The author's Serengeti Rifles .264 represents the left-handed "Westerner" he's always wanted.

Specialty suppliers such as Superior Ammunition routinely load popular wildcats as well as obsolete cartridges, so 6.5 Remington Magnum, 6.5-.284, 6.5-06, and more are definitely available. And then there's Nosler Custom Ammunition (featuring, not too surprisingly, Nosler bullets). This is a real treasure trove for certain 6.5mms, including 6.5-.284 and .264 Winchester Magnum.

I always admired Winchester's 26-inch-barreld Westerner. I owned a couple of them briefly, but I always wanted a left-handed .264 with a 26-inch barrel. I sent an Obermayer match-grade 6.5mm barrel and a Parker Ackley left-hand Santa Barbara Mauser action to Serengeti Rifles, which built me the left-handed "westerner" I've long wanted.

As much as I hate to admit it, I have yet to load a single cartridge for it. My excuse is that I'm still gathering enough brass to make the effort worthwhile, but the reality is I'm getting half-inch groups out of some test loads Serengeti sent, IMR 7828 and 140-grain Hornady bullets; and, for Pete's sake, I'm getting the same accuracy from Winchester's 140-grain Power Point factory load.

And then I discovered Nosler's Custom ammo. They offer not one or two but six loads for the .264 Winchester Magnum, with bullets of 100, 120, 125, 130, and 140 grains. Their load with the 120-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, at 3,250 fps, produced the first quarter-inch group I've seen from the Serengeti .264.

But I suspect not the last. Because Nosler also offers new brass for the .264, so I no longer have the excuse that I have to create more once-fired cases. I'm going to have to work up some loads. This rifle deserves it, and so does the .264 Winchester Magnum--like all of our 6.5mm cartridges.