What bullet for 264 Win Mag

[264WinMag]

Depends how you shoot, if you are talking springbok/blesbok hunting and will mostly take headshots, by all means, the SST and interlock will work just fine. Also the speeds mentioned is not really fast, you put it behind the shoulder of an antelope and you will not blow it up. If you hit bone on a shoulder then you might lose the whole shoulder, which in case of a springbok is not really something to write home over.

If you know you’ll only be doing heart/lung shots then by all means go the premium way.

But if it was my rifle, and I wanted to keep using it for a little while longer, I would still shoot heavier bullets just a tad slower, that way I’d get most out of my rifle. Like let’s say 140gr Interlocks, at around 2900ft/s. You will still kill everything dead, the flat base bullet stabilizes easily, won’t lose that much meat, but you will get more out of your old rifle than shooting smaller bullets at the speed of light.

Hi Messor,

Thank you for the wise words. The rifle is quite old, was given to me by my grandfather. The headshot comment is correct, and I would prefer to shoot slower which may help with the rifle lasting a bit longer.

If I will be taking heart/lung shots I can always move to the 308.

The rifle has a long throat due to the use of the gun, therefore I will not be able to load close to the lands. How do I determine the COL of the bullet? What is the minimum starting seating depth and what is max before the bullet is not gripped properly by the case?

[Dale SH]

Measure the max COL for the bullet of your choice.
For conventional stay 1 mm off the rifling, for monos stay at least 1.5 - 2.0mm off the rifling.
If you have to seat the bullet so far out of the case to achieve the aforementioned jump to the rifling that there is a minimal amount of the bullet shank left in the neck, then forget about achieving the recommended jump to the rifling and seat the bullet shank (excluding the boat tail) at least 90% of bullet diameter (90% of 6.71mm = 6.03mm) into the neck.
Do not believe that the jump to the rifling is the be all and end all of achieving accuracy.

[A-R]

...

My question now is what bullets should I load for the rifle? The gun has a 1:9 twist with a 24inch barrel. The rifle will be mainly used for plains hunting up to 300m. I know the 264 was originally designed to shoot 140 gr bullets but was wondering if it will perform well with 129gr bullets. SO currently have stock of Hornady interlocks, and 123gr Hornady SST.

Inputs will be appreciated.

Taking into consideration that the 264WM is known to be somewhat hard on barrels:

A rifle will usually give decent accuracy as long as the freebore / leade / jump does not exceed the bullet's bearing surface length. So, before you rush out to buy bullets, measure the freebore.

I like to seat a bullet with the tip facing into a case, flat base forward. Then adjust untill it will chamber with resistance. This gives a clear visual indication of the current "jump". If you can't seat a particular bullet out far enough to touch the lands, it usually won't group.

Next, determine the bullet's gyroscopic stability factor (Sg). For best performance a Sg of 1,5 or higher is advised. Your location (altitude) will influence the Sg number. Berger's "Twist Calculator" is a good option, but there are others.

All other things being equal, a flat base bullet will have a longer bearing surface than a boat tailed one. As the barrel throat wears longer, flat base bullets will allow you to extract the last bit of accuracy life from of the barrel.

Choose your bullets wisely.

[Messor]

Hi Messor,

Thank you for the wise words. The rifle is quite old, was given to me by my grandfather. The headshot comment is correct, and I would prefer to shoot slower which may help with the rifle lasting a bit longer.

If I will be taking heart/lung shots I can always move to the 308.

The rifle has a long throat due to the use of the gun, therefore I will not be able to load close to the lands. How do I determine the COL of the bullet? What is the minimum starting seating depth and what is max before the bullet is not gripped properly by the case?

I would start by seating the bullet caliber depth, to ensure proper neck tension.
In a hunting rifle I would also make sure it fits into the magazine, single loading is not recommended.
It's not benchrest shooting so close to the lands is not something I would worry about.

Lets say you follow my advice, 140gr bullets at 2900ft/s, even while they are flat base they still have a very good BC of .465, and you can take headshots as much as you like, and at distance they will hold together on body shots. I mean you are not going to buy monolithic bullets to take headshots, so you are going to use some cup and core. Lighter bullets will give a slightly flatter trajectory, but I doubt it would be worth it on a rifle with sentimental value.

[johanvb]

Maybe you want to try the Hornady ELD-M 147 gr ...

[Messor]

Maybe you want to try the Hornady ELD-M 147 gr ...

Yes, then he wont have to worry about hitting the target sideways, he can hit it backwards.

[Apie]

Maybe you want to try the Hornady ELD-M 147 gr ...

Eld M - Match Bullet
Eld X - Hunting Bullet

Barrel twist to slow for those long projectiles

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[A-R]

Taking into consideration that the 264WM is known to be somewhat hard on barrels:

A rifle will usually give decent accuracy as long as the freebore / leade / jump does not exceed the bullet's bearing surface length. So, before you rush out to buy bullets, measure the freebore.

I like to seat a bullet with the tip facing into a case, flat base forward. Then adjust untill it will chamber with resistance. This gives a clear visual indication of the current "jump". If you can't seat a particular bullet out far enough to touch the lands, it usually won't group.

Next, determine the bullet's gyroscopic stability factor (Sg). For best performance a Sg of 1,5 or higher is advised. Your location (altitude) will influence the Sg number. Berger's "Twist Calculator" is a good option, but there are others.

All other things being equal, a flat base bullet will have a longer bearing surface than a boat tailed one. As the barrel throat wears longer, flat base bullets will allow you to extract the last bit of accuracy life from of the barrel.

Choose your bullets wisely.

Just to clarify:

I'm not advocating seating the bullets far out to touch the lands. I actually dislike the practise as I suspect it accelerates throat erosion. I was merely trying to illustrate measuring the jump/leade/freebore in order to choose the best bullet for your particular rifle and it's bore condition.