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Nitro,

I don't know if this info is any good for you since it is on the 264. One needs to remember that while about the case capacity as the 6.5 X 68 standard reamers for each calibre will have different freebore and leade angles.

My best shooting mate has been to Africa 4 times and ha shot about 130 plains animals with a large proportion being wildebeeste zebra and kudu. He shot one Eland. He has used 257 Wby 7mm STW, 300 Wby and 358 STA and all with Barnes X bullets.

Bear with me as I am getting to the 264

He basically found the 3 calibres were much the same except he thought the aninmals did not run as far with the 300. But he he felt to get the 270 or 308 effect on pigs and roos he would have needed a lot bigger. He did not find the 358 did anything special to warrnat the recoil and general trouble of necking down and fireforming 375s.

So he settled on the 257. At the tie he was playing about with qute a few different calibres and tried the 6.5/300 Wby. It did not shoot well and it was just one of those guns that was wrong from the start. So I suggested he get Tobler to knock off some of the barrel and do a 264 because I knew Denis had a JGS reamer for 264.

He now has 3 264s on Rem 700s with Jewell triggers, HS precision stocks. One has a sporter weight barrel, one has a Reminton Varmint contour and the third one had a Heavy Varmint contour. If you are not familiar with bench rest HV is like a straight taper to about 1 inch at the muzzle.

He is going to Africa again and the 264 is the calibre that is going and he will be shooting up to Eland.

As a by the way, when I first met him about 1988 he had a 6.5 X 68 in a Mauser 66 and he also had one on a Krico.

I think the Tobler twist is 1 in 9 but I can ask him tomorrow. Given all three rifles have Jewell triggers and Nightforce scopes that tells you how the rifles shoot other wise they would not have that gear on them.

If I was to go back to the acccuracy thing again which I did for mnay years one change I would make is to have the 264 rather than the 270 in the bench style guns.

Lastly, and I base this on the 6mm/06 and 6mm/284. The 6.5 X 68 actually looks like a big 6mm/06 and I found the 6mm/06 to be better for acccuracy and velocity than the 6mm/284 and as you know the 264 is a parallel sided case as compared to the 264.

His rifles have been very accurate with bullets from the 100 grain ballistic tip through to the Hornady 140 grain A Max.

He was very happy with his original 6.5 X 68s which is what made him try the 6.5/300 Wby.

He is going to get a Dakota in 375 H&H but that is a case of a "just to have" and for that sort of rifle, well as you know the 375 is about it.

One final note. On his last trip to Africa he shot Zebras and Kudus with the 257 Wby using 90 grain and 100 grain Barnes X bullets.

His preference for the 264 over the 257 seems to be mainly the fact that he can shoot 140 grain bullets even though he no intention of using them except when he tried them for accuracy. Just a case of knowing they are there.

So I would think a 6.5 X 68 would be a good thing and if you can believe what a lot of those Europeans say on the forum one in the Sauer 202 would be as accurate as a rilfe of the same weight that we get playing around with Tobler barrels and gluing Rem 700 actions into stocks and etc and etc.

Mike