best load for 260 rem.

[rakatak]

hey guys, i am building a long range rifle from stevens 200 action. barrel is going to be a 26 inch, 1 in 8 twist, varmint contour. would a heavier bullet like the 140 or 142 be better at long range say 500 to 1000 yards or a lighter one. I've got a ruger m77 compact that i shoot 120 nosler in that I hunt with but i've never done any long range shooting with it. Any of you guys have any experience with this caliber? Thanks.

[helotaxi]

Heavier bullet has a higher BC. At long range, BC and velocity are your two best friends.

[davemuzz]

My hunting buddy has the 260 Rem and shoots the Nosler Custom Comp seconds out of it all day long over Ramshot Hunter. We kill groundhogs out to 800 yards and his 260 is just as accurate, if not more so than my 6.5 Swede. The 260 is the ballistic twin to the 6.5 Swede. For long range, go with the 140gr. bullets and push 'em as fast as your rifle will let you.

Dave

[rakatak]

how would the 140 amax bullets fly with imr 4350 powder. anybody tried this load combination. Thanks. What is the fastest you can push a 140 gr bullet?

[davemuzz]

Can't answer the 4350 question, but you should get the 140gr. over 2700fps and your good to go.

[BoilerUP]

260 powders, in order of popularity according to interwebs:

H4350
RL17
H4831SC
Varget

[rakatak]

Hey BoilerUp, thanks for the reply, I see you have a 260. What powder and load combination does that savage of yours like. Also how do you like that criterion barrel. Looking at one of those or a shilen for my build? Thanks.

[BoilerUP]

I like the Criterion barrel quite a bit; both my 260 and 223AI are great shooters. My CBI 260 barrel is a 26" 1:8 varmint contour, and I'm either going to have it cut back to 20" or sell it and order a 22" light varmint as that rifle is becoming a dual-purpose range/hunting rig and I need less length and weight more than I need velocity.

The current load I'm shooting is this:

140gr AMax
43.1gr H4350
Lapua brass
CCI-200
2810fps

The same barrel likes 130gr Berger VLDs with 43.5gr RL17 (3000fps+) and 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip/123gr Amax with 39.3gr Varget (mild load at 2930fps for both bullets). I had a little trouble getting 130gr Norma Golden Targets to shoot; they were good right at 2900fps, but accuracy suffered beyond +/- 20fps of that.

I've settled on the 140gr Amax because they are affordable, have good BC and shoot well...though I may try a box of Hornady 140gr HPBT as they are a bit cheaper and reportedly shoot very similar to the A-Max (bit lower BC).

[rakatak]

Don't know much about lapua brass as I really haven't done much reloading. My father in law does all mine but i'm getting into it more. Do you use the same process with the lapua brass as you would say the remington brass? What kind of range are you shooting that load at and what kind of results are you getting. sorry for picking your brain so much. i appreciate it.

[BoilerUP]

Most of my 260 shooting has been 100yd load workup. Once I finally settled on the 140 A-Max, I've shot one 300yd group (4 shots into 1.36", with 3 of those 0.45") and hit an 8" steel plate at 650yd which is the longest I have available to shoot on family land.

Lapua brass is about 2x the price of Remington brass, but its more consistent and people often see longer brass life with Lapua compared to RP (Remington) brass as primer pockets on RP brass will open up faster when loading hot. Remington's case capacity is a bit more than Lapua, so often loads in RP brass will have a couple tenths of a grain more powder than a given load in Lapua brass.

[derrelw]

I was tried H 4350 and IMR 4350 with 120gr SMK's, Lapua brass and Federal match primers but wasn't getting the groups that I thought I could so I switched to Varget (at 2817fps) and shot 5 3shot 3/8" groups the other day! I think I finally found the sweet spot for this rifle.

[BoilerUP]

Varget shoots very well in the 260...but velocity is often 150fps +/- slower than with H4350.

[stomp442]

Yep varget shoots best in mine but is slower than all the other loads I tried. Mine liked 38 grains of varget with a 120 Amax.

[JCalhoun]

The Nosler .260 brass is good stuff.

[seanhagerty]

I have played with 120 SMK's, 142 SMK's, Varget, and H4350. Things I have found out in my gun:

Different primers dont cause me any different accuracy that I have noticed.

120's and 142's both will shoot out of my shaw barrel (8" twist)

120's liked varget at around 42gr

142's liked varget at around 38gr

Varget was indeed slower than H4350, but accuracy was great with the developed load.

Thats all I got.

[stinkitup]

I have looked at the 120gr range and the 140 range for my 6.5x55 AI and at 1000yd the 120's need less elevation which is nice but the 140's are affected about half as much by the wind.