.264WM Overhaul

[coldboremiracle]

Well, I finally finished it. Some of you may remember me asking questions way back when about rebuilding this rifle. The story behind the gun goes as follows; Grandpa (mom's side) bought the rifle new way back in the olden days (1960), and since he had quite the accumilation of rifles at the time my parents wed, he promised it to my father. Having not been around in the 60's and 70's, I hear the .264wm was quite the hot rod back in the day. Well as time went by it seems Grandpa forgot about giving it to Dad, so when Grandpa passed away, Dad swooped in to snag the rifle before it disappeared. Unfortunately, Grandpa loved the rifle and it saw MUCH use. Dad tried cleaning it up as best he could, but the finish on both gun and stock were bad, and he couldn't get it to shoot with anything. Turned out the bore was smoked, (imagine that!) so Dad kinda gave up and was a bit dissapointed in the rifle he had hoped to rock all those years. I told him I'd see what could be done to get it to shoot, and thats where it got complicated.
I didn't want to bother with a scorched throated barrel, so I ordered a new 8.5 twist Douglas 6.5 blank, and had it contoured to their 5A contour, kind of a heavy sporter/light varmint. I had a local smith cut at 24", thread and chamber the barrel, install a Shrewd brake, and touch up the safety(it was worn and having some issues). After that, I went to making woodchips out of the stock, I widened the front, squared it up, and added a more vertical grip and palm swell. I added a rubber recoil pad, textured the grip areas, and Duracoated the whole thing. It will be a pure hunting rifle, deer, elk, and antelope, and for that, it will be perfect! The best part will be the surprise when Dad sees the change

 

[SharpsNitro]

Congratulations on resurrecting a classic. I've never shot that round, I've owned a pre-64 Model 70 in 264 but it was strictly a collectors piece (as new, unfired rifle from 1963). What did you end up at for a final weight?

 

[coldboremiracle]

That is a good question, I'll weigh it and get back to you. Lots of people told me I should of left it alone, but a burned up classic is of no use to me or my Dad, much better that it will be used to make many more fine hunting memories.

 

[jeffersonv]

Nice upgrades and nice M70. That was my dad's favorite hunting caliber.

I like what you did with that old rifle. Would you have done the same if it was in good condition?

The reason I ask is I have a Southgate Weatherby in .300 WM that was my dad's and I don't know what to do with it. I'm not a collector.
It's a cool rig and reminiscent of a time when America was a better place but I'm more of a form follows function kind of guy.

So it sits...

 

[coldboremiracle]

If it had shot well, I would have left it alone, and only refinished it. But it was pretty hideous, big bulky iron sights, a barrel band, the finish was gone on the stock, scratched all to hell from saddle scabbard, and 60's era scope mounting hardware. It was a pitiful sight for such a weapon, now it's something I'd be happy and proud to pack around the mountain.


Gonna take Dad out and shoot it this week, see how far he can stretch it out.

 

[jeffersonv]

Cool. I'm not familiar with the Super Speed brand. Is that loaded ammo or brass?
If brass, is it any good?
It sure looks nice all packed up like that!

 

[coldboremiracle]

That brass is older than me! Probably have 300 pcs of it. Just weighed the beauty, 11.5lbs on the nose. Perfect for me, maybe a little heavy for Dad, but he doesn't hike much anymore anyways.

Got a better pic, so you can see the grip alterations a little better.

 

[Frank]

Super Speed is just an older Winchester headstamp.

 

[coldboremiracle]

Super Speed is just an older Winchester headstamp.

Yes, just regular super X but with the super speed stamp.

 

[coldboremiracle]

So I finally got everything finished and running right, I re-bedded the gun and added some aluminum pillars,










And then touched up the paint just a bit. The results are as good as I had hoped, with 140VLD's I am getting 3050fps, I shot a five shot group over the chronograph, with some very predictable shooting. The first shot, cold bore, hit about 1 inch right of POI, then the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, all went in a neat little row, climbing up the paper. I'd have been a little worried had I not been watching the velocity creep up on the chronograph. I took a shot about every 1.5-2 minutes, and the velocity started at 3044, and climbed to 3083 on the fifth shot, so had I waited longer, and allowed the barrel to cool a bit more between shots, I'm confident the vertical stringing would have gone away.






Dad loves everything about the rifle, how it looks, feels, shoots, no recoil to speak of, trajectory flat as one could hope for, its just a win, win, win.



Dad has been skeptical over the years about my distance shooting, with typical comments like; "what would you shoot that far for" or "you cant even see anything that far away." He has changed his tune over the years with my stories of success, both hunting and otherwise. And after having finished this rifle, I think Dad will embrace the sickness the rest of us suffer from. You see, after shooting groups, I took the rifle out to 500, and 850yds. Even using the "cheapie" scope that Dad had been fond of on his varmint gun, I managed to make stupid easy hits using holdovers on 1MOA'ish targets. Over and over the dope was dead on, and it made hunting almost seem like child's play. So I took it out with Dad yesterday at our family reunion, we found a nice secluded spot where we could get some shooting done. His smile just got bigger as he fired a couple rounds into a nice little group on the paper. I knew that it would simply take a few shot to get him hooked on it, so I picked out a small stone, about 5-6" in diameter at 660yds. And after pounding it with my 16" .308, I told Dad to give it a try. He did, and to his pleasant surprise, the gun was dead on, 3.5mil was all it took to turn the rock into dust. We then found a slightly larger rock, on the next hill back, at 731yds, which for the record is farther than Dad had ever shot intentionally. I looked on my BC and it said 4mil would do it, so Dad steadied up, and put the four mils ontop of it, and dispatched 140 grains of wrath upon the distant igneous pawn. Faster than I had expected, the dust flew, and the once stoic rock, lay buckled, and broken among the breeze fettered brush. I called the hit out, Dad hadn't seen the impact, but heard it as it echoed back. I knew I had better pull out the camera, to capture this event. Dad settled back in for another shot at 731yds, watch in HD for full awsomeness:

.264 Winchester Magnum @ 731yards - YouTube

He smiled as we heard the second shot echo back as well. It makes sense to me, as my Dad cant really hike much any more, that the ability to pulverize a deer, elk, etc. at ranges like these will come in very handy this fall.


Stay tuned...

 

[Bushmaster]

That's great that you got him interested. Maybe a possible new Hide member? Nice work on the gun too. I wish I had some scenery and places like that to shoot at around here. Just flat land and brush at sea level none the less!

 

[coldboremiracle]

Not that he wasnt interested, dad has always been a great shot. Now with this beauty, he'll be unstoppable.

 

[JIF]

My best friend got this caliber gun way back in the 70's. i always loved the ballistics and shot his numerous times. He took down big azz Elk at a little over 370 yards when we were 15. Great job on the rebuild....Sweeet!

 

[coldboremiracle]

It is a killer caliber for shure. Dad has a tag or two for this year, I just hope we can get him on a deer or elk.

 

[Advokaten]

Nice work and even a nicer thing to have done for your dad, well for him being slower on his feet, you have just made him a honest 700 yard shooting hunter, that will cover a lot of ground. /Chris

 

[coldboremiracle]

Nice work and even a nicer thing to have done for your dad, well for him being slower on his feet, you have just made him a honest 700 yard shooting hunter, that will cover a lot of ground. /Chris

It sure will, and it couldnt have come at a better time. The deep and steep canyons above our home are hard to hunt, cross canyon shots of 500+ yards are quite common. The same mountains Dad took us boys hunting as kids, as did his Father, as do I and my brothers.

 

[Advokaten]

Did a similar thing for my dad,

took his Sauer 80 bolt rifle in 308 Win, had the old wood stock pillarbedded and recheckered, barrel checked and crown touched up, and last a new Zeiss scope 2,5-10x50 ilum for it, loaded up 200 rnds of 180 grain Woodleigh bullets and on our first outing he bagged a decent sized boar,

the joy it brings, how I wish I could hunt the land of my youth. Savor the moments and please extend a "great shooting, on camera too" to your farther. /CHris

 

[coldboremiracle]

Will do, thanks Chris.

 

[coldboremiracle]

So I got Dad out again to do some practice with his newly refinished rifle, we met up with hide member The German, and set out into the desert to hang some steel.
We had two steel targets setup at 400 and 770 yards, the closer one was an 8" and the farther one a 12". We had a great time putting the rifles through some practice, good times.
Here is a video of the results of that practice, watch in HD to watch the trace, this thing is flat shooting as a guy could get.

770 Yard .264 Win Mag - YouTube

Pretty sweet lineup: