.264 Winchester Magnum

The .264 Winchester Magnum is one of a series of short-cased (2.5in.) belted magnum cartridges developed by Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and officially introduced to the public by them in 1959.

Ballistically, it is almost identical to the 6.5 x 68 (also incorrectly known as the 6.5 x 68 RWS, 6.5 x 68 Schüler or the 6.5 x 68 Von Hofe Express) and the 6.5 x 63 Messner Magnum.

The .264 Win. Mag. is an excellent, potentially accurate, very flat-shooting cartridge capable of taking any game in the lower 48 US states, and one of the most powerful of all .264in (6.5mm) cartridges. When loaded with 140 grain bullets at a muzzle velocity of 3,100 ft/sec (949 m/s) it is an adequate round for deer out to 500 yards (457 meters).

Background
The .264 Win. Mag. has had a reputation for being hard on barrels, and it can wear them out in as few as 500 rounds, especially if long strings of shots are fired with an increasingly warm barrel. In the late 1950s - early 1960s this was particularly true with the chrome-moly steels then almost universally used for barrels, but recent advances with stainless steel barrels, especially when cryogenically treated, have extended barrel life considerably, with the .264 Win. Mag. and many other cartridges.

While very few production line riflemakers currently offer the .264 Win. Mag. as a factory chambering, this calibre remains popular with some enthusiasts using custom built rifles and handloading their own ammunition.

The introduction of Remington's 7 mm Magnum in 1962 almost immediately eclipsed the .264 Win. Mag., and it never fully recovered from the competition of the slightly larger-bore cartridge.

In Europe, two of the .264 Win. Mag.'s champions were George Swenson of John Wilkes gunmakers, London, and David Lloyd of Northampton, England. Lloyd built a number of his de-luxe Lloyd rifles in .264 Win. Mag. calibre, mainly for sportsmen seeking a calibre that would give high velocity performance with bullets heavier than the 100 grains fired by the .244 H&H Magnum.

When loaded with 129 grain bullets, the 264 Win. Mag. has moderate recoil, but with 140 grain bullets, recoil increases significantly.

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Cartridge:rifles