.264 win mag

Looking for some help...i have a 264 wm with a 1x11 twist 26 inch barrel. I have tried nosler 140 Partition 129 sst with awful results. 129 hornady interlocks shot ok with 67.5 grains of win 780. 125 Partition shot ok with 77 grains of aa8700.

So I purchased some 100 gr partitions thinking lighter shorter bullet might be better for the twist rate.. using hornady oal length gauge puts them at the lands at 3.155. Much shorter than nosler suggest at 3.220.

Powders available are retumbo, aa8700,imr, h4831,h4831sc, magpro, imr,h 4350,imr 7828, rl22 rl19, 780.. and most available primers.. quickload help, experience, oal, charge, case, primer any help appreciated.

Rifle is a early 60s steyr Daimler mca with a leupold vx3 3.5x10 scope.

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r.sheehan1027":1g4ob2j5 said:

Looking for some help...i have a 264 wm with a 1x11 twist 26 inch barrel. I have tried nosler 140 Partition 129 sst with awful results. 129 hornady interlocks shot ok with 67.5 grains of win 780. 125 Partition shot ok with 77 grains of aa8700.

So I purchased some 100 gr partitions thinking lighter shorter bullet might be better for the twist rate.. using hornady oal length gauge puts them at the lands at 3.155. Much shorter than nosler suggest at 3.220.

Powders available are retumbo, aa8700,imr, h4831,h4831sc, magpro, imr,h 4350,imr 7828, rl22 rl19, 780.. and most available primers.. quickload help, experience, oal, charge, case, primer any help appreciated.

Rifle is a early 60s steyr Daimler mca with a leupold vx3 3.5x10 scope.

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Dang, I have never seen such a slow twisted 264!

Retumbo really works for me with the 264. I’m not sure if you’d get enough in the case to make speed with the 100’s but I’d probably set them .010 off the rifling and work up using either IMR4350 or H4831. I’d never have thought to try the 100’s like that but if it works in the 257, it should work in the 264. 7828, RL19 and 22 would be where I’d look next. Good luck.

And also, is the scope a known good scope?

Welcome to the forum.

I would second SJB's thoughts on powders and making sure the scope is proven to be a good one. Believe me I had it happen on my 264 WM with ironically also Vari X III 3.5-10x40. I didn't do a lot with lighter bullets than 129 gr but I did make up some loads with Nosler's data using the 100 gr Partition and RL 22. They are short bullets but pretty tough little guys and even though they had to jump a long ways to the lands they still shot well. Every gun is different of course but Retumbo was best for me and I used a lot of it. Had some great loads with H 4831 sc and IMR 7828 ssc as well.

I've never heard of a slow twist like that either but they obviously made it like that for some reason. I believe the Weatherby rifles of the same era were also twisted slow back in the day. The 100 gr Partition would be a good place to start.

You used retumbo with the 100 partitions? The current manual d oesnt list it. Could i get that data from you?

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Sorry for the confusion, I used Retumbo in all weights except the 100's but I wouldn't doubt it would work well. RL 22 worked so well with those little 100 gr PT's I never ended up trying anything else. I don't have Quickload but maybe one of the guys could run that for you. Whatever happens I do hope you keep us up to date on how things work for you, sounds like an interesting gun you have there.

I have used H4831 and 100 Nosler BT's. I worked up to 69 gr. with WLRM primer in WW case and had ~ 1" 4 shot groups. I might give 120 gr. Sierra or Speer bullets a try. Maybe 125 Partition with H100 or IMR 7828 both worked for me but the H1000 was better.

I shot some deer and Antelope with 100 gr. load and it worked just fine.

I just played with the JBM stability calculator and at sea level anything longer than a 100 gr. BT is marginal for stability. At 4000' elevation the 140 Hornady should be stable.

When I was having trouble with the 129 and 140s I started investigating the twist rate and was just as surprised as you guys to find the 1x11..

I found some quick load data out of a 24inch barrel 100 Partition with 81 grains retumbo max load at 3596fps. 109.6% case capacity oal 3.34. What are your thoughts?

Here's a pic of the rifle...factory barrel is .960 inches at muzzle. Should be quite a capable rifle.


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I would start quite a bit lower than 81 gr it seems a bit high, Hodgdon shows 70.5 gr with 120 gr Speer bullets. Barnes uses Retumbo with their 100 gr TTSX which I know is quite a bit different in bearing surface than the 100 gr PT but they stop at 73.4 gr for whatever it's worth.

https://www.barnesbullets.com/wp-conten ... Magnum.pdf


It would seem that whatever charge you end up using around 3600 fps would be about max.

72 grains would give 3196fps roughly.10% below max. I am just not to sure about experimenting with unknown data.

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My take is Retumbo is to slow for 100gr. bullets. H or IMR 4831 and 4350 are good choices as well as R-19, R-22. I will add I have never used 780 in anything but should work with 100 gr. bullets also.

Loaded imr 4350 at 58.5, 59.5, and 60.5. Also rl 22 at 63.5, 64.5, and 65.5. H4831sc 66.0, 67.0, and 68.

Just need the weather to break and a day off to get to the range.. Will report back..

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