Educate Badger: 7x64 Brenneke

[meles meles]

After toddling round The Shooting Show, we're interested in a nice old classic rifle chambered in 7x64 Brenneke. What can you clever oomans tell us about it that we couldn't glean from wikipedia ?

[dodgyrog]

My pal has one - extremely accurate and a powerful long range round to boot.
I still prefer the 7mm Mag though.

[Laurie]

Here's the copy of a profile I wrote on the cartridge for Target Sports magazine back in 2007.


A EUROPEAN CLASSIC: 7 x 64mm BRENNEKE

Most British and American shooters associate the name Brenneke with the famous rifled shotgun slug and nothing else. However, Hanover born gunsmith Wilhelm Brenneke (1865-1951) invented and made far more than slugs, although that is all the company he founded makes today. A builder of sporting rifles, Brenneke is remembered for being a prolific cartridge and projectile designer, the word ‘genius’ now routinely applied to him. RWS still makes and loads two of his groundbreaking rifle bullet designs – the TIG and TUG (Torpedo Ideal / Universal Geschoss), twin-core designs that preceded the Nosler ‘Partition’ by several decades.

Travels around Germany
Brenneke moved to Suhl in 1895, then the centre of the German sporting firearms industry. It was here that he developed one of the very first jacketed lead-core hunting bullets and an early version of the shotgun slug before the end of the century and a stream of sporting bullet and cartridge designs in the first half of the next. With Thuringia occupied by the Red Army in 1945 and incorporated into the communist GDR, the Brenneke family was one of several East German arms and optics specialists who escaped west in 1951 to avoid forced relocation to Russia. They initially set up shop in Berlin, eventually moving back to the Hanover area three-quarters of a century after Wilhelm’s move east.

Surviving Trio
Of his many cartridge designs, three survive – the rimless 7 x 64mm; identical apart from calibre, 8 x 64mm; the very much larger cased 9.3 x 64mm. There are also rimmed versions of the 7 and 8mm models (the 7 and 8 x 65R) loaded to lower pressures for combination guns, so you can say there are five survivors. 8mm cartridges aren’t overly popular here and the 9.3 is a potent medium-bore African number, often bracketed with the .375 H&H Magnum, so no domestic UK use. The 7 x 64 is the only one you’re likely to find in a British gun shop, but can hardly be described as common, even though Parker-Hale and BSA built many rifles for it, most exported. It’s hardly known in the USA, although Speer, PMC and Federal loaded ammunition (again for export) until recently.

Stags and Chamois
Go to continental Europe and it’s a different story, the 7 x 64 and 65R widely used with all German and Italian rifle manufacturers chambering it, likewise Finnish company Sako and Czech Brno / CZ. RWS, Hirtenberger, S&B, Norma and Sako produce cartridges, RWS no fewer than eight models each of 7 x 64 and 7 x 65R, bullet weights from 123 to 177gn! This is a powerful, flat-shooting cartridge, the RWS 162gn TIG model having 880 m/s (2,887 fps) MV, retaining 2,020 fps / 1,460 ft/lbs of energy at 300 metres. It is popular for the larger deer species in Europe and Scandinavia, and has long been the cartridge for long-range Alpine chamois hunting.

280 Remington Look-Alike
American writers see the 7 x 64 as an inferior old-world copy of the .280R, although Brenneke introduced his cartridge in 1917, 40 years before the Remington. Ballistically, they’re identical and while non-interchangeable, are so close dimensionally it’s difficult to tell them apart without looking at the headstamps. The Brenneke has a slightly smaller case-head diameter and marginally sharper body taper, so has maybe three or four percent less case capacity than the Yankee model – not enough to make a noticeable difference performance-wise. Despite its wartime debut, it was designed exclusively for sporting shooting and was loaded ‘hot’ from day one, its current CIP M.A.P. being 60,175 psi using the Piezo-electric measuring system, same as .308 Winchester. In practice, the 7 x 64 shares roles and quarry species with .270W and .280R cartridges and isn’t too far behind 7mm Remington Magnum. This also means it suffers from their disadvantages so far as British deerstalking is concerned – high terminal velocities in our relatively short-distance shooting risking meat damage and bullet break-up if it hits a bone. As the name suggests, the case is 64mm in length (2.520”) and C.O.L. is 84mm (3.307”) similar to the .30-06 and cartridges based thereon. Only Hornady and Vihtavuori provide handloading data in English-language manuals, the former in rimmed 7 x 65R form but loads worked up in a strong bolt-action rifle. However, Lee Precision notes widely available .280 Remington loading data is fine if maximum loads are reduced by 5%. Slow burning powders are best suited to this cartridge, Hornady recommending IMR4350, 4831 and Vihtavuori N160.


Sample Loading Data

139gn Various 49.3 – 54.7gn IMR-4350 3,000 fps Hornady

139gn Hornady Interlock 48.8 – 52.8gn Viht N550 2,982 fps Vihtavuori

154gn Various 49.4 – 55.6gn IMR-4831 2,900fps Hornady

160gn Lapua Naturalis 49.4 – 53.2gn Viht N560 2,677fps Vihtavuori

160gn Nosler Partition 52.3 – 55.5gn Viht N165 2,769 fps Vihtavuori

175gn PSP / RNSP 46.0 – 53.6gn IMR-4831 2,700fps Hornady

Above include maximum loads! Use starting loads and work up in small steps looking for over-pressure signs. Data applies solely to the company’s or otherwise quoted bullets, bullet / data source shown in the right-hand column.

[meles meles]

Thanks for the information, we're impressed ! We're very tempted to buy a nice old blue steel and classy wood rifle for it...

[ovenpaa]

The 7x64 is still popular within Germany and I have picked up discarded 7x64 brass in the Danish forests so I guess they use it as well.

[Dustyman]

There were some good articles on chuck Hawks about it and I did find a German article about a guy using one for target comps very successfully when I was working up a load for mine . Will see if I can find it out , very competent deer and boar round ,

[zzr1100]

mate of mine hunts boar with one in Belgium .. loves it

[Christian]

Hi Badger,

I've got a slot for a 7x64, just need to find a bit of cash for it.

Although I don't have any first hand experience (yet) with the 7x64 I thought I'd share some of the input from users, which made me want one.

> Kind of approaching 7mm Rem Mag performance. Kind of.
> Less powder and in a shorter barrel than a magnum
> Large span of bullet weights
> Seems to be easy to develop accurate loads for
> Non-military cartridge so you can use it all across Europe

Here is another source of information on the cartridge: http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowled ... nneke.html

I guess if one is a little cynical it's no different from .270 Win, .280 Rem, 30-06 etc for taking home venison, but let's not be that boring. I've certainly developed a bad craving for this cartridge.


All the best,

Christian

[DW58]

I had a rifle built in 7x64mm back in the early nineties based on a Musgrave M90 action and Ferlach barrel - it was a real tack driver and I shot quite a lot of deer with it.





I worked up various loads for it based on Nosler 120gr and 140gr bullets, still have all the load/chrono data if interested.

[meles meles]

Nice rifle ! Our foray towards 7x64 has stalled: we've bought a 7mm Rem Mag instead