260 Remington

pyscodog

Active member
I picked up a Rem 700 in 260 Remington today. Any of you have suggestions on a good load for Oklahoma whitetails? Doesn't need to be smokin' fast, just a good solid DRT load.


Thanks-Bill
 
I went down and bought some Barnes 120g TTSX on Friday and plan on loading a few of them up tomorrow after church and going to the range.

I can easily get 2900+ fps from Hornady 123g SST but I found out that Hornady developed the 123g SST for the Grendel and the guy at Hornady said it is too frangible at 260 velocities. Nosler also told me that the 120g BT was too frangible and did not recommend it for deer at 260 velocities.

I have not tried it but the 125g Nosler Partition would probably do the trick real good.
 
I got to witness what a 140gr ELDM did to a whitetail at 610 yards a few weeks ago. The deer was shot in the neck, its nose hit the ground while its butt was still in the air. DRT. The ELDX is more of a hunting bullet, I may work up a load for that next year.

H4350 over 42grs. You would obviously want to work that up for your self. My 260 is at 42.8grs, velocity is around 2800fps.
 
Well, there was no brass available locally so I went to Plan B an started making my own out of some Hornady Match 308. Got it all necked down this morning and put it in the tumbler to clean it up a little. Will check OAL tomorrow and trim if needed.I wanted to anneal it all first but I'll have to go to a friends house later in the week for that.
 
I watched a youtube video and the guy there did it in one step. Sooo....thats how I did it. Most of the brass looks pretty good but I have a few cases that I got a little bit of a dent and and a few wrinkles on the shoulder. I'm hoping these will blow out when I fire form. I'm using RCBS dies so I pretty much had to do it in one step. A friend came buy and he made a couple of cases from 243 that look good too.
 
When necking down the 308 brass, watch the neck thickness. But, if you want a little extra help with pressure, get some Lapua palma 308 brass with the small primer pockets. Necking up the 243 brass will keep you from neck turning.
 
First I love the 260!! I have a model 7 in 260 and I settled on the Barnes 120TTSX - I worked up a load with Varget (2690fps) since I have a lot of it. (Barnes doesn't list that powder for some reason.)I use this bullet since I could not get decent velocity or accuracy in the short barrel model 7 with the heavier bullets.
DRT? The bullet always exits with a large exit hole - even with a chest to rear end shot!! However they often run 50+ yards. Maybe where I place the shot, but more likely because these monolithic bullets don't have the massive hydraulic shot you see with more disruptive bullets. (just my theory based on experience...)
btw - I am re-barreling this rifle with a longer barrel so if anybody has great loads please share.
 
Due to no available brass, I bought a box of Federal with 120 Nosler bullet just to shoot the rifle. Accuracy was poor, but I did notice the front base was bad. I took it home, floated the barrel, bed the action around the recoil lug and lightened the trigger a little. My first hand loads were 120 A-Max with Varget powder. I started at 37 grains and with 1/2 grain increase's, went to 39 grains. Accuracy was around 1 1/2 inchs except the 38.5 load that was around 3/4". All these were 3 shot groups at 100yds. Today, I used Varget powder and 120 grain Noslers. Starting at 37 and increase to 39 max. The 37.5 load and the 38.5 both had two touching and one out but by 3/4". I'm wondering why the flyer? Always the third shot. Or.... is this about normal accuracy for a rifle with this pencil barrel? I'm thinking about trying some H-4350 to see what results I get.
 
Originally Posted By: tugboaterTry the 123 Amax and some H4350. Good things!

Tried them with Varget. Results weren't to good. One load shot pretty good. Trying H-4350 and the 120 Noslers tomorrow.
 
I shoot a Rem 700 semi-custom with a Shaw barrel and the 130 Nos Accubonds work great for me with 48.5 gr of RL 22. I use necked down and turned 308 cases as 260 brass is difficult to find these days.
 
Went to the "Big" gunshow going on in Tulsa this week end. I found one bag of 50, Remington brass, but he wanted $40 bucks for it. I passed. I tried 130 Accubonds and 47 grains of R-19 and got 3 shots groups that were just under an inch. I'm going to try messing with seating depth now and see if that helps.
 
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