Hey guys, I thought I was completed w/ all my load development work for this year's upcoming deer season (except for a troublesome 250 Savage Contender, but that's another story... ) until one of my friends asked a few days ago if I could work up a load for his adult daughter to use deer hunting this year. I've previously developed a 257 Roberts youth load his grandson's used w/ good success. Since he does a lot of favors for me as well, my immediate answer to him was, "Sure. I'd be glad to!" He wants her to use a previously unshot 264 WM. (His choice, not mine.) The deer are small and shots will probably be fairly short, 100-150 yards. We've settled on a 120 gr bullet @ ~2600 fps. I already have available the 120 gr Speer/Sierra SP's, 120 gr NBT, and 129 gr Hornady SP. Thought I'd shoot whichever is most accurate. Does your experience exclude one of these bullets? I'm really unsure what to do as far as choice of powder. I've run a search on the internet, but found no info on the 264 WM and very little on the 7 RM (from handloads.com forum). I found some work by Seafire on the 338 WM/Blue Dot on the AR forum. The Hodgdon "Youth Load" site shows some recipes for the 7 RM, but not the 264 WM. My latest Hodgdon loading data doesn't show any info at all for H4895 in the 264 WM. Looks like I'll need to make some educated guesses here on where to start. Do any of y'all have any personal experiences you can share w/ me? Will also send an email to Hodgdon asking for "Youth Load" data for 264 WM/H4895. Thanks for your help. Gary T.

I am not sure who this 'SEAFIRE' fellow is....

But if I was to be working on youth loads for a youth, and a 264 Win Mag... my bullet choice would be a 100 grain or a 120 grain Ballistic Tip....

and I would start out with SR 4759 powder at about 30 grains and work up to about 35 grains and see what the rifle liked best for accuracy and the shooter for recoil....

If I was looking at using blue dot, I would start at about 25 grains and work up slowly with the same two bullet choices as above...

In both cases I would use Large rifle primers....Winchester preferably.....

A 129 hornady could also be substituted for economy.. but I would prefer the Ballistic Tips for their ability to open up better within those velocity ranges....

I have heard rumors that as soon as this 'SEAFIRE' guy gets his Savage 116 in 7 Rem Mag back from someone he loaned it to go deer hunting with, he was going to do some Blue Dot testing in the 7 Mag, which would be very close to the 264 Win Mag's load data.....

cheers and good luck...

Well I posted this yesterday and it disappeared so here it is again.

I have used IMR 4198 for reduced loads. My antique Speer manual shows 21-23 grs of 4198 with a 120 @ 1760-1932. Then looking to Loadtech it takes 4198 up to 38.9 grs for 2620FPS.
It lists 43.5-48.3 grs of 4895 for 2490-2625FPS
both max loads are 45,000psi

The guy who is using my 7mmRemMag, had me load up some 139 grain Hornadys behind a load of 40 grains of IMR 4198....

As he puts it, he can shoot this rifle all day long... and the load chrono'ed at 2700 fps....

38 grains in a 264 with a 120 would be pretty darn close to those results...

And the guy, who is in his mid 60s, also showed me what kind of groups he is getting at 200 yds, and it was pretty decent if it had been a 100 yd group... of course, I don't know if it is just a credit to the Savage, or a credit to the load.. or all the above...

Hey guys,
Work has kept me very busy lately, but thought I'd check in as I finally got a chance to work some on the 264 Win Mag "youth load." All loads use virgin W/W 264 WM brass (w/ primer pockets uniformed and flash holes deburred), Rem 9 1/2 primers (didn't have any W/W primers available), and Hornady 129 gr SP bullet, seated 0.035" off the lands; barrel is 26" long. My first trip to the range featured 4 powders as follows (one shot w/ each charge):
IMR 4759
34.0 gr = 2534 fps ??
34.5 gr = 2484 fps
35.0 gr = 2505 fps

Blue Dot
26.0 gr = 2145 fps
27.0 gr = 2258 fps
28.0 gr = 2313 fps

H4895
40.0 gr = 2526 fps
41.0 gr = 2613 fps
42.0 gr = 2609 fps ??

IMR 4198
37.0 gr = 2510 fps
38.0 gr = 2583 fps
39.0 gr = 2640 fps

Not surprisingly, the Blue Dot load was very pleasant.

I decided to develop one practice load (using Blue Dot) and 2 potential hunting loads (using H4895 and IMR 4198. Here are the results of the second range trip. 3 shot groups at 50 yds w/ 6X scope, but not focused to my eyes. Trigger is also very hard at 6.5#. The BD load uses Fed 210 primer (to help differentiate it from the hunting loads using Rem 9 1/2 primers).

Blue Dot 28.0 gr = avg 2348 fps; 0.54"
H4895 41.0 gr = avg 2553 fps; 0.88"
IMR 4198 39.0 gr = 2640 fps; 0.68"

I'm going to let the lady and her shooting tell me which of the two hunting loads SHE likes to shoot the best. H4895 has a little more blast to it than does IMR 4198, although still very manageable. Will adjust the trigger to ~4#, as well. I think this project will work out very well. Thanks for your help. BTW, Hodgdon nevery responded to my request for load suggestions for H4895. Gary T.