264mag Workup Success! Alliant 4000MR

Creedmore · Oct 16, 2014

A couple of months ago, I went in search of a load for my Dad's .264mag after doing some barrel work to get rid of an excessive headspace problem.

I had tried the usual suspect powders, but nothing wanted to shoot. Dad was determined on shooting the 120gr Sierra flat base bullets.

I posted on here and Dr.Mike was kind enough to run a QuickLoad. For whatever reason, this Mauser 98 and Shilen barrel is very pressure sensitive. Get close to book-max and I would get sticky bolts and sloppy primer pockets.

Time to try something different. So I contacted Alliant to find out about their 4000-MR powder. The website lists loads for 280, 25-06, 7mag and 300mag. But no 264mag. After a long email discussion, they told me "sorry, we don't have data for it"

Good thing I'm hard-headed sometimes. :lol:

I did some figuring and comparing, and started low. Also switched to a Nosler 120 BT which I knew would shoot. After getting good groups around 2900fps, I decided to try some 130 Accubonds. That was a game changer. Lightning in a bottle, if you will.

Winchester Brass
Federal GM215M primer
57.5gr Alliant 4000-MR
130gr AccuBond, seated to 2.680" (0.040" jump)
3050fps

200yd target, 1.4" group

100yd target, 0.7" group

DrMike · Oct 17, 2014

Looks as if you got the right combination. Congratulations.

1Shot · Oct 17, 2014

He will love the results on game with that 130 AB. I am shooting it in my 264 Win mag at 3350 fps with Retumbo from a 27 3/4" Shilen 9 twist. I would not hesitate to use it on elk the way it penetrates on deer.

SJB358 · Oct 17, 2014

Very nice! Love to see the 264. Never used 4000MR, is it similar to RL19/22?

I would imagine your Dad will be happy with those results. That is right in that bullets zone for speed..

Creedmore · Oct 17, 2014

I looked all over for comparisons, and best I can gather is that it is somewhere between RL19 and RL22. It's been on the market for a few years, but there is not much talk or data.

With powder so scarce, I rolled the dice with this one since Gene Sears supply in El Reno, OK has about 600lbs in stock. We get most of our components wholesale through there. Needless to say, I stocked up on several pounds of 4000MR. Going to tinker with it in .25-06 next.

-Gene

SJB358 · Oct 17, 2014

That's not a horrible spot to be in burn rate, thats for sure..

HTDUCK · Oct 17, 2014

Still needs a longer barrel Creed :lol:

Glad you finally got that monkey off your back buddy.
Now tell your dad to go shoot something with it !

bobnob · Oct 17, 2014

Looks like a load that won't burn the barrel out in a hurry either. I quite like the idea of a large capacity cartridge running at middle of the road pressure levels to de-stress all the components and leave a large margin of safety.

I believe 4000MR is a ball powder, no? Its available in this country and I've been tempted to try it, however I can still get my hands on plenty of the excellent ADI powders so haven't deviated yet (even if we pay twice as much for them as they do in the 'states!)

Nice shooting anyway with the old '98.

kraky · Oct 18, 2014

I think alliant initially advertised it as a spherical powder. Its actually a small fairly dense kernal powder. I've played with it in quite a few casings. Its pretty clean burning but has no extra magical pressure reducing/velocity increasing Foo Foo.
It is extremely close in burn rate to re19.....sometimes a little quicker...sometimes a hair slower. In 3006 size casings it seems faster...in bigger magnum cases it seems a hair slower. Alliant initially seemed to tout it as slightly slower than re22. Seems like their advertising dept got ahead of the purchasing/load testing depts!
It sure looks like a winner here...and I'll bet the cases are coming out of the chamber pretty darn clean.