Your best .260rem loads?

B

bluealtered

New member
Guys i have a savage/krieger rifle coming in .260rem, it's a 1/8 and 24" barrel. Just wondering what your best loads are for your .260, thanks blue.
 
Just picked up an older Ruger 77 MKII stainless/synthetic, ya know, one with the boat paddle stock.

Picked it up for an all around back up rifle from coyotes to elk, and a rifle I can abuse and take out in any weather and not really care to much. Its also going to be used for any upcoming new girlfriend or younger/beginner hunter.

I wanted to use the 129g SST at 2800-2850fps. With a .485 BC it will carry a good ways and it should still perform great, even on elk at 260 speeds. I"ve tried 4 powders so far and the best accuracy wise was RL22 which gave a .5" group at 100 yards, but was only going a slow 2600fps. Not exactly what Im looking for there. The next most accurate loads were with IMR-4350 and H4350 which turned in .7" and .8" groups. IMR4350 was scooting along right at 2800fps, while the H4350 was going 2700fps. I decided to work around the IMR4350 load as its giving the highest velocity and still under MOA accuracy. Other powder I tried was IMR7828 and it sucked all the way around for groups, best was like 1.5" and it was slow like RL22 only around 2600fps.

I'm using Rem cases, Fed 210's, OAL of 2.8", 22" bbl, Leupold vari x III, 2.5-8x36.

Out of all the loads tested which has been a few with the above 4 powders, I noticed the old 2 in 1 problem. It would give me 2 shots that were either touching or very close to touching, then the 3rd shot would be out of the group quite a bit. I figured the seating depth was the culprit as it was definately trying to shoot well. So I went home and messed with the seating depth and found that at 2.8" (book max OAL) I was about .070" off the lands, no wonder I was gettign 2 in 1 all the time. So I loaded up the new batch of IMR4350 at 2.870" which is right at the lands in the Ruger, and it just barely fits in the magazine. Haven't had a chance to shoot these yet, but when the wind dies down I will have some more data. Cant believe I didn't pick up on that the first time. I think I was just excited to get out and shoot it, so I loaded them at book length because it was a short action, I figured I wouldn't be able to reach the lands and use as a repeater, but I lucked out.

I would also like to try the 123g AMAX or 130g VLD or 140g AMAX as well from this rifle and take it to 1K and see how it fares.
 
I was looking at the book oal, and yea it looks like quite a jump. This ones a long action so i will have to play around a bit and see where i end up. i'm going to start with 142gr smks and H4350 and start with a 2.8" oal since thats what i have at the moment. Thanks ,blue
 
A lot of the LR guys are using H4350, so that was my first powder I tried since I like Hodgons "extreme" series powders for there consistency in temps.

Its not bad, litle slower then advertised in my rifle though, for where the accuracy is anyways. I'd like to see it in the 2800-2850 range, but it shoots better at 2700. I'm not real fond of IMR4350 because it has been temp sensitive for me, but it is 100fps faster then the H4350 in my rifle. I'll run both of them for a bit and see which is more consistent. I have more H4350 on hand then I do IMR4350 though so I"ll probly use that up for now, then decide what to use later.

Another great powder in the 260 I hear and read about for middleweights is RL19. I actually have loads worked up with it as well, haven't gotten a chance to try them out yet either. It'll be the 5th powder tried in the rifle/bullet platform. However, RL powders are another I'm not to fond of because of there temp sensitivity issues and big lot to lot variations in my experience burning a lot of RL22.

I'll post results with my new findings on the longer OAL's with IMR4350, H4350, and RL19 w/the 129g SST's here in a couple days hopefully.
 
Below are the loads I have settled on for my 260's. All shoot very well with them.

PaPa 260


90 gr. Speer TNT
Remington Brass
Federal 210 M Primer
Between 44.4 and 45 gr. of IMR 4064
Load to an OAL of 2.690” to 2.710”

120 gr. Sierra flat base Pro Hunter
Remington Brass
Federal 210M Primer
Between 41.0 and 41.4 gr. of IMR 4064
Load to an OAL of 2.765” to 2.770”


120 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip
Remington Brass
CCI BR-2 Primer
Between 45.6 and 46.0 gr. of H4350
Load to an OAL of 2.765 to 2.270”.


140 gr. Sierra Game King
Remington Brass
CCI BR-2 Primer
Between 41.8 and 42.4 gr. of H4350
Load to an OAL of 2.765 to 2.770”


142 gr. Sierra Match King
Remington Brass
CCI BR-2 Primer
Between 41.8 and 42.4 gr. of H4350
Load to an OAL of 2.870 to 2.885”
Velocity should run between 2730 and 2750 depending on your barrel.

142 gr. Sierra Match King
Remington Brass
CCI BR-2 Primer
Between 44.0 and 44.5gr. of H4831 SC
Load to an OAL of 2.870 to 2.885”
 
Thanks guys, i just got the load info from the guy who had the rifle built. He shows a col of 2.868 as his best with 38grs of imr4064.

I finally got to try it out and took 10 of 2.800 and 10 of 2.780 with 43.5grs of H4350 for my starting loads, it liked the 2.780 best at 100yds. I was down to my last three bullets by the time i got it straightened out and got a .508x.333 group with them.

I ended up using a old bushnell for glass since they had modified the base for his scope and mine wouldn't fit, i'll get back out after i get my scope on it and try the 2.868 and see what happens. Maybe then it will be time to step back a bit on the powder. blue
 
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