130 Accubond was right at 1". Then when I tried the Scirocco 130 and it goes into .5" most of the time and .75 all the time. RL-25 did well but Retumbo a little better with the 130s. I also have a 95 grain Vmax load with RL-25 that shoots to the same point of impact and at 3600 fps. There is may be room for a little more speed in both loads not much if any in the 130 load but they both shoot so well and to the same place. And those Vmax can interrupt a coyote's afternoon with sudden authority.

The 264 is not considered to be a elk cartridge by everyone but I have a six point bull in my freezer (well only part of him now) that became a believer last fall.

8mmwapiti

What was the OAL of your load? I understand the Scirocco can be a bit particular....

I load them at 0.010" off the lands. The data that I started with was for Hornady 129 grain bullets and is listed on the Hodgdon web sight. It lists 67.5 grains as a max. When I reached 67 grains with out any signs saying back off and had great accuracy and 3223 fps I stopped and have never bumped it up to 67.5 as it is everything I had hoped for. The 95 grain vmax has 72 grains of RL-25 behind it and my notes say 0.010 off the lands, 5/8" groups and 3599 fps. Both loads are with Fed 215 primers. I started at 0.010 off the land and did not see a reason the play with that.

The rifle is a Rem 700 with a Benchmark barrel 3 groove 1 in 8.5" 26"s long it was an older BDL 8mm mag and I put it in a rem classic stock when I put my 700 8mm mag classic into a rimrock stock that I had from the days before Borden bought them. I put a timmney trigger on the 8 mag and the classic's trigger on the old 8 mag and it is still there after rebarreling to 264 mag. Not the looker that you have, just a shooter.

I took the 264 Caribou hunting with 130 Accubonds and took two caribou with them but was never happy with the speed/accuracy of them in my rifle, was planning on trying Hornady 129 Interbonds but while Hornady announced them for 2008 they did not make it to market until late 2009 or early 2010 (something like that). So tiered of waiting I gave the Sciricco 130 a try and got lucky with a fine bullet that preforms as I wanted. So when the Interbonds made to market I was no longer interested.



That is the Brooks Range in the back ground and the picture is looking south. While the rifle is not even close to as nice as yours you could make yours look even better with the right pose.

edited for picture and BS!
8mmwapiti

That's SWEEEET!

nyrifleman, I looked over your loads pretty closely as I have played with a 264 a bunch, you have some good groups, however look more carefully at your results, a half grain of powder causes a group that is 1 moa bigger going from half moa to 1.5 moa. some of your groups are .5 moa others are 2 moa, I only say this because its the most dad gumed frustrating thing to me that both my 264's have been so finicky. I feel that accurate rifles will shoot more than just one load well. what I look for is a load that will shoot a good group with even a slightly different powder charge with each round being a few tenths different. this simulates changes in temperature which you will have in real shooting conditions. so lets say you shot that group at 75 degrees outside and it was half moa, will it be 2 moa if you shoot it at 30 degrees?? thats what makes the 264 so frustrating to me, I just flat out can't find a forgiving load for it.

If I had that rifle my wife might be able to talk me into selling the rest.....might.

Cowboy....after I reshoot that load with the 140 Berger, I'll post the results.

First go around that load went into .51", at about 3150 fps, hopefully I can duplicate it.