I have a buddy due to age is getting rid of several rifles. One of which is a very nice Winchester M70 in 264 Win Mag. I have always had a soft spot for that cartridge and who doesn't have a soft spot for a old Winchester anyway, I digress... Nobody needs a reason to put another one in the safe so I have pretty much sold myself on buying it. Long story short... anybody using one? how do you like it?
Regarding the .264 Win Mag.
About 15 years ago I rented the bunkhouse on a cattle ranch that was well past it’s prime. The owner and his wife were pretty old, they had no sons to take it over and so they just ran it at a bare minimum, just a handful of cows.
In their main house was the best ever collection of wall hanger trophy big game animals I had ever seen, all taken with his only rifle, a 264 Winchester Magnum in a Model 70. He had bought it brand new in around 1960 a few years after it was introduced.
I guess he was 75 then, real fit, still hunting some.
He had daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and fed them all wild game meat from animals he shot. At his daughter's request, he wanted use lead free bullets.
I had set up a small reloading bench in the bunkhouse. He had a big one in his workshop but had not done any reloading in a long time, and so he asked me if I would reload his 264 for him. I said yes.
That was in the late summer then and by early fall I had his loads ready, and his rifle sighted in. We shot right there on the ranch
I only loaded the 130 grain Barnes bullets and what I had to compare them to was the 130 grain Barnes in my 270. Any difference in BC was very slight. And the ,270 had averaged at least 75’/sec more with most powders. At the top end with H4350 my 270 was going a hair under 3,200’/sec and with just one powder the 264 was a hair over 3,200’/sec. In general however the 264 was slower than the .270.
And was the 264 a powder hog.
The old rancher did so well with his 264 because he was a natural great shot and he only hunted with one rifle.
Probably with lighter bullets the 264 could outperform the .270 ???? but any real-world difference would amount to two or maybe three dead flies in regard to game field utility.
