My .264wm custom Percision/Hunting Rifle <Range Report><Now with Pics>

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Hey folks well I took this past long weekend to button up my Steven's 200 project.

Now its not a straight 1" tube so to some it may not be the definition of a precision rifle but to me a reliable consistent sub MOA hunting rifle fits the definition.

I started with a New Stevens 200 center feed .270win from "smacdonald".

"Mysticplayer" sourced my barrel a 26" McGowan #5 Heavy Sporter SS Select Match chambered in .264 win mag with a 1-8 ROT, The barrel also under went fluting to drop the weight about 1lb.
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My only Con on the barrel so far is the throat is a bit short eating up case volume OAL is only 3.313" and that's .010 from the lands.



I bought a stock from a gent in Peterborough a Bell and Carlson Savage Heavy-Barrel Stock with aluminum pillar bedding construction and Factory-installed Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad. Paid 75 bucks :D
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The rest of the parts are as follows:

SS Barrel Nut
SS Recoil Lug
Competition Trigger
Magnum Bolt Head
SS Bolt Handel
Ken Farrel 1 piece base
Match Rings
Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9x50mm FireFly
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I had a machine shop remove the old barrel as my vise was not strong enough to stop it from slipping. I installed the new barrel and head spaced it using GO and No-GO gauges. Tightened the Barrel nut hand tight then one dead blow from the palm of my hand further.

I bedded the stock using Epoxy Steel and the stock already had a big enough barrel groove so no further work was needed.

My next step which will happen after this hunting season is sending the receiver off for powder coating as there are some marks on it from messing up the bedding the first time.

For my first round of reloads I am using .7mm rem mag brass reformed to .264wm with a new dimension Hornady FL die. Bullets are going to be 129gr Interbond for White Tail and Blackbear.

I bought 129gr SST's to do load development with and plink as they are 1/2 the price of the Interbonds. I will also use the SST's for Coyotes and my Wolf hunt next year.

Now on with some more pics

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Stay Tuned for pics from the first range trip barrel break in and first test loads!..



I would like to give a shout out to Mysticplayer and to smacdonald for all the help they gave me for this build. :cheers:
http://www.cedarvalleyhunting.ca/
http://www.mysticprecision.com/wp/?page=store
 
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Very nice! I'd like to find a matching set of those stock's for my two savages. I might go with a Boyds though. Still sitting on the fence.

Good job on yours though.
 
What does it weigh?
What bullets are you going to be feeding it?

I have heard a few people complain that the pre-chambered McGowen barrels are short throated. I had a similar experience with a pre-chambered Pac-Nor barrel. Ended up sending it to a smith to re-chamber it, kinda defeated the point.
 
hane6661 said:
i herd the 264 win mag as a very short barrel life that true????

nice looking rifle though:cheers:
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Any overbore cartridge is going to have throat erosion but the .264 got a bum rap as a barrel burner when it came out in 1959. Since then with powder improvements and advances in barrel technology the life expectancy have improved greatly. Combine that with proper break-in, Cleaning and not letting the barrel get to hot and you have a rifle that should remain accurate for years and years.

Heck even if I only get 1000rnds out of it before accuracy suffers after break-in and load development (aprox 100rnds) that leaves 900rnds. How many times do you shoot a hunting rifle in a year? 5-20?...maybe 50 times?....That's 18yrs of shooting.........

MagnumPeanut said:
What does it weigh?
What bullets are you going to be feeding it?

I have heard a few people complain that the pre-chambered McGowen barrels are short throated. I had a similar experience with a pre-chambered Pac-Nor barrel. Ended up sending it to a smith to re-chamber it, kinda defeated the point.
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No idea what it weighs but its perfectly balanced I'll see if I can find a scale to weigh it and report back.

I will be using factory 140gr ammo to break in and do my sighting then load development will start with 129gr SST's.

I don't see the short throat being an issue for the 129's which is what I plan to shoot in the rifle so I'm not really to concerned with it. I would have liked to be able to seat the bullet way out there but if it shoots as is then I'm happy. If I decide I want more throat I only have to have that changed no need for a complete re-chamber.
 
BigUglyMan said:
Where did you get the bolt head and handle? That's a great looking rig. I'm looking forward to seeing the range results.
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Sharp Shooter Supply hooked me up with the bolt head, bolt handle, trigger, barrel nut wrench, barrel nut and recoil lug.

Thanks for the complement much appreciated :D :cheers:

I will post my results as soon as I get a chance to head to the range.
 
Nice gun I was thinking of going the same route with a stevens 200 also. Cant wait to see the range reports.
 
It looks great and you got an excellent deal on that stock.

The easiest way to remove the barrel for the first time in my oppinion is the following:

1. Secure the barrel wrench in a bench vice so that you can insert the barrelled action supported vertically with the barrel muzzle closest to the floor. You are now hands free.

2. Use a large adjustable spanner (read wrench) on the recoil lug and turn. Mine was a bastard until that approach was tried. Best to use copper strips or other protectors on the lug before using the spanner (again read wrench).
 
kohly said:
Nice gun I was thinking of going the same route with a stevens 200 also. Cant wait to see the range reports.
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Thanks! I say go for it! the gent I got my Stevens from always has great pricing see my first post for the link.

warrenb said:
It looks great and you got an excellent deal on that stock.

The easiest way to remove the barrel for the first time in my oppinion is the following:

1. Secure the barrel wrench in a bench vice so that you can insert the barrelled action supported vertically with the barrel muzzle closest to the floor. You are now hands free.

2. Use a large adjustable spanner (read wrench) on the recoil lug and turn. Mine was a bastard until that approach was tried. Best to use copper strips or other protectors on the lug before using the spanner (again read wrench).
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Ya I seen it for sale on another site and jumped all over it...lol...

hummm to bad I didn't think of that likely would have worked much better then what I was trying...lol

308BAR said:
Great stuff, that is one sweet hunter. Yup a custom hunter is going to be my next build on a savage long action.
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Thanks its nice to build your own rifle feels good knowing no one has the exact same one as you.

I have 2 more I plan to build a .338-378 to shoot 225gr TSX's at 3200fps for big game and a .22-243 Middlestead to launch 75gr A-max to 3500fps for varmints and long range target shooting.
 
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RANGE REPORT minus pics until I get to the shop tomorrow where my camera is.

Well I headed out to the range today I set up at 50yds and started the sight in and break in process. Took about 6shots to get it dead on at 50yds. I cleaned after each shot with Sweets as per the break in instructions.

I moved out to 100yds and did some minor adjusting to get 1" high took 4 shots to get it right and again cleaned after each shot.

I moved back to 150yds to try two 5 shot groups with factory 140gr SP ammo with a cleaning in between each group. I fired both 5 shot groups at the center bull the total size of both 5 shot groups combined measures 1.9".

I then switched to my hand loads which consisted of 129gr SST's over RETUMBO ignited with Federal Gold Medal Match Mag primers.

Did 4 groups in .5gr increments.

1st 3 shot group 66gr Retumbo measures 1.4"
2nd 3 shot group 66.5gr Retumbo measures 0.72"
3rd 3 shot group 67gr Retumbo measures 0.98"
4th 67.5gr (not worth mentioning was close to 3")

All in all I'm very impressed with this barrel the first 10shots had lots of copper fouling but after that cleaning every 5 shots revealed hardly any copper fouling at all.

I have 3rnds of each reload 66gr-67.5gr to test them one more time before I start hunting in smaller increments. By the time I got to the 67.5gr load I was flinching pretty good.

Anyone with a .264 that's having issues with powder selection needs to try Retumbo its very clean and the accuracy seems to be fantastic.

I'll get pics of the target up tomorrow.
 
Nice looking rig . 264 is one of my favorite's . I bought mine 15 year's ago used , shoot 50/year with no lose of accuracy . But it's never been hot . Use 120 gr Barnes TSX ahead of IMR 7828 . Again nice job !!
 
That is a very nice rifle SRT and sounds like it will be a tack driver.
Several decades ago, when I farmed on the Prairies my favorite coyote rifle was a P14 Enfield in 264 and I could not wear the barrel out.
At that time there was not a great variety of slow burning powders and it loved H4831 under a 129 Hornady.
Like a fool I had to part with it.....
 
Thanks for the kind words fellas :D

I really like this rifle it has some weight to it but being a bigger guy I like the weight. Its not a mountain rifle and I will be shooting it sitting and off a bi-pod from my tower blind.

Oh and those groups were shot off the back of a quad...using a MTM SGR :dancingbanana:

I have 2lbs of 7828ssc but I'm stuck on Retumbo I don't see a powder change improving a .7" group at 150yds. My next trip to the range I will be firing over my Chrono and maybe velocity will be to low for my liking and I may have to try another powder :eek:.
 
That factory ammo was a little more random.

Need to put a few 5 shot groups with the handloads maybe with the lighter charge and see what comes up.

Do you know your extreme spread? Have you chronoed it, they must be moving pretty good with that much powder pushing em out.
 
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