Not Sure What Bullet to Load

[280SOLIDBASE]

I'm planning on purchasing a .260 Remington for my daughter to start whitetail hunting with. Most likely a Savage Muddy Girl, but not sure yet. Anyhow, I'm torn as to what grain weight and style of bullet to load for it. I'm leaning towards the 120 gr. BT as I shoot the old 140 gr. Solid Base out of my .280 at about the same velocity as the 120 gr. BT will be coming out of the .260. When I started using Noslers, ya had two choices, Solid Base or Partition. Perhaps I'm over thinking this, but now you have Ballistic Tips, Partitions, Accubonds, E-Tips, etc. Any input would be much appreciated!

 

[joelkdouglas]

280SB, if in your shoes, I would select the 140 AccuBond. I prefer heavy-for-caliber bullets. Not really a penetration or killing issue, as whitetail are not difficult to kill. However, I find heavy for caliber bullets damage less meat.

If recoil is a concern and you're worried about the 140s, I also wouldn't hesitate to use a lighter bullet, even a 100 gr Partition or Ballistic Tip. Maybe more meat damage, but your daughter might prefer them.

 

[JD338]

The 6.5mm 120 gr BT kills WT deer like lighting.
That would be my pick. It will also recoil less than the heavier bullets.

JD338

 

[dubyam]

The Partition is as it always was, a great bullet for controlled expansion and weight retention on medium to large game. No surprise there. The Ballistic Tip is, more or less, a replacement for the Solid Base. Accubonds are just a bonded core version of the BT design, for the most part, and are useful at higher impact velocities than the BT. E-Tips are the most robust design, and match up well with rifles providing maximum velocity. I use E-Tips in my 270Wby & 300Wby. I use BTs in my 30-06 & 8x57. I think your daughter would be well served by a BT, and perhaps one even lighter than the 120 if she's not yet used to recoil. You could load up some 100gr .264cal BTs and duplicate 243Win level recoil if need be. They would be plenty for white-tails out to a couple hundred yards.

 

[JD338]

WM brings up a good point about the PT's.
If it were me and I wanted to go with a 100 gr bullet, it would be the 100 gr PT.
It will give you deep penetration and easily smash shoulders should it be needed.

JD338

 

[remmy1187]

How old is your daughter and how tolerable of recoil? I loaded 120 b-tips for my daughters 7-08 at a reduced velocity around 2400 fps with very little recoil and worked very well for her first buck in 2013. The recoil factor is very important with the younger shooters, if it kicks too much they are not gonna want to shoot it.

 

[Mountain Goat]

If the 100gr bullet was the main focus, then the 260 wouldn't be my choice. I'd go with the 243. The 120gr NBT in a 260 is a deer killer big time! You could load those from 2300-2800fps to aid in low recoil and still have plenty of punch. Even the light load will still be going over 2000fps @ 200 yds. That's my suggestion.

 

[FOTIS]

100 grain PT

 

[DrMike]

The 100 grain PT will work surprisingly well on deer sized game. It will likely be the bullet I settle on in the .260 I have for my grandson.

 

[Wis65x55]

I would suggest that you work up two loads. One a dedicated PRACTICE LOAD centered on the 100gr BT. And a hunting load bases on a 125gr pt. Under actual hunting conditions, I highly doubt that she would feel the extra recoil from the heaver bullet because of the extra layers of clothing.
Keith

 

[gerry]

I would suggest that you work up two loads. One a dedicated PRACTICE LOAD centered on the 100gr BT. And a hunting load bases on a 125gr pt. Under actual hunting conditions, I highly doubt that she would feel the extra recoil from the heaver bullet because of the extra layers of clothing.
Keith

All excellent advice, any of Nosler's 6.5mm hunting bullets will be good I do like the idea of a dedicated practice load and something in the 120-130 gr range for hunting. Like the others have said the 100 gr PT is one tough little bullet and would be good to pair with the 100 gr Ballistic Tip for practice.

 

[NYDAN]

My crew and I have shot 20 or more whitetail deer with a Rem. XP100R pistol chambered in the .260 Rem with a 120 gr. BT. Almost all bullets were pass throughs. I found one or two under the skin on the far side if it was a quartering forward shot with the bullet hitting the near shoulder. Recoil in the pistol was very manageable. I never measured the velocity with the 14 inch barrel but we can assume it was substantially less than you would experience in a rifle. In the sample base of 20 WT deer there were no issues with the performance of the 120 gr. BT. Only one deer that was spine shot on the first shot required a second shot. If I went back to hunting with the .260 Rem. I would use the 120 gr. BT again without a second thought.

 

[Polaris]

I would use either a 140 BT or a 140 Speer Hot cor. Load it down a couple hundred fps below max. This will be more than sufficient for WT deer and a peach to shoot.

PRVI makes a 139 gr FMJ that would make a very economical practice bullet. You certainly could go lighter, if you are going to be shooting at long ranges you may want to in order to avoid the recoil of hopping the 140 gr bullets up to max velocity, but my pick would still be the 140 gr.

The SD guarantees penetration and they will be more likely penetrate and get a kill with a poor hit.

 

[Blkram]

The 120 BT would be a good choice, if you can find a load that the rifle likes (which shouldn't be too hard...but you never can tell until you try). The 125 PT would also be a winner, and can sometimes surprise with better than expected accuracy. (Other choices could include Barnes, Sierra or Hornady offerings)
If whitetails are the only expected big game that she may hunt with this rifle, the BT will more than likely give you all the big game performance you will ever ask for. But if larger or tougher game may be on the wishlist, than I would also recommend the 120 ET or 130 AB. Or go on up to the 140 AB or PT.
My preference is on the AccuBonds at this time and will be attempting to find a good hunting load for my 260 with these first. I have had good success with the 140 PT and X Bullets in my 6.5 x 55 in the past on whitetail, moose and sheep. But over the years since the AB has been introduced, it has become my favourite hunting bullet. Accuracy, penetration and weight retention (when a bullet can be found under the hide on the off side of the harvested animal) that is consistent with all the rifles that I have used it in to date.

Oh, and I forgot the most important point....
Finding the most accurate load in her rifle that she is comfortable shooting!
Hoping that you both have fun!

 

[280SOLIDBASE]

Thank you all very much for taking the time to respond to my question. My daughter will be 11 this September. I did forget that I had her out once this past summer and she shot my .280 Rem. with some 100 gr. light loads that I had loaded previously for my middle son. She liked those and then wanted to shoot it again with my regular hunting loads (140 gr. Nosler Solid Bases w/ 55 gr. IMR 4350 behind them). She did well and did not mind the recoil. I think I am leaning towards the 120 gr. BT's. I will perhaps load some of them up light for her and then build them up as she gets used to shooting it. Once again, thanks for all of the well thought out replies!

 

[rjm158]

Several years ago I bought my wife a Remington Model 7 Youth in 260 so I could get my 260 back to use. For both rifles I loaded a middle of the road (or slightly warmer) load using a 120 BT and Varget, It shot dime sized groups out of her rifle at 100 yds and killed deer with no issues.

She has had two shoulder surgeries so she couldn't tolerate anything that had significant recoil and she shoots the 260 without complaint. The deer didn't object either, for that matter.

I killed a decent buck at 230 yds with one shot out of my Tikka 6.6x55 using 100 BT's with no problems, but for an all around load for deer it would be the 120 BT followed closely by the 130 AB.

Ron

 

[Oldtrader3]

For my grandson's 6.5x55, I chose the 125 gr Partition or 129 AccuBond. You can get fast loads which kill deer extremely well and do not have too much recoil. A friend of mine also uses the 100 grain Partition in his daughter's deer rifle and claims it kills deer fine.

 

[1Shot]

Use the 120 BT with one of the 4350s and you will find a tack driving load and it will kill any deer that ever walked if it is placed in the vitals. I have killed a bunch of deer with the 120 BT out of my 6.5X55 at a muzzle velocity of 3000 fps. Even at close range of 50 yards it will exit going through both shoulders of the average deer. People forget or don't understand about the sectional density of the .264 bullets. Those things are loooooooog and they just keep expanding and keep on trucking through things. Out of all the .264 bullets I have used for deer I have really not found a bad one. I have used 120 BT and Sierra SP, 130AB and 140 Sierra and Hornady SP. Can't ever remember of a deer going over 30 yards after taking one and most are bang flop. Back when the 260 Rem first came out my hunting buddy got a Rem 700 with a 24" barrel. You could not even find ammo for it at that time. We made our cases, after some experimenting, out of NEW Rem. 243 Win just run through a FL size die for the 260 Rem. Case came out perfect. We decided on H4350 and used 120 and 140 gr Sierra SP bullets. We treated it like a wild cat because there was no load data out at that time. This rifle had a bit on the large side chamber and the loads we came up with were with a bit more powder than is suggested these days in most load data. But they were safe and showed no signs of pressure in this rifle and it was a tack driver. We were doing control hunting on a big farm in NC where we had to take 100 deer a year. Between us we killed 50 deer using the 260 Rem. that year shooting them from right on top of us to around 400 yards using both bullets. All but one were bang flop. That one only took three jumps and was shot right at 200 yards and was a doe that was being chased by a buck during the rut. It was shot with the 140 Sierra and was a quartering away shot entering between the last two ribs and exited through the front shoulder. My buddy does not keep any rifle for long, trading-est fellow I have ever seen. Really likes to get a new rifle and work up loads. Another friend of his gave he about two times what that rifle cost because he wanted it for his grandson. All these years later this grandson is still using that rifle and still killing a trainload of deer with it every year.

 

[Divernhunter]

I use the 100 and 125gr Partition in my 6.5X55 with loads equal to the 260Rem and they work just fine.
For tougher game I use the 120gr Swift A-Frame but the 125 Partition also works there.

 

[Wincheringen]

The 100 or 120 BT is what I use in my 6.5x55, and they both go right through deer and do plenty of damage on the way through.