260 rem

[remingtonman_25_06]

I just picked up a Ruger M77 MKII stainless/synthetic in .260 Remington, its the older version with the cutout stock that says Ruger.

I've owned and shot several of these rifles in different calibers over the years and found them to be pretty easy to get to shoot under 1" at 100 yards with handloads, hopefully this one is no different.

I figure it could work as a good loaner rifle, or for a beginner or woman, etc. Also be nice for a pack gun if your going to be putting on some miles or if the weather is just downright nasty where I dont wanna take either of my nicely set up Rem 700's with wood/laminate stocks.

I took the vx3, 2.5-8x off my triple deuce for now and put on the 260. Makes for a nice little package...

Im thinking the perfect bullet for my applications will be the 129g SST's. With a BC of .485 at about 2850-2875fps, it will still knock the snot out of deer out to 600 yards and should do the trick on black bear and elk out to 300-400 quite nicely if my 338 EDGE or 7 RM were ever broke.

Powder wise it looks like RL19 is great for both accuracy and velocity according to the nosler manual for 120-130g bullets. I dont really wanna use RL powders cuz of there lot to lot consistency and temperature sensitivity issues. I like to use Hodgons "extreme" line of powders and looking through the burn rate charts I saw that H4350 was real close to RL19 so I figured thats where I"m going to start with load development, 129g SST's and H4350 in RP cases lit by Fed210 primers at an OAL of 2.8" Start at 42g and go to 43.5g in .5g increments and see what happens. QL is predicting 2875fps with this combo from my 22" tube. Even if I can get 3/4"-1" that will be plenty good for what this rifle is going to be used for.

There should be nothing wrong with using 243 brass for the 260 either should there?? Reason I ask is there isn't much in the way of 260 for brass and its a lot more expensive then 243. I figured I could just neck up the 243 and trim it to specs and be done with it?? For the 260 I'm stuck with Rem, which is last on my list, Nosler which is quite expensive IMO, or NORMA which again, is very expensive. I'd rather just buy some winchester 243 or lapua 243 brass and run it thru my 260 FL die and trim if I could. Anyone see anything wrong with going that route??

Only problem I see is getting shells mixed up as I do have and shoot a 243 as well.

 

[bullet]

Use H4350 and you will find good accuracy and velocity also if you can get it Norma MRP, 760 is cool also. It might like IMR7828. All these have worked well for me in my custom 260 using 125-130gr bullets.

I like your scope choice, it will work very well with the 260. Good luck on your load work. It can be used on elk and will kill them but I believe you really need to use another cartridge and rifle for elk. Good luck bullet

 

[JD338]

Remmy,

Congratulations on the Ruger 260 Remington.
Check with Powerstroke, he has developed some nice loads for the 260 Rem.
The 120 gr BT is a great bullet for deer (and coyotes) and the 130 gr AB would be great for all around use. The 140 gr AB should work well for long range too.
You should have no problem using 243 Win brass, a single pass through the 260 Rem sizer die and you should be set to go.
Let us know how she shoots.

JD338

 

[bullet]

Remmy, if you use it on elk use the 140gr AccuBond or a Partition and it will do fine. I have not shot an elk with a 260 but my brother has and he used 140gr AccuBond and the cow elk drop immediately and he had a well placed shot. I love the Ruger action and I think if you play with your Ruger enough in your load work you will find an accurate load. As I said before, good luck and let us know what load really worked for you. I would give you a load but I am not through with my load work yet.

 

[bullet]

Remmy, if you use it on elk use the 140gr AccuBond or a Partition and it will do fine. I have not shot an elk with a 260 but my brother has and he used 140gr AccuBond and the cow elk drop immediately and he had a well placed shot. I love the Ruger action and I think if you play with your enough in load work you will find an accurate load. As I said before, good luck and let us know what load really worked for you. I would give you a load but I am not through with my load work yet.

PS-By the way, I think the 130gr AccuBond will end up being my best load and it is a very good bullet for a lot of jobs.

 

[Guy Miner]

That .260 is an under-appreciated cartridge for sure!

Don't have one myself, but quite a few guys have been running them for long-range/highpower matches with excellent results. Believe most of the guys I know were necking down .308 brass, but I like your idea of necking up .243 brass. Hope it works for you w/o neck splitting. I'd think you'd be good to go.

The guys squeezing down the .308 cases sometimes had to deal with thick brass in the necks.

I've heard nothing but good about the 120 Nosler Ballistic tip and the .260 Rem... Another fellow uses one as his long-range precision varmint rifle, on prairie dogs out at crazy ranges, with a 100 gr bullet. H4350 is real popular with the guys who shoot these things in competition.

Let us know how necking up that .243 brass works out please! Curious here...

 

[Powerstroke]

Remmy,

Congrats on the .260 - I'll post load info later this evening on the two that I have. As Guy mentioned - definately under-appreciated!

Personally I think the .260 is probably the most finicky out of that cartridge family, but once you find it - :grin: :grin: :grin:

Caution - too much use of the .260 @ LR may change your mind abuot the Edge :wink:
Unless one has a custom 6.5 built, the 120 & 130 grain bullets are ideal. I've seen several elk drop @ just past the 300yd mark and never kick with the 130gr A-bonds.

 

[DrMike]

I'll be watching this thread closely as I just purchased a Ruger Compact chambered in .260. I'll shortly be loading for it. I'll likely focus on the 130 grain AB as it will be for my grandchildren.

 

[1Shot]

H-4350 will do you very good. The 243 cases necked up is the way to go. Real easy if you have a tapered expander ball in your size die. My buddy had one of the first Rem 700 with a 24" barrel when they first came out. You could not even find any ammo at the time and we have to make our cases and found that 243 Win worked much better than 308 Win cases. There was not even any load data out for the 260 so we had to treat it as a wildcat and just start low and work up looking for STOP signs. We sued 120 and 140 Sierra bullets and it was not hard to find a load that this rifle did not like. It really shot well. With either bullet it was deadly on deer even out to about 600 yards which is as far as we shot a deer with it. We used it to control this big farm in NC and we killed over 50 deer with it that season. BY the next season my buddy had traded it to another friend and he was off to some other rifle to play with. The guy still has that rifle and his grandsons use it all the time and it is still putting the meat on the ground very effectively.

 

[Powerstroke]

Remmy,

The main .260 I play with I had done for my Dad - It's a Rem 700 BDL Varmiter w/ a 25in Tube 1 in 9 twist.
Hunting load has been a max charge of H414 @ 130gr A-bonds. Shoots under an inch all day long. ( Same results with the 100gr B-tip & H414 )
This load works from 90deg summer yote hunting days to -20deg December elk season.
Viht N560 as well as RL-19 w/ 130gr VLD's could potentially be phenominal - I have 5 shot groups with both loads w/ 3 of them under a quarter inch and all 5 slightly over half inch.
I've yet to miss a yote with this gun .... 5 for 5 three of which were on the first day I took it out.

My other is the Wife's Model 7 in a youth version - nothing to speak of with this one, but it's taken it's fair share of elk with the 120gr B-tip. ( pre-AccuBond Days ) Just purchased my first box of Partitions to play wi

IMG]th this one.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I did run a few 243 cases through the RCBS FL 260 die and trimmed/chamfered them. They chambered very nicely in the 260. I guess I'll find out if I split any necks when I shoot them. I have just always heard its easier to neck up then down is why I was thinking the 243 cases would be the way to go instead of the 308. When you go down from 30 cal to 26 cal thats enough to make the necks a bit thick you would think. Going from 24 to 26 isn't as big of jump and if anything I guess it would make the necks a bit thin. Either way though, I have to do the same thing from necking up 300 RUM brass through my 338 EDGE die and I haven't split a case yet, and thats going up 3 sizes in diameter. I dont think I"ll run into any problems but ya never really know. I'm thinking about buying some 243 lapua brass and necking it up and going that route.

The 130g AB is a good bullet no doubt about it, but at 260 velocities, I dont think theres a need for the bonded bullet for anythign but elk/bear, which this rifle will honestly see very little use of on either as I have a 7 RM and 338 EDGE for those beasts...I think the 129g SST at 260 velocities will do all I ask and need it to do with a price and performance that cant really be beat. The BC's are practically the same between the 2 bullets, but the SST is a lot cheaper to shoot. Hopefully it is accurate. The next bullet I would try would be the 120g NBT.

Looking at the ballistics, the 260 w/129g sst at 2850fps pretty much duplicates what my 25-06 did with 115g NBT's at 3200fps in terms of energy and velocity out to 600-700 yards, but the thing I like about the 260 is it uses 10g less powder in a shorter handier rifle to do so!! Gotta love those sleek 6.5mm bullets. I've always wanted a 6.5 caliber of some sort after I started to really get into LR and ballistics.

Should get out monday morning to do some shooting and will report back on accuracy/velocity with the 129g SST's/H4350 and the 120g NBT with 47g of RL19, the 120g NBT's/RL19 came with the rifle. According to the nosler book its the most accurate powder and the star was at the top, so we'll see how they do as well I suppose.

 

[YoteSmoker]

I've got a full box of 129 sst bullets I bought to try in my 264 but have since decided to go with 130-140 accubonds in that caliber. Let me know if you're interested and I'll make you a good deal on them.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Ill take the 129g ssts. Incoming PM.

 

[SJB358]

RM2506, good luck with your 260. I think that is going to be my next rifle. I would like to get a Ruger Compact for my daughters first rifle, and the 260 looks too appealing to pass up. I have been itching for a 6.5 for awhile. I think the 129gr SST's are going to be awesome bullets for 260. I am using the 225gr SST's in my 338 Win Mag, for the same reason, they are less expensive than the bonded and other bullets, and man, they seem to be very accurate. Good luck with your new rifle. Hope it is a shooter. Scotty

 

[sniper55]

RM2506, Go ahead and size the 243 brass to 260 rem it works great for me. I had the same idea as you some time back about the quality of brass and have resized Win, Norma, and Fed brass with no problems also if the 4350 you are planing to use doesn't work I have had good luck with IMR 4064 with the Horn. 129s Good Luck.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Finally got a chance to test the 260 out a couple times. So far I've tried 4 powders with the 129g SST. H4350, IMR4350, IMR7828, RL22. So far the best group was 45.5 of RL22 at .5" and a very slow 2600fps. The 2nd best group was 42.5 of H4350 at .836" and 2700fps. The 3rd best group was 43 of IMR4350 at .861" and 2800fps. IMR7828 was the worst of the bunch and its best group was 45.5 at 1.8" for 2625fps. OAL was 2.8" for all tested, RP case, Fed 210's.

On all loads tested, they were doing 2 in and 1 out. Haven't really found the sweet spot for seating depth yet I dont think. Could try a WLR primer as well though. I did somewhat look for a sweet spot with the 42.5/H4350 load. It originally shot .8" when I had them at 2.8" (what I've been testing at), so I loaded up 3 at 2.775", 3 more at 2.8", and 3 at 2.825" and that outing was bad. This time out, the length of 2.8" shot right at 2", while the 2.775" load shot the best at 1.6", and the worst was the longest 2.825" at 3.6"

Overall, for an older box stock Ruger, its not doing to bad I guess, pretty much what I expected from it. Trigger needs to be replaced or worked on thats for sure, its BAD! I think I will work with the IMR4350 load as its giving me 2800fps and is shooting under MOA. Will make for a better round then the other 2 powders at 2600 and 2700fps. I think I"m going to try some RL19 as it seems to be one of the faster/accurate powders.

 

[DrMike]

Remmy,

If my new 260 shoots this well, I'll be a happy camper.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Mike, Yah anything under MOA will do for a game getter thats for sure. It seems to be kinda picky with charges and a 1g difference does big things in this cartridge...Seems to have very narrow powder nodes..I'll be testing some RL19 next time out, and also trying to refine and check the consistency of the 4350 loads.

Heres the 260. Not a fancy rifle by any means, but it should get the job done and be a good solid dependable rifle in any weather with that vx3, 2.5-8x on top. Cant wait to see how those 129g SST's perform on something.

 

[DrMike]

I bought one of the new Ruger compact rifles in 260, intending to work up a load for my grandchildren. I haven't even shot it yet. I have too many irons in the fire now, but they are growing fast and that is a rifle that will take anything they want to hunt for many years to come. The only deficit I can see is that there are six grandchildren! :shock: It could mean that I have to do this six times. :lol

I assume that the pattern you are observing is related to the barrel thickness. Still, 1/2 MOA is very fine. And the rifle does appear to be consistent, which can only give confidence.

 

[JD338]

REmmy,

She is a keeper, nice shooting for starters.
I am sure you will find a good load or two. RL 19 is listed as the most accurate powder for the 130 gr AB, certainly would be worth a try.

JD338