AJ Posted March 15, 2003 Report Share Posted March 15, 2003 The .264 Winchester Magnum caused plenty of excitement when it was introduced in 1958. The color advertisement read: "The .264 Winchester Magnum, Its Makes A Helluva Noise And Packs A Helluva Punch." And it did. Then came the 7mm Remington Magnum to steal all the thunder and the .264 Magnums gathered dust on dealer's shelves. Which is sad since Winchesters cartridge does everything they said it would do. In the 26" barrel of the Model 70 Westerner, that is. But shooters wanted a shorter barrel and they go it in the Model 70 Featherweight. They also got plenty of muzzle blast, plenty of recoil, and .270 Winchester performance. Writer Charles Askins was in those days Winchester's leading field man. If you followed Askins's chronicles, that he tested the .264 on African game in 1959. In an after action meeting with Winchester engineers, they told him they were considered to remove the belt from the cartridge he hunted with. It's tough to “introduce" a cartridge in 1958 and then consider removing its belt (changing the ammunition) the next year. Other writers might have received a test rifle 1959. The first .264 Winchester Magnum Model 70 to hit the retail shelves did so Spring 1960. Load data for the cartridge appeared in the “The American Rifleman” July 1961 issue. The 264 Winchester magnum has had a reputation as being hard on barrels and will wear out in as few as 500 rounds. Since this cartridge was touted to be a groundhog to elk cartridge many shooters used it for everything. This was one of the first high capacity cases that was a do everything round. If the barrel was not allowed to cool sufficiently it would overheat and erosion was a problem. This can be said for just about any cartridge. Another short coming of the .264 Winchester Magnum was reloading ammunition. Most 6.5mm bullets available to the reloader at the time were designed for the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser and a much lower velocity. Therefore, if these bullets were used at the drastically higher velocity of the .264 Magnum, they could distort, causing accuracy to go to pot, and explode upon impact when used as a hunting bullet. Neither of these attributes were acceptable. Hunter opinion has always been divided on how much big game territory the .264 Magnum can cover. Some consider it to be a deer cartridge at most while the opposing team praises the .264 as an excellent elk cartridge. Actually, both are correct when bullets of proper weight and construction for the job at hand are used. Current factory ballistics for the .264 Winchester Magnum list a 140 grain bullet at 3,030 fps with muzzle energy of 2,854 ft. lbs. The 300 yard figures are 2,326 fps and 1,682 ft. lbs. of energy. These figures are considerably reduced from the original factory ballistics. Winchester and Remington used to load the 140 grain bullet to 3200 fps with 3180 ft. lbs. of energy from a 26" barrel. Those loads gave a mid-range trajectory of approximately 4.9" over 300 yards. A 26" barrel is preferred to get full performance from the .264. Reloading can bring some of the performance back in the .264 Winchester Magnum. With the Hornady 140 grain Interlock SP bullet at 3100 fps with 2988 ft. lbs. of energy, the trajectory looks nearly identical to the trajectory of the popular 140 grain .270 Winchester bullet. The sectional density of the 140 grain bullet is about the same as that of the 160 grain 7mm, and 190 grain .30 caliber bullets. Some wonder why the .264 Winchester Magnum never became very popular. The popularity of the earlier and better established .257 Weatherby Magnum, .270 Winchester, and .270 Weatherby Magnum (not to mention the competition from the later 7mm Remington Magnum), the .264 Winchester Magnum never caught on in a big way. Only Remington and Winchester offer factory loaded ammunition. Winchester only offers a Custom Grade Model 70 in .264 Winchester Magnum. Otherwise only small, essentially custom, makers chamber their extremely expensive rifles for the .264 Winchester Magnum. Whether the .264 Magnum is really any more practical than the .270 Winchester is a moot point. You can make a pretty good argument that it is not. Winchester admits that its advantage lies primarily at ranges in excess of 400 yards. Needless to say, only a tiny percentage of hunters can shoot well enough, even from a rest, to justify 400 yard shots at medium size big game animals. The 264 Winchester Magnum has its loyal following of shooters. It is a very adequate and capable big game cartridge. The long bullets can make for high ballistic coefficients to retain downrange velocity and energy. It was designed to be the ultimate long range, big game cartridge. For some it is just that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest richv70 Posted March 16, 2003 Report Share Posted March 16, 2003 Re: COTW - .264 Winchester Magnum These are great AJ, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bronco_mudder Posted April 5, 2005 Report Share Posted April 5, 2005 Re: COTW - .264 Winchester Magnum Great piece of information, AJ. I thought I'd better check out what you had to say about the .264. I just bought one today, it's a pre-64 model 70, with a 26 inch barrel. Anything I had read on the .264 had always commented on the problem with barrel errosion. So I was a little leary of buying a rifle that old, but I wanted to see it anyway. Well upon inspection, you'd think that this gun was brand new. An old timer had it, since new, and probably only put a couple of boxes of shells through it, so I shouldn't have to worry about it being burnt out. There isn't a scratch anywhere on it, I couldn't beleive it. He gave me the shells he had for it, 3 boxes of old Winchester Super X, 140 grainers, they still had the price tag on them, they cost him 7 bucks a box (Can.), so he's had them for a while, considering that factory ammo goes for about $25 up here now. I think my first bullet choice is going to be Nosler 140 grain Partitions, and if I find a load that works well, I'll really be happy. I think with bullets like that it will be great for deer, as well as moose and elk. This puts me up to 6 guns since the middle of February, I'll have to quite buying for a while and start some shooting. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted April 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2005 Re: COTW - .264 Winchester Magnum [ QUOTE ] I just bought one today, it's a pre-64 model 70, with a 26 inch barrel. [/ QUOTE ] Very nice find! Thats a classic combination right there. Hope its a good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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