.308 dpms vs. .260 rem dpms

speedkills

speedkills

New member
Why would you buy a .260 rem over the old well established
sniper killing, table filling, find them anywhere, match shooting 7-62 NATO .308 win!
There is an idea! Please explain! Thanks!
 
Compare the ballistics of a higher BC 6.5mm bullet at 600+ yards. Add that to even lighter recoil and the 260 is a real winner. The 6.5mm cartridges are gaining a lot of popularity lately due to the 6.5-284 in benchrest winning a lot of matches. 260 is a great cartidge, only problem is that darned Remington curse.
 
If your not a competion shooter that reloads, there really isn't much you will gain with the 260 Rem. The amount of high quality bullets and surplus brass for the 308 is a big plus for the high volume shooter. Factory loaded ammo for the 260 is a fraction of what can be found for the 308. In heavy rifles, the difference in recoil is not that much. Rapid fire drills with either is very challenging to say the least. If you want someone to talk you out of the 308 you will have to get someone else to do that.
 
The 260 is just another round like the 300 RUM that only survives because it feeds well in an AR or it would be completely left along the roadside by now. How many factory chamberings do you see offered in either of these rounds besides the AR? Not many being there are better, more efficient choices out there. The 300 Win short mag won in popularity and so the 7-08. The RUM just has a stiffer casing that takes a little more punishment in an AR type platform from what I understand. The 260, I cant tell you why they picked it.
 
If you have to ask the question, by all means stick with the 308.
The 260 is for guys who shoot long range stuff (500 to 1000 yards) and is a specialty offering designed for medium and long range tactical shooters.
 
The 260 is for guys who shoot long range stuff (500 to 1000 yards) and is a specialty offering designed for medium and long range tactical shooters.



...that also happens to be a dynamite medium game cartridge.

What's the problem? Pay your money and take your pick.
 
The poster who said the .260 isn't very viable is wrong. Most of the national level silhouette shooters use the .260 Rem, they don't do that because it's trendy. Don
 
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Perhaps I should be a bit more detailed.
I shoot the 260 and dearly love it. I also know of a few guys who have an AR-10 in 260 and have shot one from time to time. I have shot about 23,000 rounds of 260 or 308 at last count over the last 6 years. Gone thru a pile of barrels in 260 and a couple of barrels in 308. Still shoot the cartridge and love it dearly. Won some matches and lost some. I used to be a target shooter (both match rifle and F-class) but do tactical rifle matches these days.
The 260 round is great and AR-10's are great as long as they happen to be reliable. The combinations is useful but not for everybody. If you have to ask the question you are probably better off with a 308.

The problem I have with the question really has to do with mixing the 260 and the AR-10 platform and the fact that the original question is written in such a way to give me the feeling that Speedkills is more of a casual shooter rather than a person who already has experience with AR's and the calibers in question.

The advantages of the 260:
Lighter weight higher BC bullets give longer range capability.
Less recoil.

Disadvantages:
Lack of long range factory ammo except for the newly made Black Hills match ammo. If you want to use factory ammo the 260 has a very limited choice and will cost you quite a bit more. Can't go to Wal-Mart and buy a box or two when you get low.
Half the barrel life of a 308.
If you want heavier bullets you can go up to about 190 grain effectively with a 308 but only about 140 grain with a 260.
Reloading is a bit more difficult with a semi-auto than with a bolt rifle. Because of the semi-auto, a reloader will have to full length size each reload and make sure everything is set up for reliable operation. Some people do this well and others have nothing but problems.
Resale down the road has a much more limited market. Everybody knows about the 308 but only a narrow segment know about the 260.
If you only intend to shoot out to 500 yards the 308 will do the job superbly. Why fix it if it ain't broke?
 
The problem with barrel life is that it is a real "barrel to barrel" situation. A nice mild load and no rapid fire will really show good barrel life. Some brands are better than others. Some shooters don't push the accuracy envelope and get much longer barrel life than people who demand the utmost accuracy. Lots of variables that make judging a tough thing until you have gone thru several barrels with your style of loading and shooting.

I have gone thru 4 different 260 barrels and have several still on my rifles and going strong and 2 that are set up and ready to use when one on a rifle gives out.
The worst of the 4 barrels only made it about 2100 rounds. The best actually made it to 4000+ rounds but I knew it had excessive throat erosion and was throwing flyers but I continued to use it for positional practice as long as possible. Unless you do some rapid fire strings, which a semi-auto encourages, a 260 seems to get between 2000 and 3500 rounds. I keep in touch with others who shoot the 260 and 6.5-284 in competition and my results are about what some others are getting. Of course I know a couple of high power shooters who have gotten 5000+ rounds out of their barrels.
One of the 308 target barrels started going away at about 7200 rounds but was still usable to about 7500 for practice. The other one was a lot less but was used almost exclusively for rapid fire practice. It didn't even make it to 3000 rounds but under the same circumstances I would be surprised if a 260 barrel would make even 1500 rounds. One of the guys I shoot agains has a 308 barrel that has almost 10,000 rounds thru it. The rifle doesn't shoot little bitty groups any more but is still usable.

For somebody shooting a semi-auto I would expect more rapid fire strings to be shot than with a bolt rifle so the barrel life would probably be at the lower end of the spectrum. For the way I shoot, 2000 rounds would probably be the upper limit of barrel life and I would consider anything past 1500 rounds to be a bonus just cause the semi-auto is soo much fun to keep pulling the trigger on.
For somebody who is a hunter and who doesn't shoot a magazine full of rounds in less than a minute, you would probably be old and gray before getting even 1000 rounds out the barrel so barrel life isn't a consideration. For somebody like me who shoots once or twice a week and does both slow fire precision and rapid fire strings the difference in barrel life is a good reason to stay with a .223 AR-15 for semi-auto practice.
 
Speedkills,

I think you need to consider: What is the normal range you will be shooting?, What is your intended and most likely target?, What type (Action Competition, Bench Target, or Hunting) of use will the rifle be intended?

260 Rifleman explained a lot of the downside that can be encountered with rapidfire action competition and the comments about the National Level shooters are valid as well.

I know Iowa is pretty flat, but how long of a shot can you humanely take for a guaranteed kill on a game size animal?

If you are planning on the 800+yd competitions, then I'd go for the .260.. Anything else, the .308 if only due to the cost of shooting and barrel life.
 


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