New Ruger for my collection

Tang,

I'm proud of you for picking up on a truly salient point: Small, very fast bullets, smacking solid shoulder bones, makes for less-than-ideal terminal performance. Long tracking jobs and extensive meat damage will result. Your choices are to go with a heavier, well-constructed bullet, like the 140AB, or be very careful to place your shot behind the shoulder! If you compare the long-range ballistics of various bullets, you will find that the .264WM doesn't lose much trajectory when shooting the heavier 140gr bullets, but the increase in SD will be much appreciated, should your POI be a few inches forward of where you intended.

Whether you go with 130's or 140's, you're .013" smaller and maybe a couple hundred feet-per-second faster than a .270 Win, so you've got almost the perfect deer rifle!

Tang said:

Jim, I've matured a little. If I wanted to smash through the shoulder, a 250gr Partition from the .338 Win Mag would do it effortlessly. I think the 140gr Accubond will be my bullet of choice.

This will be the smallest rifle I've ever hunting with. I know it is truly an odd ball, and doesnt have the largest fan base, but Im really excited about getting started with it. Seems a far stretch trading a gun that pushes 200gr bullets over 3100, for one that can barely push 140 to 3100.

Quickload says 64.5gr of RL22, is pushing the 140 Accubond to 3081. That's right up around max pressure. But 72gr of Retumbo shows 3113, with 2000psi Less. Hornady 160gr RN, 2942 with 69gr of Retumbo.

So is recoil going to be non-exsistent compared to what I'm used to ? Also, I think since all 4 of my rifles are the same, that shooting the lighter reoiling one, will make me even more efficient with the 338.

Sorry for rambling, Im one happy kiddie.

Also, which scope should I put on it ? I have three choices. Bushnell Trophy 6-18x40, Simmons Aetec 3.8-12x44, or I can pull my Zeiss Conquest 3.5-10x44 off of the .338. My wife laid claims on the 7mm Rem Mag and the Leupold 3-9x40.

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I think the 140AB would be a very good choice for deer-sized game, so long as your .264 shoots 'em well. It's a faster 270 or a smaller 7mm Rem Mag, depending on how you want to look at it. Both are exceptional big game rifles, so there is no reason to expect anything less than spectacular performance from your new toy. Another way to look at it is you'll be shooting a faster 6.5x55, which has a well-deserved reputation in the game fields. Find a load it likes and hit where you aim.

All other things being equal, recoil should be moderately less than your 7RM but quite a bit less than some of the thumpers you're used to. Having 4 identical rifles in different calibers should make it very easy to be comfortable with and shoot each of them well. You may find what a lot of old-timers figure out, through the years: Bullet weight and velocity is not nearly so important as bullet design and shot placement. Sometimes, less truly IS, more.

If you have to choose between what glass you'll use, I would put the best optics you have on the gun you'll shoot most. In your case, that would be the Zeiss conquest, but then you'll need a new scope for the 338WM. The Simmons wouldn't be a bad choice, as the 12X top power would help you take advantage of the longer range you'll be capable of shooting.