Thread: .264Win mag

I bought a M70 .270 a while ago and it doesn’t shoot great. Had a gunsmith put a bore scope down the barrel and it’s seen its best life unfortunately. Had it apart and back together again and can’t see anything else obviously out of whack unless the bedding job is playing with it. I’d like to keep it as it’s a beautiful rifle but I don’t want to go to the effort/cost of rebarreling it then cerakoting the barrel and action to keep the blued type look. So the next step was to list for sale, disclosing the issue. BUT, I’ve since found a M70 .264WM barrel that looks ok by eye (will get a borescope through it before going any further). I thought this might be a good option to at least keep the old girl provided this barrel is ok and it’s something a bit different while keeping everything factory. Chances are though if it’s been replaced it may have seen better days as well. It’s through GC so no history unfortunately. I believe they’re a 24” 1:9 twist.

Anyone here shoot one of these? Brass ok to come by? What powder is the go to? I’ve got plenty of 2209 but nothing slower burning. Would be open tops hunting and wouldn’t mind stretching the legs on it if it works out.

Great calibre mate. Cases should be easy, you just run 7mm Rem mag cases through your sizer and reload.

2209 might not give good casefill, but it will most probably work(it does in a 7rem mag).

Ive got a reamer if you might consider a new barrel

Originally Posted by Jaco Goosen

Great calibre mate. Cases should be easy, you just run 7mm Rem mag cases through your sizer and reload.

2209 might not give good casefill, but it will most probably work(it does in a 7rem mag).

Ive got a reamer if you might consider a new barrel

Cheers Jaco. I’d been thinking about finding a wood/blued fast twist .243Win and getting an Improved 40* reamer put through it and shoot the 105gr+ pills. Something with a bit of character to carry around for a change but the only ones I can find would be new rifles, either a T3x Forest or Sako 90 (too much coin for me). So I’d gone into GC to look at some older Sakos to get a feel for them, mainly AII’s, but obviously 1:10s which would be a compromise buy, and found the 264 barrel. Might almost be the best of both worlds for this situation (even though they’re quite different cartridges) so will see what happens. I’m guessing the barrels don’t last as long especially with lighter pills so this one might not have much life in her.

Well the obvious extra is the 264 is a belted magnum. You will have to have the boltface opened up.
It's not controlled feed so feed rails may not need much or any work but at the least maybe a new mag follower?
My long suffering and not finished 264 project also told me that the slower the powder the better. 2209 will not be optimal

Thanks for that, I had wondered about the bolt face and thought they may have been the same size as read somewhere but yes .470” to .540” so will have to factor that in. Might be a pie in the sky process.

I had one built on a Parker Hale mauser which was a .308 didn't need any mag changes 2213sc and n560 from memory were the go to powders.

First step is to get some .264 cartridges ands see if they will feed through your action.

6.5 06 would probably work in the action without any mods

Originally Posted by blip

6.5 06 would probably work in the action without any mods

Such an underrated cartridge, be a nice tidy conversion, should fit the Winchester with little to no modification. And very easy to load for too. I'd be looking for a 6.5 takeoff barrel, x55, or CM, or maybe PRC and having it reprofiled if needed, fitted and rechambered.

Yea ive got one

Yep I've got a M70 EW .264 win, great performing Cartridge, Bit expensive to run, and only a few Factory ammo options, win and rem load pretty muh, Nosler's loads are smoking performers,
Slower powder, i like retumbo, R33, 140gr/143 gr are golden at 3200 plus.
However if you only got 2209/H4350, I started with that and no trouble to get to 3000 plus with a 140g, all you need and more.