This was my first non-.22 rifle. When I was about 14, my grandmother died and left my mom some money. She, in turn, gave myself and my sister each $500, with the advise to, "spend it on something special." Well, that was a no-brainer for me. I'd been pouring over reloading manuals that I'd 'borrowed' from my uncles, memorizing all the names and their ballistics. There was one cartridge that really intrigued me, the .264 Winchester Magnum, or .264 Westerner as one of the really old manuals called it.

I told my dad what I wanted, and he went up to the local gun store and ordered the only rifle available in the caliber, a Winchester model 70 Classic. I wasn't wise enough to know it at the time, but that was the first or second year after they returned to the Pre-64 configuration. Man, was I lucky! He brought that gun home, along with a box of Remington 140 grain PSPs, which the store owner said he'd had on the shelf for over 20 years. I remember he walked in and set the boxes down and said, "I don't know what the hell you're gonna shoot with that thing. Maybe an elephant..."

I got started immediately working up loads for it, eventually settling on 100 gr Ballistic Tips and 125 gr Partitions. I was getting over 3600 fps with the BTs, which made for one helluva varmint rig!

I hunted whitetail, hogs, and pronghorn in Texas, and took a great Wyoming pronghorn with that gun, and never had to shoot any one of them twice. It's semi-retired now...the last thing I did before I left college, literally, was load up a batch of 100 rounds of the 125 gr Partitions on my roomates' reloading bench. I haven't touched one of those 100 off in the few years since, but it's still one of my favorite rifles, and I'm sure I'll dust it off one day and enjoy all the memories I share with it.

Congratulations, you have one of the best "flatland" calibres around. Fine tune your loads, and there won't be a safe pronghorn for miles.

packrat

It sounds like we share an admiration for the same cartridge, this was the last rifle I had built last year. I load the 140 Sierra and the 120 Nosler Ballistic Tip. Tremendous performance with little bump to the shoulder.

I bought one 2 years ago, sporterized mauser with a stock that has an awesome, very comfortable swell in the grip. fits the palm of my hand perfectly.

However, I haven't gotten to shoot mine much or build up rounds for it. it shoots fine, no problem there, but when reloading my cases come out a few thousandths larger than factory loads, and chamber very tight. So I am waiting to buy a new set of dies. (the set I got was a used Pacific set, I'll probably replace with RCBS).

The gun makes me real happy though, .264WM was one that I had read about too and just seemed like a great, sleek cartridge to me.

Red

Gosh, I didn't realize there we so many other 264 fans around. IMO it's a great caliber. For deer, it will compete with almost any of the new magnums and is easy on the shoulder. It got a bad rap for being hard on barrels. But if you don't overheat the barrel, it will last longer than you will.

[ 07-11-2003, 06:51: Message edited by: olarmy ]