260 Remington loads, another question gentlemen

[squawberryman]

I've got a box of parts at Warner Tool coming home as a 700/260. Gonna be a shooter I hope. Has anyone embraced the 260 and if so what loads do you like?

I have no spent rounds to start with. New gun, new brass, never done this before. The brass is Lapua. How should I proceed? Should I full length resize the rounds and trim to have ammo at stated COAL when the gun arrives or should I wait to see if the brass already fits the gun and just neck size and trim. I understand the manufacturers have their opinions on such things, but the practical experience here is enjoyable to me. Thank you gentlemen, please chime in. PS I'm starting with 140 SMK's and 120 Nosler purple tips. Alan Warner is going to make me a dummy round of each a couple thousand off the lands as by benchmark for the COAL of this gun.

[markhampton]

squawberryman, I shoot the 260 Rem in three different handguns.  Between hunting and long range target shooting -- I have found satisfactory results from Varget and h 4350. There are other powders proven and you may want to experiment to determine what your barrel prefers. I also shoot Nosler's 120 BT, Hornady's 123 gr. SST, and Sierra's 123 gr. in guns with a 9 twist. I have one single-shot with an 8 twist and it likes Sierra's 142 gr. TMK best. Good luck on your journey.

[cherokeetracker]

YES!!!! The 260 is a great little cartridge even though the big green machine screwed up some things.
OOPS Let me get off my soapbox. I have the 1-9 twist in a Remington rifle. As you will find out in case you do not know, the 1-8 twist is much better.

I use the 140 grain Nosler Partition and power it with RE19. (its compressed) In the Nosler 5 and 6 book. Now I know that is not the most conventional load. But it works good in my gun. I can get 3 shots and put them all in 1 hole on a calm day. Since the barrel is the sporting (nearly pencil thin) it warms up a little and the group climbs. I have also loaded the 120 grain Nosler BT with good results and the Amax bullets. The Amax in the 90gr is good over some Benchmark. Either 120 or the 90 I can usually cover it with a dime. These loads are shot at 100 yds. I now have access to a 200 yard range but have not stretched the legs on the little model 7 . A Nosler tech admitted to me over the phone that their 130 grain pill was not very good. I could not get it to do well with any of the many powders I have on hand. Varget was the go to powder in the 90s when Rem came out with the 260 but I never could get it to cooperate. IMR 4350 is a good powder also. 8208 was good. A lot of guys in the north Texas area use the 260 for the long range shooting that goes on. But most are using customs with the 1-8 twist barrels. Berger VLDs will not be a good choice since the twist rate is incorrect.(on the Remmy) They win a lot of matches around here though, with the customs.

Remington has a long throat in their rifles, and Even though the bullets are long, You will still have to load them accordingly ( to specs of COAL) unless you want to single load them. In other words touching the lands or getting real close is difficult.
Now don't get discouraged at all if things don't come together for you quick. All these reasons I have given you, are the reasons that the 700 is not offered in the caliber anymore. I use the 260 and the 140s and have killed a lot of hogs up here. The bullet has performed well for me and I have no complaints. Some guys like the Amax or a tipped bullet. I have seen a few pass throughs on some deer, but there again each animal is different and sometimes just an inch either way can make a big difference in what happens next.
When the 260 first came out I had to use Speer and Sierra since there was no other bullets offered. I also had to wait on RCBS to get the dies. In High Power several guys were shooting 6.5-08, so I was familiar with it.
SO,,,,, Let me tell you this and try to remember it. If you want some brass quick, and don't want to pay the high prices then try to get some 243 Win brass. Neck up with some good lube inside and out. I use Imperial. If you try to neck down using 308 brass,, then get your self a reamer to ream the inside of the neck. WHY? because you will have created a do-nut in the neck of the brass. This needs to be removed so that the bullet will seat proper and the other thing is you will need to trim the neck of the brass. Otherwise the neck is TOO THICK and the pressure will be raised. That you don't want. I have all the tools and have necked down and it is too much work. Necking up is easier and usually right before Deer Season I get a lot of new brass when daddy brings youngster out with their new rifle.

Didn't mean to give you so many negatives the positives are that the 260 does not kick. It's ballistics are close to the 308. It has some of the highest BC bullets offered out there. The 7mm being better. And you have to go to a 175 gr or larger in a 308 to equal the BC in a 140 gr 6.5 There is some really good reading on the 6.5 or 260 over on 6mmbr.com I neck size for at least 3 times to keep from over working the brass by FLS. The accuracy is great with the 260.It has been about 1/2 and 1/2 when you look down the line and some are using 6.5 creedmoor and the rest 260s. I hope you enjoy the rifle or pistol.
Charles

[cherokeetracker]

Mark knows what he is talking about. He can offer a lot more knowledge than me.

Charles

[bigbrowndog]

I shoot the 260 for long range comps, in both a gas gun and a bolt gun. As well as for hunting, The round itself really gives nothing up to the other SA 6.5's. It languished from lack of marketing compared to the Creedmoor, but that's it.
H4350, H414, Superperformance and powders of that burn rate tend to perform best. When you load it in a SA, the 140 grain bullets tend to occupy useful powder capacity.
Many bullet manufacturers have answered this problem with higher BC bullets in the 130gr range, however most of them tend to be more target variety than hunting type. However there are several that fit into the hunting arena.

I find for my competitions and hunting purposes, 130 - 120 grain bullets perform great. 130 SMK, 129 Hornady SP, and 125 Partition are my go to bullets.

Trapr

[squawberryman]

Thank you gentlemen. This gun is a trued SA by Warner, which will be mated to a Proof Research carbon fiber barrel. The chamber will be tight. It will be a non conventional chassis gun. Pretty cool to look at, and I want to shoot eggs at 300.

[bigbrowndog]

Eggs at 300 could get boring, depending on how well it turns out and how much time you put into load development, assuming it's a low wind day!!!

The "teal" clays at 500, that's a challenge, on a still day.

Good luck on your project, and remember no matter how good your gun is if you go cheap on glass, you'll never know how good it could be!!!

Trapr

[sixshot]

The 260 is one of the real hidden secrets in the shooting circles. It's a great caliber for medium size game & will work on elk with proper bullets. I've suggested them to several friends & they love them, especially for their kids who might be just getting into hunting.

The one I had was a 15" Bullberry handgun barrel & I shot 100 gr. Barnes X bullets & 120 Ballistic Tips in it & it was a real deer & antelope buster. Several of the medium rate powders work fine & brass life is excellent. If you have one of these guns consider yourself lucky, they are hard to find. Wrote up a pretty long range kill with mine several years ago, can't remember the distance but the Barnes X bullet worked to perfection & he dropped like Bin Laden.

Dick

[BigBore44]

The 260 Rem is one I've wanted since first learning/Reading about it.
It seems like a very versatile round that kills all out of proportion for its size, kinda like the 22 Magnum.
I've thought about having my 308, Rem 78 Sportsman (Plain Jane 700) re-barreled to the 260. One of these days I will...
Good luck with yours and keep us posted on how she's coming along.

BigBore44

[sportster]

I have a Remington 700 rebarreled by GAP from a 22-250 to a 260. I bought a bunch of Nosler 140gr bullets only to find out that the chamber was too tight to fit them at proper seating depth. I went to Hornday A-max 140 and the gun will shoot 1/3 inch groups at 100 yards. I don't shoot it near as often as I should and I haven't reloaded for it in over a year so I can't tell you what the recipe is for it. I enjoy mine and if I ever have to sell my guns it would be one of the last to go.

[sheriff]

4350 and Hornady's 129gr (if you can find them)are what I use in a Ruger 77 and an Encore 15".

[4597]

H 4350, R-15, Varget, 4198 in no order will all shoot well in my .260 Rem. I prefer a 28" to even 30" but a 26" will come through. Love mine.

[gunzo]

Lapua now makes 260 brass, about a buck a piece but so good that it probably won't need any prep. Cry once & get a hundred, which will last longer than 3 or 400 pieces of Rem or Win.

Check out bullets.com I think they have it for $.90. The usually have a good supply of Berger bullets if you want to try those.

I've been shooting the 260 for about 7 years & it continues to impress.

[squawberryman]

I have no spent rounds to start with. New gun, new brass, never done this before. The brass is Lapua. How should I proceed? Should I full length resize the rounds and trim to have ammo at stated COAL when the gun arrives or should I wait to see if the brass already fits the gun and just neck size and trim. I understand the manufacturers have their opinions on such things, but the practical experience here is enjoyable to me. Thank you gentlemen, please chime in. PS I'm starting with 140 SMK's and 120 Nosler purple tips. Alan Warner is going to make me a dummy round of each a couple thousand off the lands as by benchmark for the COAL of this gun.

[bigbrowndog]

Size them but wait to load so you can fit OAL to your chamber and magazine e box. Size and trim to make all uniform in length, and square up case mouths, chamfer case mouths, depending on how anal you want to get you can weigh cases, weigh bullets, bore flash ones to uniform diameter, etc.........personally I'd wait on getting to in depth.

Trapr