264 win mag

[Bart B]

I've always used the mildest primers I could find for both 26 and 30 caliber magnums. Even at 35 degrees F, the RWS5341 primers did wonders for accuracy.

My guess is you'll get no more than 700 rounds of accurate barrel life with a match grade one that'll shoot 1/2 MOA at 600 yards. Barrels with 1 MOA or more accuracy at that range tend to have longer barrel lives. I'm convinced its only the tack driving barrels that seem to wear out the fastest, then when the reach a lower level of accuracy, they stay there for quite some time.

 

[liltank]

My guess is you'll get no more than 700 rounds of accurate barrel life with a match grade one that'll shoot 1/2 MOA at 600 yards. Barrels with 1 MOA or more accuracy at that range tend to have longer barrel lives. I'm convinced its only the tack driving barrels that seem to wear out the fastest, then when the reach a lower level of accuracy, they stay there for quite some time.

So if I got 700rnds accuracy of .5 MOA, then I would be able to stay at a 1MOA or less to.... say 1200 to 1500rnds? Can I just use neck sizing bushings to neck down from .308 to .264? Do I have to do any neck trimming? Will I have to do it in 2 steps or can I get away with 1 step?

Tank

 

[Deleted member 8840]

I now know why I do mess with these type of websites. Happy shooting to all and never tell someone the good things you do.

 

[liltank]

I now know why I do mess with these type of websites. Happy shooting to all and never tell someone the good things you do.

I'm not scared to tell you my accomplishments, and I would ask that you share yours. There are just some that feel that their abilities are greater than others. I really don't pay attention if I can help it. You just have to sift through the garbage and find the stuff that is helpful. Don't let the argument bring you down.

Blessings,
Tank

 

[Bart B]

So if I got 700rnds accuracy of .5 MOA, then I would be able to stay at a 1MOA or less to.... say 1200 to 1500rnds? Can I just use neck sizing bushings to neck down from .308 to .264? Do I have to do any neck trimming? Will I have to do it in 2 steps or can I get away with 1 step?

Tank

I'd use a 7mm die of some sort to neck a 30 caliber rimless bottleneck case part of the way down to a 6.5mm one. Then use a regular full length sizing die to size the neck down the rest of the way. This two step process ensures the end result has a neck straight with the case.

Resizing fired cases should be done with a full length sizing die with its neck lapped out to a couple thousandths smaller than a loaded round's neck diameter. This typically gives best accuracy and no expander ball's gonna bend the case neck coming back up through it. You'll need to deprime and clean your cases before they're lubed and full length sized, but doing this is worth the effort if best accuracy is your main objective. I've never seen neck sizing shoot as consistantly accurate as full length sizing.

 

[liltank]

Resizing fired cases should be done with a full length sizing die with its neck lapped out to a couple thousandths smaller than a loaded round's neck diameter. This typically gives best accuracy and no expander ball's gonna bend the case neck coming back up through it. You'll need to deprime and clean your cases before they're lubed and full length sized, but doing this is worth the effort if best accuracy is your main objective. I've never seen neck sizing shoot as consistantly accurate as full length sizing.

Good point!

Tank

 

[yobuck]

in the very early days of long range deer hunting in north central pa., the 6.5 bullet was very popular. norma had introduced the 139 gr. match bullet in the early 50s and it caught on as being good for long range hunting. alex hoyer of lewistown pa. capitalized on a cartridge design by a shooter in new mexico named wright. i believe paul wright. it was the 300 weatherby case necked down to 6.5 and was known as the 6.5x300 wwh. weatherby, wright, hoyer. it was an awsome cartridge for that time and frankly still is. it was by far the most popular in pa for many years. the 139 gr. norma was illegal for use in pa. due to its attraction to a magnet. when hornady introduced its 7mm 162 gr. match bthp bullet, it spelled the end for the 6.5 x300 in pa. for long range hunting. very few are used today, although it is still an excellant long range cartridge. there are numerous good 6.5 cartridges available today, but i doubt any will ever cause the excitement the 6.5x300wby did. the possible exception being the 6.5x284. in those days there were very few good powder choices. h870 was popular for the large cases. some are still using it. it was a ww2 surplus powder and only recently discontinued. its about as dirty as burning soft coal, and its very affected by cold weather. other than that it works fine but id be trying other powders.

 

[Bart B]

Paul Wright, also known as PJ Wright, worked for Roy Weatherby and designed their famous stocks their rifles had back in the 1950's. His target stocks were used on many rifles winning matches and setting records; I've got 4 or 5 of them and they are great. He often commented that he never made much monney off of competition stocks for high power competitors, but earned a living makin sporter stocks. PJ was also one of the USA's best long range competitors and's been on a Palma team or two.

In the late 1960's he showed me one of the single-shot solid-bottom (no magazine cut out) 9-lug actions Weatherby's shop made for him. It had a 6.5-300 Wby. chamber. PJ said its barrel made it to just short of 600 rounds when it died for accuracy. And that 9-lug receiver had problems like the round Remingtons holding epoxy bedding. Plus lapping all the lugs to full contact was a pain in the kazoo. He shot a lot better with hiw Win. 70's shooting .30-.338's and the like.

 

[wildcat westerner]

Any one have any experince with a 30 inch 264 win mag rifle for
long range hunting or target shooting.
What kind of FPS did you get on the 85, 100 & 120 grain bullets?
What powders are getting the best accuracy?

Hello, I hope I can help you so that in the long term you stand to benefit from this advice. The .264 is the short magnum brass necked all the way down to 6.5. As such, if you are a gunsmith you may have some advantage when using this caliber because if you want prime accuracy, the only way you can make long range hits, you will be rebarrelling this cailber rifle every year. The bullets that the 6.5 utilizes for long range are the excellent 140 grain projectiles; anything less you are cheating yourself because the HIGH B.C. of the 140 grain 6.5 bullets are THE reason they dominate 1,000 yard rifle competition. if you want to shoot lighter grain 6.5 bullets for shorter range purposes, please do yourself a favor and shoot a much smaller cartridge that is capable of finite accuracy such as the .260 Remington and the excellent 6.5 x 284.

All the velocity advantage you may gain with the .264 Magnum case comes at the expense of throat erosion. Ten years ago I did some experimental work that involved necking down the .378 Weatherby cartridge to .22 caliber which had been done many years ago. Velocities reached 5,016 fps and we also recorded over 5 inches of throat erosion in just less than 80 rounds!

Velocity is fine, but at the cost of accuracy you gain nothing! If you really like to shot at longer ranges try the 6.5 x 284. There are very good practical reasons why it is so popular, plainly put, its better! When you take the short magnum case and neck it up just twenty thousandth to 7mm the throats ( the key to retaining both high velocity and finite accuracy) last a lot longer. This is also why the 7mm magnum is so much mor popular than the .264

I have used the 6.5 for hunting since the mid 1960's and wish I had a 6.5 x 284 all this time because I really believe its simply better than any of the others now that there is target quality brass and better bullets available.

Good luck and accurate shooting to you,

Gene So

 

[yobuck]

bart b. your comments on full legnth resizing are interesting. im not a paper puncher but have a number of friends who are. as a hunter, im committed to full legnth resizing all my loads. no doubt runout is a factor we deal with when sizing in this manor. im constantly being advised to just partial neck size in order to minimize runout. no doubt the expander ball is the culprit. ive started using o rings under the die and under the top lock nut. it helps, but dosent eliminate it enough. my question is, would not a minor amount of outside turning accomplish the same results as modifying the die?

 

[Bart B]

Yobuck, outside turning down of case necks might help a tiny bit, but I don't think the neck wall thickness should be less than 12/1000ths inch. That's 'cause standard chamber necks' diameters would allow too much expansion of the neck when the round's fired. More brass expansion from firing and contraction from sizing work-hardens the brass making it too brittle. And split necks are gonna happen soon.

Best thing I've ever done with full length sizing dies with standard necks and using an expander ball to get sized case necks reasonably straight was as follows. After depriming fired cases, I'd run their mouths over a good, stiff bore brush spinning in a drill press. I often used .270 bronze bore brushes to clean my .264 Win. Mag. case mouths; barrels, too for that matter. Two passes of the mouth over that brush removes virtually of the powder residue and makes the brass inside the neck smoother.

After those cases have now been tumbled or vibrated clean, their mouths are much cleaner and smoother. That means the expander ball won't have cruddy, rough powder fouling to resist its passage up through the sized down case mouth when the ram lowers. Necks so cleaned tend to be straighter than uncleaned case mouths coming out of the die. It helps if the expander ball is very smooth; polishing down a .270 expander ball down to the diameter of your .264 ball will help, too.

 

[Deleted member 8840]

If you have a good chamber and headspacing is right you can neck size your brass, but if the head spacing and chamber are sloppy or if your press has a problem you will have to full size. A bad press can make the necks bad even if you fuill size.

 

[Bart B]

If you have a good chamber and headspacing is right you can neck size your brass, but if the head spacing and chamber are sloppy or if your press has a problem you will have to full size. A bad press can make the necks bad even if you fuill size.

I ain't hijacking this thread, but the most accurate belted magnums I know of, including my own, have all shot the most accurate with new cases or twice full length sized fired cases; regular full length die (neck lapped out to 2 or 3 thousandths smaller than loaded round neck diameter, no expander ball) first then a pressure ring die to size that ridge immediately in front ot the belt back to new case diameters. All in standard SAAMI dimension chambers, tight custom chambers and often sloppy factory rifle chambers. Note there's only a 2/1000ths spread between GO and NO-GO headsapce on H&H belted head space gages.

What problems could a press have that requires full length sizing dies be used instead of neck sizing ones?

 

[Deleted member 8840]

Will guys I hope your shooting times are all good and and you find this site very helpful because I see no reason for me to continuie replying. I tried a couple of times to help with negative results. I will remove myself now and good luck!