264 Winchester Magnum
When the 264 and 338 Winchester Magnums were introduced in 1958, I was just 16 years old. In my mind, living in Iowa but regularly daydreaming about the West, it was the Model 70 Westerner in 264 that caught my attention. I pictured myself on endless plains, hunting the pronghorn and mule deer. And somehow, possibly inspired by an article or two on that rifle, the thoughts rolled into Africa. It was the 264 Winchester Magnum, and no other cartridge, that began my deep-seated interest in rifles. It was not the 30-06 that I began shooting at age 11, or the .22 Shorts that I was started on at age six.
Although we got both Outdoor Life and Field & Stream delivered at home every month, and many rifles and cartridges were written about regularly on their pages, it wasn’t until I read about the 264 that I “graduated” into another level. As time passed, I was disappointed to read that the 270 Winchester could do anything and everything the 264 could do, and that the factory ballistics advertised for it were quite optimistic. Rather than knuckle under, I fought back; first, by having a heavy bench rifle with 28-inch Douglas Premium stainless steel barrel built, on an FN Mauser single-shot (bench rest) action, complete with double set triggers.
I mostly used a bullet that was reasonably available at that time; the 140-grain Sierra GameKing. Not the MatchKing; the hunting bullet. Also, H-870 Powder was available, and the combination produced accuracy from inside a farmer friend’s barn out to the quarter-mile fence line that I won’t even bother to repeat in detail here. The actual distance has been measured since, although the fence line is long gone today. We were shooting at exactly 403 yards, from a sturdy picnic table inside the barn, with the barn doors swung open, to targets on a frame he installed just in front of a pushed-up dirt backstop. I looked in my notebook at several of those pasted-in groups, and through those decades-old notes, recently. Way back then, with hunting bullets that shot like match bullets, it produced groups that could be covered with the lid of a Gerber’s Baby Food jar.
I developed so much faith in the cartridge, I ordered a Remington Custom Shop 700 C in 264. It was incredible. I eventually sold it and, for the years that I maintained contact with the buyer, it was his favorite rifle. Wanting a 264 Winchester in a Winchester rifle, I managed to find a couple of those pre-64 26-inch barreled Model 70 Westerners, and later ordered an Ultimate Classic from their Custom Shop. But the supply of H-870 eventually ran out. For explicit accuracy, I was then shooting 139-grain Lapua Scenar bullets and using H-4831.
A friend wanted a relatively mild-recoiling, accurate rifle for western plains game no larger than mule deer. I recommended a Remington 700 Sendero in 264, so he bought one. I mounted a 30mm Leupold scope, loaded up some of those Lapua bullets, and we took it to the range. Clean barrel, so the first shot was fired into the bank. The next three went into a measured 7/16ths, so we walked back to the bench and he fired two more. They were inside of the already measured group. That’s what a 264 can do. The interesting part is that groups are often not doubled in size at 200 yards!
Today, we have an excellent powder to take the place of H-870. It’s US-869. As with H-870, which I suspect never made it into factory ammunition, notable velocity increases are possible with bullets in the 140-grain class. There are many 6.5mm cartridges from which to choose; some very old, others very new. Across the spectrum, I’m a respectful fan of the 6.5x55 Swede, and a devoted fan of the 264 Winchester Magnum. That’s not just because it’s a nostalgic link to my youth, but because it easily delivers far more useable velocity than everything in the 260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, and 6.5-284 range; and delivers actual velocity in ACCURATE loads very similar to that of the 26 Nosler and 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum, all the while providing much better barrel life potential.
My most recent acquisition in 264 is a Winchester Model 70 Extreme Weather SS. Available in a variety of chamberings, this is clearly one of the very best overall dollar values in a higher-quality bolt-action hunting rifle on the market today. I mounted a one-inch Swarovski Z3 3-10x42 BRH on it to maintain the superb overall balance. I’ve now tested it with the Lapua 139 Scenar and H-4831, and it is a fine and comfortable shooter. (Recoil of the 264 is similar to a 30-06 with 180-grain bullets.) I’m also going to try US-869, and see what velocity and accuracy differences there might be from the slender 26-inch fluted barrel. Ultimately, I expect to be loading the very capable 140-grain Speer Grand Slam for hunting. At considerably higher cost is the 140-grain Swift A-Frame, but they are superb. Even so, I do not consider any rifle of 6.5mm to be adequate for elk-class game; here, in Europe, or in Africa, regardless of what others might claim or imagine.
Will a 264 kill an elk? Certainly. Will you be able to get a nicely poised side shot at 150 yards? Probably not. It’s at that instant, with a mature 6x6 bull standing rump-toward-you at 310 yards, in late afternoon on the last day of the hunt, that you will wish you instead had the 264's stablemate, the 338 Winchester Magnum, loaded with quality 225- or 250-grain bullets. Make intelligent choices.
JDC