264 Winchester Magnum

[stew71]

Anyone have one? I found a nearly NIB Ruger #1 chambered in this caliber. Heard it can be a barrel burner, but this would be an antelope/elk gun, not a range queen. And, it would give me an excuse to reload another off-the-wall caliber.

[Nath]

Anyone have one? I found a nearly NIB Ruger #1 chambered in this caliber. Heard it can be a barrel burner, but this would be an antelope/elk gun, not a range queen. And, it would give me an excuse to reload another off-the-wall caliber.

Anything that shoots 6.5mm bullets get's my vote!
Barrel burner! So what!

N

[6pt-sika]

I got one last year brand new when they had the rerun . Seems they ran them one year and then did away with the Ruger #1B !

I used mine last year to pop a pair of whitetail does shooting the Hornady 129 grain SST bullet . Am pushing it with IMR4350 . Just so happened when I heard about them bringing the Ruger #1B back out in 264 WIN MAG last year I already had a Remington 700BDL Stainless Synthetic 264 WIN MAG that AccuSport had Remington do a special run of maybe 10 years earlier . So I sold the Remington and got the first 1B 264 I could from our distributer . I mounted one of my old Leupold Vari XIII 4.5-14AO scopes on top and took the ammo I had loaded for the 700 to the range . After sight in and cleaning the barrel I then fired a fouling shot , let the barrel cool and fired a 3 shot group at 100 yards that was under 1/2" center to center.

The best I'd gotten out of the Remington with the same handload was 3/4" at 100 yards for 3 shots . Later I took the rifle out and shot a pair of doe whitetails at about 90-125 yards .

This makes my fourth 264 WIN MAG in the last 20-25 years . The first was a used Winchester Pre 64 Model 70 of 1960 vintage . I killed a PILE of deer with that one before someone wanted it more then I wanted to keep it !
Followed that one with one of the AccuSport Remington 700BDL Stainless Synthetic rifles when they first came out . Used the Barnes 130 grain X Bullet in that one to take several deer with excellent results and once again someone offered me more then I thought the gun was worth . Later I had a S&W 460 MAG revolver a friend wanted and he had a Remington 700BDL Stainless SYnthetic 264 WIN MAG just like the one I had before . Actually the two rifles had been ordered by the same dealer at the same time and we purchased them originally the same day . Anyway we struck up a trade with him getting my S&W and me getting his Remington (this guy also has three other rifles chambered to the 264 WIN MAG) .
And now this Ruger #1B makes my fourth 264 WIN MAG .

As to it being a barrel burner , I don't really see it if you use a little common sense when shooting the gun . If you sit there and shoot 10-20 round groups sure it's gonna burn the throat out . But the same can be said for a 7mm REM MAG (which I also like) or a 300 WIN MAG (again which I also like) . They said the same stuff about the 220 Swift and again if you take it easy and not try to shoot large amounts quickly you should be fine . I typically shoot a 3 shot group and let the gun cool . After maybe 10-12 shots I'll clean the barrel and alotta folks say I am overly cautiouse with the gun ! But it works for me !

[madman4570]

264 Win Mag

Honey where is that drool rag???
Yes/Yes grab it(what a classic!
That back in the day when ya used to sit on the pot and look at the Gun Digest(still do sometimes ) and look at all the guns then went to the back of book and looked at how all the calibers performed out at 500yds(yep,the 264 Win mag)trajectory king.
I would grab it in a NY minute!

[Nath]

Ahhhrr, H4350 or IMR4350, lovely powder, love it

N.

[cshold]

264 Win Mag

Honey where is that drool rag???
Yes/Yes grab it what a classic! That back in the day when ya used to sit on the pot and look at the Gun Digest(still do sometimes ) and look at all the guns then went to the back of book and looked at how all the calibers performed out at 500yds(yep,the 264 Win mag)trajectory king. I would grab it in a NY minute!

LOL Love It...

[madman4570]

264 Win Mag

Honey where is that drool rag???
Yes/Yes grab it what a classic! That back in the day when ya used to sit on the pot and look at the Gun Digest(still do sometimes ) and look at all the guns then went to the back of book and looked at how all the calibers performed out at 500yds(yep,the 264 Win mag)trajectory king. I would grab it in a NY minute!

LOL Love It...

Still when I am in there so long and wife says while knocking loudly on the door "what the heck are you doing in there so long???
I say "looking at my gun books" She don't believe me and thinks it's something else????

[El Chivo]

I am opposed to it on account of excessive depletion of game.

[InTheWoods]

I had a Winchester Model 70 in .264 mag. for a few years and enjoyed it. I actually bought it new at WalMart many years ago for about 50 bucks! On the gun rack they had a cheap single-barrel shotgun for about $500 sitting next to the model 70 for about 50 bucks. This was in back in the day (70'S) when they had hang tags on them. On numerous occassions, I told the sporting goods clerks they had had the tags mixed up. On each occassion they promised to check into the situation, but never corrected the pricing. Finally I couldn't stand it any longer and just bought the 50 dollar Model 70 in 264!

It ended up being more cartridge than I really needed for our local deer and sold it for a 'moderate' profit! The .264 mag is one heck of a long-range deer and antelope caliber.

[Streetstar]

Get it !

Most "barrel burners" are still probably good for 1000 rounds --- (then you get it re-barreled)

I have a couple of barrel burner Weatherby magnums --- they might see at maximum, 25 rounds a year after the initial tinkering to see what loads work best , so in theory, would last 40 years

[stew71]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I checked it out again today at lunch and I've decided to head back there tomorrow to put it on layaway until the play account is built back up.

[wolfdog]

I had a Rem 700 in 264, shot sweet, I would love one of the #1s in 264. Don't have the boot though.

[Moondawg]

A buddy of mine had one. I shot about 20 rounds through it and did not like the kick and muzzle blast, but I wanted a good 6.5. I ended up having my 30-06 rebarred to 6.5-06 with a 24 inch barrel. By chronograph it came within 100 FPS of my buddies 264 mag, without all the blast and burning a lot less powder. It was also shot sub minute of angle groups I did a lot of hunting in Germany with that rifle, deer and wild boar, plus I shot it in DJV. I probably put well over 2000 rounds through it before the barrel started going. My buddies 264 WinMag didn't go 800 before the barrel was burnt out. For all practical purposes I think a 6.5-06 makes a lot more sense than a 264WM. If my rifle already had a magnum bolt face I would get a 7mm RM or 300WM over the 6.5 WM. The 6.5-06 is super easy to make. Run a 30-06 case through a 6.5-06 die, or fire form 25-06 cases in the rifle. It is a very effecient cartridge.
Actually I am a big fan of the 6.5, just not in a belted magnum. I have had 6.5x55 and a 260 Rem (6.5-08) both were great rifles and If I did my part would take game out to 400 yards with a 140 gr bullet.

[6pt-sika]

A buddy of mine had one. I shot about 20 rounds through it and did not like the kick and muzzle blast, but I wanted a good 6.5. I ended up having my 30-06 rebarred to 6.5-06 with a 24 inch barrel. By chronograph it came within 100 FPS of my buddies 264 mag, without all the blast and burning a lot less powder. It was also shot sub minute of angle groups I did a lot of hunting in Germany with that rifle, deer and wild boar, plus I shot it in DJV. I probably put well over 2000 rounds through it before the barrel started going. My buddies 264 WinMag didn't go 800 before the barrel was burnt out. For all practical purposes I think a 6.5-06 makes a lot more sense than a 264WM. If my rifle already had a magnum bolt face I would get a 7mm RM or 300WM over the 6.5 WM. The 6.5-06 is super easy to make. Run a 30-06 case through a 6.5-06 die, or fire form 25-06 cases in the rifle. It is a very effecient cartridge.
Actually I am a big fan of the 6.5, just not in a belted magnum. I have had 6.5x55 and a 260 Rem (6.5-08) both were great rifles and If I did my part would take game out to 400 yards with a 140 gr bullet.

I had a 6.5-06 on a 98 Mauser action with a Shilen barrel about 2 years ago !

Gun shot great with the same Hornady 129 SST bullet and 51 grains of H4831 . Just never did care for it on a Mauser action !
I have hopes of finding another Ruger #1B at a decent used price and have it rebarreled to 6.5-06 .

While I don't doubt your word on 800 shots in your friends 264 WIN MAG before the barrel was smoked , I do wonder the circumstances under which it was used and or fired . The first 3 264's I owned all had stainless barrels and suffered no problems . Matter of fact the Pre 64 Model 70 I owned had probably been fired 800 times before I got it and I was able to get groups at 100 yards in the 1/2" range .

[Loke]

I love how every one believes all of these "barrel burner" myths. They make me laugh. If you clean a barrel properly, and not over heat it, it will last just as long as any other caliber that burns a similar amount of powder, with a similar sized bore. You never hear the 270 WSM called a barrel burner. Or the 7mm Remington Mag. Or the 270 or 7mm Weatherbys. Some old timer gun writer who looked at the specs provided by Winchester decided that since it shot faster and flatter than the 30-06, figured that it had to destroy barrels in less time than it takes to read his article. I'll bet he was just po'd that Winchester didn't send him a free rifle to test. By the way, I have "burned out" a couple of barrels in my day. The first was a 270 Winchester with which I shot everything in sight. It took somewhere between 7000 and 10000 rounds. The other was a 243 Winchester that I fried in 10 minutes and 100 rounds on a jack rabbit shoot.