264 win mag accuracy vs speed

6

6724

New member
got a model 70 classic in trade, nice wood, like new rifle with 26" barrel.

loaded up a few test loads starting at 56gr of imr4831 going up to 63.5 gr with hornady 129gr bullets. my manuals show max at about 60gr, but at 63.5 i am not seeing anything that shows pressure to me. primers are not flattened, bolt lift is normal. fired cases look the same from 56gr all the way to 63.5. at 63.5 i am in the range of 3200 fps or slightly above.
my issue is that the most accurate load i have found is way down at 58gr with 60gr second best. below 58 they are quite poor, above 60gr they are even worse. with most of my guns i just load for accuracy and wherever i find it is good enough. but when i hear 264 win mag i think FAST, at 58gr my chronograph shows about 3000fps. the reality is that even at 3250, trajectory is only about 2" different at 400 yards. not enough to matter in the real world, but energy is over 3000 vs 2700.
an old speer manual i have lists max charge far higher than i am at now, and velocities that are stunning. a 120gr bullet at 3500fps.

i think i know the answer is to load 58gr and try for the best accuracy i can get. but a part of me wants to see what i can get out of it for speed, and hope that maybe i find accuracy at the top end of speed.
brass will live longer at 58gr, so will the barrel.
 
not yet. i am just getting started. right now i am at about .005 to .010 off the lands. i dont have the tools to measure it exactly. i seated a bullet and chambered the round, it chambered but there were land marks on the bullet. so i kept seating deeper and deeper until the bullets showed no marks, i then went a slight bit more.
there is already quite a bit of bullet in the case. max coal is listed at 3.340", my loads are at 3.228"

this is factory new brass that has been trimmed.
 
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Originally Posted By: 6724 with most of my guns i just load for accuracy and wherever i find it is good enough. but when i hear 264 win mag i think FAST

When you hear 264WM, you also think BARREL BURNER. But that didn't stop you from buying one, did it?

The reality is that provided you don't forget that it isn't a 221 fireball, they aren't barrel burners anymore than the 7RM is. And that when we want accuracy, once-in-a-million is when the top velocity and accuracy meet.

I built a 264WM with a 26" barrel a few years back. I did NOT have favorable results with H1000. I found it to be a very "peaky" powder that showed pressure signs very suddenly, and velocity was always less than expected. I found similar to you, that my accuracy node was well below what the max was.
 
Try a different weight bullet or brand or of diff. brand of the same weight and some other powders.

I also have a 264 Win. Mag in a pre64 Winchester. It is not a target rifle so I did not expect real small groups like 1/2 MOA or smaller. It took me a few different bullets and powder to find the load I wanted that gave me accuracy at close to a Max. load. where I hunt deer and elk 300 YDS would be a very long shot. I picked a load that gave me good velocity and accuracy of 1 MOA. Which is good enough for deer and elk. I wound up with a 140 Grain Hornady bullet.

DAB
 
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i did not buy it, i traded for it. i would not have bought one because i am not usually a speed kind of guy. most all calibers i load for are never loaded anywhere near max. it is a great looking rifle, and i am a sucker for model 70's. the reality is that i hardly rifle hunt anything, i am more of an archer. but since i have it, i will keep it and play around with it. 3000 fps with a 129gr bullet is plenty sufficient for what i will ever do with it, but i am curious what i could get out of it.
i have been loading for 25 years and have in the past developed some great loads for accuracy and hunting, but reaching max speed or power has never been my thing. i have almost always stayed well below max listed loads. so i am not an expert at determining pressure signs. after doing some reading on the internet last night, i feel like a novice reloader all over again.
it is good info for me to have that others have run the velocities up but that accuracy was not at the upper end of the pressures and velocities.
i could try different bullets, different powders and all that, but it is not my objective to make this a target rifle. i have done that in the past with several other hunting rifles, trying numerous different combinations. sometimes i got good results, sometimes not. my 338 win mag never got below 1 MOA, but who cares. it is not a pleasant rifle to shoot, but gets the job done on big bears, moose and the like. they are also big targets where i dont need super awesome accuracy. if i get something that will shoot consistently around an inch or better, i will call it good. my 58gr load of imr 4831 was right at 1 moa. once i have necked sized brass, and fiddle with the seating depth, i think i will be there.
 
Try 120g nosler ballistic tips with any flavor of 4831 powder or slower...

I just gave my dad my 264 which was a very nice older model 70 with only a 24" barrel...One reason why I gave it to him lol.

I bought it with intent to shoot 140 amax at 3000+ for 1000 yard target shooting and long range muley rifle. Well the rifle had other ideas because it wouldn't shoot the amax for crap, or any other 140g bullet for that matter.

So tried some 120g ballistic tips with some H4831 and found it would shoot consistent 1/2 MOA groups at 3200fps. Didn't try any other powder as I figured this was bout as good as I was going to get with a factory rifle for accuracy and speed with the 24" bbl. Sure I can get 3300fps with H1000 or Retumbo, but I doubt it will shoot 1/2 MOA at the same time.

I was using resized/neck down/trimmed Remington 7mm Rem mag brass and CCI 250 primers. My dad since switched the load a bit with correct headstamped 264 win mag brass and fed215 primers. Shoots just as good if not better...Still be a great long range muley rifle for him!!!
 
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