nosler 260 remington brass review

[LongRange]

Yes, the 21st century has a set and adjustment screw.

A drill is the only way to go as far as I'm concerned.

What brass was that?
I'm surprised they're not cleaned up more at .013.

Looks like 21 century profiles the cutter differently.
Mine cuts a wider swath on the shoulder.

nosler brass...and yes the K&M has a much sharper angle and cuts like a z..so to speak..in the shoulder instead of a smooth cut which is what i wanted. ive talked to a few guys that turn and they have all said the same thing "to get a cutter that cuts a step in the shoulder" not a smooth transition or doughnuts will return after a few firings. i shot all 50pcs today and bullets drop right into the cases...so far so good.
IMHO John(21st century)and Roger(K&M)should get together as with combing both tools they would have the PERFECT neck turning tool!!

[LongRange]

well 4pcs of the abused brass will be retired after today.the primer pockets are loose and have no resistance at all when seating the primers but will still hold a primer in place even if tapped on the bench. now before anyone says nosler is junk keep in mind that ive kept track of this brass and have purposely abused it and have 5 of the 50pcs that have been reloaded now 6xs...and way beyond what most would even think of loading...i wont post the load but will tell you that ive shot 142g SMKs out of a 260 remington to 3075+fps out of these 4pcs and the 5th in this group is still snug...for those that dont know thats getting into 6.5 284 speeds...as for the 5thpc im sure its done now as i shot all 5 of these with H-hybrid 100V at 2930 to 2955fps today...not a good group i know....ONCE AGAIN DO NOT START HERE THIS LOAD IS WELL ABOVE BOOK MAX!!!!!!

[LongRange]

like i said i shot all 50pcs of this brass after turning the necks today and can say that turning the necks did make me a better shooter...just kidding....but i can say that it did help with seating depth issues(BIG TIME)and with extreme FPS spreads. ive shot H4350 in the past with no accuracy so to speak of but have had great results with IMR4350 but while it was accurate it was a little slow at 2740FPS average and no matter what charge,primer,trim length,seating depth ECT it didnt help. with H4350 i was getting wild ES's in the 45FPS range so i quickly put that on the back burner. today i went back to the H4350 just to see what would happen as we all know its the"GO TO"powder.this group was shot today with the 50pcs of abused brass after neck turning....the 2854 shot was the one gulled neck i had while turning and not sure if i pulled that shot or not but it broke clean and follow through felt clean but it was 5FPS faster so you be the judge....

[BillPa]

Not to change the the subject, but scroll up and look what this pic turned into on post #46..


Me thinks either Tinypic is messed up or some'm been hacked!

Bill

[LongRange]

Not to change the the subject, but scroll up and look what this pic turned into on post #46..


Me thinks either Tinypic is messed up or some'm been hacked!

Bill

i did notice but thought it was only me that could see it as no one else said anything LOL.

[BillPa]

i did notice but thought it was only me that could see it as no one else said anything LOL.

I was busy installing a Linux OS on a laptop and while it was loading I took a quick look then saw that, a page from a '30s Chicom newspaper!. I went to the Tinypic site, my pic was there and the link was the same address so I deleted it then uploaded it again.

Strange.

[sixonetonoffun]

This thread has "article" potential written all over it. Great info and examples on why, when and how to get into neck turning.

[foxx]

This thread has "article" potential written all over it. Great info and examples on why, when and how to get into neck turning.

+1 Exactly.

[LongRange]

I was busy installing a Linux OS on a laptop and while it was loading I took a quick look then saw that, a page from a '30s Chicom newspaper!. I went to the Tinypic site, my pic was there and the link was the same address so I deleted it then uploaded it again.

Strange.

i thought you had connections in north Korea LMAO!!

This thread has "article" potential written all over it. Great info and examples on why, when and how to get into neck turning.

in hind site i should of posted pics in the front of the thread like UpSlideDown did in his build thread.

[LongRange]

well i went out and shot at 550yds and 930yds this morning...while loading this morning i found 11 more pieces of brass that are retired after being shot today...one was the 5th that have been loaded hot..the other 10 are the pieces that have been loaded hot but in .5 grain increments less than the hottest 5. yesterday 5 of the failed 10 from this morning were loaded with 43g of hybrid 100V which produced high pressures in my riffle...2930 to 2955FPS...and the other 5 were loaded with 43g of H4350 which also produced high pressures...2928 to 2940FPS...both of these loads were SLIGHTLY compressed in my riffle as i have short free bore.

we have talked about various things that effect point of impact in this thread and i think we all agree that weather and shooter are the two BIGGEST factors and ammo second. i loaded up 44 rounds this morning...would of been 45 but i didnt shoot the piece with the gulled neck...now i did change several things and shouldnt have and will list them in order of importance..IMO..if you guys think different then please post your opinions.

#1 bumped charge up to 41.6g from 41.5g yesterday...reason...want 2850FPS
#2 didnt bump necks back...several were VERY tight and SEVERAL were loose to snug
#3 used a lee collet die to neck size instead of bushing die used yesterday..reason..because i got it yesterday afternoon and like a kid at christmas couldnt wait to try it out...and now wondering why i havent used one before now..LOVE THIS DIE!!
#4 brass needed to be annealed...i could feel while seating some were tighter that others but see reason #2..is that part of it? i doubt it as every neck measured .290 after sizing.
#5 necks were not trimmed...shortest COAL was 2.025 longest was 2.027..does it make a difference? im not sure but i would say it does at ELR as it would release the bullet at a slightly higher pressure.
#6 brass was not tumbled...does it make a difference? im not sure but brass was shinny inside and out yesterday.
#7 this should be listed higher but you decide...loading Bipod/shoulder load...i can change my FPS by as much as 20FPS by using a loose shoulder push to a firm shoulder push...if you think it dont matter try it some time...let your butt pad rest loosely into your shoulder and fire a round through your crony...then push the butt pad firmly into your shoulder and fire a round through your crony and ill bet $20 bucks shot 2 is faster.

now the two BIGGEST factors from yesterday to today are...
#1 shooter drank SEVERAL millers last night..reason...well because i can LOL!!
#2 weather at start of fire...yesterday was sunny and warm..aprox 54deg and no wind..today was colder and over cast and slight changing breeze at start of shooting but cleared up and temp was the same as yesterday at last 5 rounds fired at 930yds.

like i said this rabbit hole is deep so just how far you want to go down is up to you. this is why most bench rest shooters full length resize,anneal,trim,tumble,weigh,measure ECT to take out ALL the variables possible...and at this point im thinking i might start full length resizing,annealing and tumbling every time just to take these 3 things out of the equation.

[LongRange]

this is through my scope...nightforce NXS 8-32x56 set at 25x at 930yds befoe any shots fired...the pic dont do it justice as the target is clear as day when looking through with your eye...



same target at 930yds after shots fired looking through my spotting scope...



550 yards 10 shot group through spotting scope...



im not sure where the 10th shot went LOL i think i pulled it off the target...



this was the first round fired cold bore at 550yds at 3" square center of target using JMB ballistics...



this was second round fired at 930yds and last 5 shot group....

[Steelhead]

Those are some serious speeds!
Watch out with H100V, it can get squirrelly real fast but it's a good powder in 260/6.5CM.

I wouldn't sweat 2 thou neck length difference, 5 will make a difference though.

I never clean my 260 brass, wipe it off and brush necks, clean neck and shoulder with steel wool when grungy.

All I use is a lee collet, knock the shoulders back at approximately 6th loading with a Redding body die.
so easy to use and no lube needed with the collet die.
Size, prime & charge and seat bullet.

Tested Berger 140 hybrids today with H4350, got to 44 grains, could go higher for sure.
44 was looking REAL good and am looking forward to trying them out past 1000!
Will get speeds next time, I'm just happy they worked at AICS mag length.
Pretty big jump and the VLD's didn't like jump in my barrel.

Thinking hybrids for 1000+ and hornady 140bthp's for the rest.

[LongRange]

Those are some serious speeds!
Watch out with H100V, it can get squirrelly real fast but it's a good powder in 260/6.5CM.

I wouldn't sweat 2 thou neck length difference, 5 will make a difference though.

I never clean my 260 brass, wipe it off and brush necks, clean neck and shoulder with steel wool when grungy.

All I use is a lee collet, knock the shoulders back at approximately 6th loading with a Redding body die.
so easy to use and no lube needed with the collet die.
Size, prime & charge and seat bullet.

Tested Berger 140 hybrids today with H4350, got to 44 grains, could go higher for sure.
44 was looking REAL good and am looking forward to trying them out past 1000!
Will get speeds next time, I'm just happy they worked at AICS mag length.
Pretty big jump and the VLD's didn't like jump in my barrel.

Thinking hybrids for 1000+ and hornady 140bthp's for the rest.

yeah i figured that out with the 100V. i really like the collet die as its very simple and very effective and im thinking it should help a lot by not working the brass as much as the bushings do and also like that the collet die crimps the necks to the seating stem which should make the inside of the neck very uniformed.

my barrel just dont like the hornady bullets...and yes please let me know how fast those bullets are going with 44g as im at 41.6g and my crony says right at 2840 2850 and 43g was about 2930.

[Steelhead]

My load with Hornady bthp's is 43.9 and chrony and drop show 2830ish.
Id be surprised if the hybrids had much more speed than that.

[LongRange]

thats interesting...and the only thing i can think of is that my loads are slightly compressed at 42g and thats causing the higher speeds.

[Steelhead]

thats interesting...and the only thing i can think of is that my loads are slightly compressed at 42g and thats causing the higher speeds.

You may have a fast barrel also but I'm sure the roomy Win brass is making a difference.
Even at 44 I'm not crunching powder at all.
My headspace is set to barely clear a go gage so that's not a factor.

[LongRange]

You may have a fast barrel also but I'm sure the roomy Win brass is making a difference.
Even at 44 I'm not crunching powder at all.
My headspace is set to barely clear a go gage so that's not a factor.

have you weighed the win brass with H2O? all my nosler brass is right at 54g over flow capacity. my buddy shoots rem brass and if i remember correctly his over flow is right at 56 or 57g.

[LongRange]

also another thing i noticed in the target pics above...the 2nd shot a 930yds IS NOT the shot at the bottom right corner of the yellow its the shot that is lower and to the left...the shot i circled was wishful thinking i guess LOL.

[LongRange]

Are you guys triming your brass before or after you expand?
I trimmed before last time and it all worked out well but i just sized and expanded 100 cases tonight and started thinking its probably better to trim after expanding...i measured several cases after neck sizing then again after expanding and they were the same but it still seams best to me to trim after. I also expanded the entire neck on these cases and it looks like the expander pushed the doughnuts to the outsides of the necks as the necks average .002 larger at the shoulder. Im just going to clean these necks up as they are already pretty thin at .288 loaded neck...these are the 100 pcs of nosler i plan to shoot in matches this year.

Also do any of you guys prep and turn necks on virgin brass or do you fire form first? My understanding is its best to fire form and then do all the prep work and thats how ive always done primer pockets.

[Steelhead]

I trim after sizing.
I also fire form the brass once with cheaper bullets first before neck turning.

[LongRange]

thanks Steel,i figure its best to fire form first to straighten out the case and then do all prep work. ive uniformed primer pockets on virgin brass before and then checked again after fire forming and ended up milling another 0.005 or so out on most of the cases.

so i turned about 60 cases last night and they came out a lot better than the first cases i turned...not that the first cases were bad they were just a little rough. i also came up with a much easier way to set the cut into the shoulder with the K&M tool...instead of setting the cutter and pilot and turning a case hoping the cut into the shoulder was good i backed the cutter off until it was just barely touching the neck at the shoulder/neck junction and locked the set screw on the pilot.i then backed the case off the pilot and adjusted the cutter in until it was just barely touching the neck at the neck/mouth junction and then turned a case and the cut in the shoulder(IMO)was perfect.
i also fed the case VERY slow into the cutter and put a little imperial wax on the pilot with every case instead of every other case so everything went very smooth.
the cutter blade is easy to adjust on the K&M tool and is very precise but the pilot is kind of a PITA but after adjusting the pilot like i did last night its a lot easier.
i set the cutter to just clean these necks up at .005 and you can see that with only taking that off the neck it turned about 90% of most of the necks...also you can see at the neck/shoulder junction a real shinny gold ring that was where the doughnut was as the expander pushed it out which was also a lot easier to expand the entire neck and trim the doughnut from the outside than it was to stop the expander short of the doughnut and ream it out.

[LongRange]

my buddy came out this morning with his 260 that he just got put back together after about 6 months waiting for his scope to be replaced. he also had a issue with his criterion barrel that criterion step right up and took care of by sending him a NEW barrel and also...FREE OF CHARGE...installed his muzzle break...it is indexed PERFECT and they smoothed out all the rough edges around the muzzle end of the break and around the ports...i should have gotten a pic to post as criterion did a fantastic job on the break. also hats off and MADD props to criterion for stepping up and handling the barrel issue so fast and also for going the extra mile to install the break free and cover ALL shipping costs...my buddy paid $0 dollars...their CS far exceeds ANY in the shooting industry that i know of!!

it took 3 rounds to get on paper and heres a couple of groups he shot using ammo he loaded almost a year ago...42g H4350 under a 140g hornady and heres the best part...mixed primers...it was ammo he had left over from load development when he swapped barrels and was mainly using it to coat the barrel with HBN.

first 5 shot group...


this was a 6 shot group....im thinking his riffle is a hammer LOL....

[LongRange]

thats enough about my buddy...and i told him when im sitting at my bench tonight loading my fully preped,neck turned nosler brass with bench rest primers for tomorrow all ill be thinking about is the groups he shot out of a new riffle with sh!t ammo he found in the bottom of his tool box and mixed primers grouping at 205yds LOL!!!

so ive been TRYING to get the 140g match hornadys to shoot out of my riffle for quite some time...ive tried every powder,primer,neck tension,seating depth,ECT ECT i have and these bullets just WOULD NOT shoot in my riffle. i had 2 boxes left and at the last minute this morning decided to give them ONE LAST TRY...i even told my buddy that if they didnt shoot a 1 hole group today id give him the 160 bullets i had left...well after my second group he went home empty handed....im not sure what the velocity was as i didnt expect this so i didnt bring my chrony but i will go out tomorrow to chrony and confirm this load. needless to say im like a kid at christmas because i shoot a LOT and it gets spendy shooting the higher priced bullets...142g SMKs are $172 for 500 and 139g lapuas are $316 per 1000 not counting shipping...140g match hornadys are $232 per 1000...also with the SMKs the bearing surface varies quite a bit...in the 500 box i have now its from .580 to .595 which changes seating depth by 2.276 to 2.286 in my riffle...the 300 or so hornadys ive shot and the 900 lapuas are ALL VERY consistent and oddly enough have the same bearing surface of .634 to .635.

5 shot group...low right was ALL ME not expecting a center punch last 4 shot thinking have i found a good load for these??

[jerry shaw]

That is sure a nice group.

Most of my .260 shooting has been done with Lapua 139's over VV N-150. I found them at Powder Valley and have been very satisfied. The gun likes those really well. Having said that, it has a Shilen stainless bull barrel. We used the Lapuas at the Midrange Prone match at Camp Perry last year where we shot from 300 to 600 yards on the F Class targets. Every dropped point was caused by the shooter.

I had trouble finding 140 AMAX bullets last year, so I didn't do a lot of experimentation with them. The little that I did do with these bullets was very satisfactory. 120 AMAX worked well too.

[Steelhead]

Nice shootin!
I'm still impressed with the Hornady 140 bthp's and their advertised BC is very close, I use .285 and the gets me to subsonic range, have to see what the air does after that.
In my barrel they shoot better than the Amax's.

With nosler 260 brass my H100V load with the bthp's was 41.5 and a CCI 200 primer at 2.850.