Bucky10

A .264 or .270? I think that common sense would be the 270 but why does a .264 shell look bigger?

charlie brown

The difference between the .264 and the .270 are the bullet diameters. There are several case designs for different bullet diameters. For example the 7mm(.284) diameter bullets have gained many factory cartridges. To name a few...7x30 waters, 7mm-08, 7x57, 280 Remington, 7mm Rem. Mag, 7mm Weatherby Mag, 7mm STW, 7mm, Rem. Ultra Mag., as well as a few others that I left out, and some wildcats also. All of these have the same bullet diameter but much different case designs. The bullet diameter has no direct relation to the size of the case as a standard. The .270 was a design off of the .30-06 Sprg case. The .264 is a case design that Winchester developed to shoot smaller bullets very fast. Hope this helps.

James B

I don't know what you mean by a 264 shell. Are you looking at a 264 Win Mag shell? If so the casing would be bigger than a 270. The 270 bullet is actually .277 and the 264 bullet is truely a 264 diameter bullet The 260 Rem, 6.5x55 mauser and 6.5x284 are all 264 bullets. The 264 diameter bullet is also known as the 6.5 MM bullet. The 270 is just a necked down 30-06.

JagMagMan

As others have said bullet diameter has nothing to do in terms of case size or power either. If the .264 you are talking about is the .264 magnum, it is a hot cartridge. It got the reputaion as a barrel burner, so it has never gotten that popular. Also factory loadings are few and harder to find!

Duffy

Confusion of terms.
"Which rifle is bigger?" A rifle has a barrel and an action and a stock. It is chambered for a specific "cartridge".

.270 and .264 are just numbers.

.270 Winchester and .264 Winchester Magnum are two "cartridges".

.270 Win. is a bigger diameter (bullet) than a .264 win. mag.(bullet)

In most factory loadings(for the same bullet weight) the .264 win. mag. is a little faster than the .270 win. But out where the lead hits the meat I doubt if the hunter or the game can tell the diffrence between them.

I have hunted for many years with a .264 win. mag. and shot a lot of various big game with it.

Robin

eldeguello

Merely because IT IS BIGGER! The cartridge case, that is! The .270 bullet is .277" to .278" in diameter, and the .264 bullet is .264" in diameter. Thus, the .270 has a bigger bullet diameter. But the .264 Win. is a belted magnum. Its' case holds quite a lot more powder than the .270. It therefore has a higher MV than the .270, but not by much! Performance-wise, both are in the same class.

stubblejumper

The rifle size is independant of the cartridge.A rifle chambered for the 264win mag can be smaller than a rifle chambered for the 270win or vise versa.

akbound

Hi Bucky10,

Everyone has pretty much explained the differences in diameter of .277 (for the .270 Winchester)...and .264 (if you are referring to the .264 Winchester Magnum). And as a number of people have already pointed out the .270 Winchester is essentially a .30-06 case necked down to .277. The .264 Winchester Magnum as was also pointed out is a belted magnum. The cartridge case is the same as the .338 Winchester Magnum, except necked down to .264....(which is actually also 6.5mm). The case capacity of the .264 Win Mag is greater than the .270 Win. But in rifles of equal barrel length...the performance is nearly identical.

For much more info on either of these cartridges check:

http://www.chuckhawks.com/264mag.htm

http://www.chuckhawks.com/270win.htm

These two sites should give you a very good understanding of both cartridges. Hope this helps!