nosler 260 remington brass review

[LongRange]

Thats moving...theres a guy at our matches that shoots a 243AI and the 115s and says they are running a little over 3100...all I know for sure is that you can tell its high pressure when he sends one down range lol.

[LongRange]

So yesterday the wind was howling all day but today was what I call a perfect day for load development...cool no wind and over cast... so I got out and shot 50 rounds with the 50pcs of brass I plan to abuse to see how how many loads I can get out of it....I ran the 4831 up to 47g but up from 46g every thing opened up so ill stick to 46g and play with seating depth as it shot well as you can see...I either pulled the last shot or the seating depth was off as I had a few of these loads seat a little deeper than I wanted but didnt feel like pulling and reseating but I should have makered them. All the 4831 loads were compressed and with compressed loads I normally neck size .001 less than loaded neck size and clean the insides of the necks with a brass brush.
The 4350 i ran up to 44g and will go up a little more as i had zero pressure signs and they started to tighten up again at 44g.
For everyone reading this PLEASE WORK UP YOUR OWN LOADS AND DO NOT START AT THESE NUMBERS AS THEY ARE COMPRESSED AND COULD CAUSE A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE IN YOUR RIFFLE!!!


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[LongRange]

Also as I said in this thread I have a few things im working on to improve my shooting. One is trigger pull...I dont jerk the trigger but am working on my follow through and have pretty much got that down. The other thing is my position which im about done trying to change as it just dont work for me but ive been told by several good shooters that I need to be directly behind and inline with my riffle but just can not shoot like that as it is not comfortable for me. I have always shot prone at about 80* to the left of my riffle...in other words my body is off to the left a little. Anyways as I started shooting the first group of the 4350 I thought about it and got in line with the riffle and you can see above the out come of that...the first 3 shots were in my normal position the last two were shot in line with the riffle and the rest of the 4350 was shot inline and all groups were bad so needless to say im done with the inline thing, ill stick to my odd position behind my riffle. 43g to 44g imr4350 showed promise ill shoot it again and up to see where it goes.

As far as the brass goes it seems to be holding up well but its still early but ill keep this updated as I shoot.

One other thing, ive never shot a bench rest primer but ive had my best results with CCIs and seen a box of the BR2s at sportsman when i bought the brass so i grabbed them just to see what all the fuss was about with BR primers. Im still not sure as ive only shot 50 of them and have not cronyd any but they seem like great primers so far, the crony will tell if they are more consistant or not.

[DanSavage]

LongRange, could you explain how you have used the welding glove? I'm just curious LOL.

[LongRange]

Most of my shooting is done prone and in our long range varmint matches your not allowed rear support other than your hand or a glove...my bare hand isnt quite enough so ive found a padded welding glove is perfect. The only time I use any artificial rear support is during load development and once confirmed the load is good its back to the glove...and my rear support during LD is a sock full of rice. I dont shoot bench rest so I dont allow myself to get use to shooting off bags 99% of its done off a harris bipod and the glove.

[LongRange]

Well i got out and shot the 100pcs of brass i plan to use as my match brass for next year. Ive got some kinda intestinal infection so its hard to lay on my stomach but i did find a couple of loads that are workable with the 140g hornadys. Ive shot these loads before and nothing,the only difference is the BR2 primers which im pretty much sold on as they seem very consistent and next weekend ill take the crony out and get FPS and dopes on the better loads. In the last pic is this brass,loaded neck is .288 and fired neck is .297 and at .009 difference im worried about the necks spliting long before the primer pockets open up. Ill anneal them every 2 firings and keep an eye on them...also in the pic you can see how far up the shoulder the powder burn is,ive never had burn on to the shoulder its like these cases were made for a tight neck barrel.
Also i know these are not great groups but my gut is pretty sore and laying on my stomach hurts like hell so i was in a weirder position than normal lol...these are good loads and will produce 1 hole groups if not a tweak or 2 and they will.


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[LongRange]

This was the last group i shot i was pretty much done and was ready to go home so i fast fired these with no rear support...not bad for a blind fat man with a stomach ache lol.

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[LoneWolf]

Not to bad. I'll have to shoot some 200 yard groups with my 6.5-06 and see what comes of it. Nosler brass still loaded like it was brand new untouched after it's first firing for me. Get on to the second round this weekend.

[LongRange]

Not to bad. I'll have to shoot some 200 yard groups with my 6.5-06 and see what comes of it. Nosler brass still loaded like it was brand new untouched after it's first firing for me. Get on to the second round this weekend.


Feel free to post up here with your pics and thoughts on the brass.
A couple of things with the brass i plan to use for matches is the necks are .011+ shorter than the brass i used to shoot the groups from last weekend and i only neck sized to .001 under loaded neck and think i had some runout so ill neck size .002 next time i shoot the match brass and see how it goes. Im trying not to over work the necks and another concern is donuts forming with the necks beening so thin and having to size them .009 to .010 to load.

[LongRange]

Well so far im pretty impressed with the nosler brass...today i took 25 of the 50 pieces that im testing to see how much they can take and loaded them up hot and the primer pockets are still as tight as the first time i primed them so im sure they will hold up unless i loaded them stupid hot every time i shot them. Nosler must of had a bad batch of 260 brass at some point that got straightened out...i think ill be sticking with it from here on out...i love lapua but i get WAY more case capacity with the nosler.

[LongRange]

Well i shot the 50 test pieces again today and really loaded em up with RL-17 and IMR4350 as i cant get enough H4831sc in the cases to even cause a sticky bolt...i wont post how high i went as i ran both powders way above book maxes. Whats interesting to me is how high above the listed max charges i had to go to even get a hard bolt lift...anyway im convinced that the nosler brass is good to go and will hold up as long charges are kept in the sane range lol.


The pics below lead me to believe this barrel on my 260 is about at the end of its life...these are both confirmed bug hole loads...the first three rounds of the 4350 load are on the right side the last two on the left...the RL-17 you can see the first three grouped then the last two when south...ive shot about 250 rounds since last cleaning but normally accuracy dont drop off until right at 400 so ill clean to steel and shoot next weekend and see how it does.
Next barrel will be a 28" CBI match and im going to have this barrel set back and free bore added as this is one of the most accurate barrels ive owned.
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[LongRange]

Also forgot to add i think the nosler brass should be annealed before firing. Reason for this is because i had powder burn onto the shoulders the first 2 firings and after setting the shoulders back and annealing i had no blow by even at high pressures.

[Steelhead]

How many shot through the barrel?

[LongRange]

I think about 2200 rounds...ive got 2025 in my book and i know ive taken it out here and there and not recorded rounds...its getting close and the cleaning will tell for sure.

[LongRange]

a little update on the 50 abused pieces...5 of the 50 have loose primer pockets after last weekends stupid hot loads and will most likely only last a few more firings before they are done but i guess thats to be expected. i did shoot one of the 5 pieces today pushing a 142g SMK at 2985FPS and had no issues with it...the other 45 are holding up pretty good...pockets are not as tight as the first time but are still tight.
i shot 20pcs of this brass today to check data against Quick Loads data and its off by quite a bit...QL said 2853FPS for the 46.5g RL-22 load and 2802FPS for the 45.8g load of IMR7828 so ive got a little adjusting to do on QL.

the low left shot is from a different group not the 5 46.5g RL-22 group.
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i cleaned my barrel down to metal and it had a lot more copper in it than i thought as you can see its far from burnt out like i was thinking it was...below are my match loads...40.5g IMR4350 CCI200 142gSMK seated .009 off lands in 15x fired lapua brass...they are a little slow at 2735FPS average but very accurate and usually a 9FPS ES...today they had a 23FPS ES not counting the first 2 fired out of a clean bore...also i had a 20mph wind blowing directly at me when shooting today...the only reason i went out was to check crony data against Quick Load data.

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff515/LTT-/Mobile%20Uploads/photo-13.jpg (http://s1239.photobucket.com/user/LTT-/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo-13.jpg.html)


good thing it was over cast i had to leave the sun shades off my crony and put rocks in it to hold it in place it was so windy...
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[mnhntr]

I have been using Win 7mm-08 brass and even running them hot 44.5gr of H4350 they have held up well. I am very interested in your findings because the last batch of Win brass was complete junk. Some of it was too unsafe to use.

[LongRange]

I have been using Win 7mm-08 brass and even running them hot 44.5gr of H4350 they have held up well. I am very interested in your findings because the last batch of Win brass was complete junk. Some of it was too unsafe to use.

I was shooting once fired brass i was buying from brass reloaders in the height of the shortage in my 300wm because i couldnt find any other brass and was only get a couple of loads on it before primers would just fall out of the pockets.i bought some win and some rem factory loads and pulled them apart and even being new only lasted 2-4 loads and the loads were below book maxes.i finally found somd 300wm nosler brass and got 15 reloads out of 50pcs before i scraped them.

This 260 nosler brass is holding up well considering the loads ive been running through it...ive got a 100pcs im going to use as match brass next year so ill keep this up dated as i go...our varmint matches are on saturdays then the following saturdays are 600yd F-class then sundays are 1000yds F-class...i plan to shoot all of these matches next year so it will be a good test.

[LongRange]

so ive shot all 50 pieces of brass 6 times now and primer pockets are still good on 45pcs and 5 are loose as i said above but still hold the primers with no leakage. they are taking a bath right now in my new STM tumbler...i tumbled they for 3 hours and the insides still had carbon in them so i gave them another hour to see if they clean up any better inside...the timers beeping now so we will see...

[LongRange]

well this morning i discovered that ALL of my 260 brass have doughnuts...including the lapua brass ive got 15+ loads on. i have been thinking about neck turning for a long time now and am at the point of just deciding what tool im going to buy(K&M,PMA,or the 21st century)im leaning toward the 21st century because it will use the K&M inside reamer,but i like how the PMA tool adjusts better. anyway as i started neck sizing this morning i was thinking about neck turning and also about the groups ive been shooting lately then starting thinking about doughnuts so i took a piece of fired brass and dropped a bullet in and it stopped. i couldnt push the bullet into the case by hand so i pulled it out and looked in the case with a flash light and there it was right at the should/neck junction. ill be ordering a turning kit on monday just need to figure out which one to order...i also like the sinclair NT4000 but its ALWAYS outta stock.

for you guys turning necks what are you using? how do you like it? would you buy something else if money was no object?

[Steelhead]

I'm still happy with my 21st century.
The dial adjustment registers with my plate mic perfectly and the depth is easy to set.