You're opening a different can of worms with 7mm rounds.

- 7mm Rem Mag
- 7mm WSM
- 7mm SAUM
- 7mm STW
- 7mm Practical (.300wm necked down to 7mm)
- 7mm Sherman
- 7mm Dakota
- 7mm-300 Wby

I mean you have SO many options if that's the route you so choose. Most of them are going to be barrel burners, some more so than others. If you're looking for those kinds of velocities out of 170+ weight projectiles, something, somewhere is going to have to give... And that usually ends up being the barrel.

That being said, the performance, especially for long range hunting, with any of those 7mms is going to be hard to beat. The .260ai should fit in your standard LA's but it won't hold a match to some of those 7's for what you're wanting to do... Look up 'LongRange's build thread as I believe that he has done some testing with the .260ai, that should answer some of the questions that you have about the bigger badder 6.5s.