Savage in .260 Remington?

[justinp61]

Anyone have one? Model? Accurate? I'm looking for a new deer rifle, something with lighter recoil. Since having shoulder surgery my old 30-06 is not much fun to shoot.

Thanks, Justin

[JCalhoun]

If your .30-06 is a Savage you could convert it to a .260Rem.

[justinp61]

Model 70. I do have a bull barrel Savage 22-250 but don't really want to mess with it, shoots tiny groups.

[foxx]

I have a 260 and 2 260 AI's. My wife shoots one of them. One was a originally a 30-06. Both shoot better than 1/2 inch at 100yds and are little more recoil than .243, very mild. A good choice for deer at any normal range and for anyone, bad shoulder or not. All of them are builds so they aren't any particular model.

[jpdown]

I have one in a Savage 11 LWH model. I have worked up loads with the a factory .260, 20" light weight black matte barrel and recently switched to a .260, 22" factory sporter black matte barrel. Both barrels consistently shoot 0.5" to 1.0" - 3 shot groups with hand loaded Nosler 120 gr Ballistic Tips and 130 gr Accubond's. I tried several recommended powders (H4831, RL17 and H4350) for the .260 with these bullets. H4350 was the most consistent and accurate. I would recommended going with a heavier Savage model in .260 if you plan on trying to tame recoil and muzzle jump.

[justinp61]

This the rifle I'm looking at http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/16TROPHYHUNTERXP. At 7.25 pounds I wouldn't think the recoil would be bad.

[243LPR]

Any short action caliber would work,don't forget about the 243 also. Even less recoil in 100 gr bullets,deer killin machine.

[JCalhoun]

Justin,

That's a fine choice and you will love the .260.

[jpdown]

Good choice.

[justinp61]

I ordered the rifle today, it should be at my FLL next week. This week end I'll try to pick up a couple boxes of ammo to be ready to shoot it when I go on long break. Most likely I'll replace the scope, just have to wait and see if I like it or not.

Thanks for the input guys.

[JCalhoun]

You're welcome.

Let us know how it shoots.

[Bo0YaA]

I have a 11 and love it, one of the sweetest shooting guns I have hands down.

[klr]

I have a 11 rebarreled to 358 Winchester. Even with 200gr bullets going 2500 fps that plastic stock and recoil pad soak up the recoil. It's one of my favorite rifles.

[justinp61]

My model 16 will be here Tuesday, It'll be Friday before I can pick it up though. I picked up two boxes of Federal Premium with Nosler 120 grain Ballistic Tips.

[scabtrapper]

Good choice. Have a 260 in the 16 weather warrior. It shoots sierra prohunter 120 gr superbly.

[jpdown]

I was at the range last weekend checking out my Savage 11 LWH in .260 for deer season. Last winter I change the LW 20" barrel to a 22" factory sporter barrel. It likes 120 gr ballistic tips. It took me a while to find the right load combination with 130 gr Accubonds. But now it consistently shoots 0.6" - 3 shot groups @ 100 yd. It's scoped with a compact Leupold VX-3 2.5-8x36 B&C sighted in at a 200 yd. zero. Bullet drop matches the B&C reticle dead on. And at only 7.5 lbs., it is the perfect Savage rifle for the wooded hills and small bottom fields of KY. It has bang-flopped several deer, coyotes and hogs so far and it is a pleasure to carry, handle and shoot.

[justinp61]

I picked my rifle yesterday afternoon and think it'll make a fine deer gun if it shoots. The action is not as smooth as my model 12, honestly I didn't expect it to be. The plastic stock surprised me though, I expected it to be really flimsy like the one that came on my 22-250. This one is not rock solid but definitely workable. The scope is not going to cut it though. I don't like the little circles, they clutter up the reticle and are distracting. I ordered a new VX-3, 4.5-14 with a duplex reticle. I looked at the B & C but without actually looking through one I was afraid to order it. I'm looking forward to putting some rounds through it.

[markt97213]

justinp61,
so hows it shoot????

Mark

[justinp61]

The only rounds I've got to put through it were sighting it in, a late arriving scope kept me from shooting it. With Federal Premium 120 gr Nosler ballistic tip it will shoot 1" at 100 yards. I'll probably load for it when I can find some brass and expect it to shoot better when I find some good loads. Savage recommends the 120 gr bullet, with the 1-8 twist I'd think it would shoot a 140gr well, time will tell.

This a sweet little rifle and is a pleasure to carry, very mild recoil and as others have mentioned with deer it's a bang flop deal. I took a nice 9 pointer with it. My only complaint is the magazine, sometimes it won't pick up the round out of it. When I shot my deer I cycled the action and watched to make sure he was down. After a couple minutes to make sure he was down I opened the bolt to clear the rifle and it was empty, it didn't pick up the round out of the magazine.

I wish I'd bought a scope with an adjustable objective, the Leupold I bought has the parallax fixed at 150 yards, at closer (50-80 yards) it's not clear. I also learned that when you adjust the trigger on a hunting rifle that you may use while wearing gloves, wear gloves when you adjust it. When I shot my deer I was kinda surprised when it went off, I had gloves on and was just starting to feel the trigger and bang. That's something I'll fix.

I would recommend this rifle and caliber to anyone, it's light, has very little recoil so youngsters or ladies can shoot it and it's plenty accurate for anything most want to do. I'm looking to forward to stretching it out and see what it does. IIRC mine was $581 to my FLL, I got a total $100 rebate from Savage and Federal, sold the scope that came with it for $120 and got a free Carhartt jacket from Leupold when I purchased my new scope. A sweet deal on a sweet little rifle.

[markt97213]

Justin,
thanks for the feed back. I a couple of years back I did my own build for the first time. I basically made a tactical LR rifle, F-class type (except for caliber). I bought a savage mode 11 in .308 for under $300.00. I then bought a custom barrel from Jim Briggs at NSS. A 28" heavy barrel in .260, varmint type stock from SSS in Laminate. shoots bug holes, and it hardly moves do to extra weight from barrel & stock.

Now going to do what you've done, short LW in .260

Mark