260 rem

[sparkydm]

anybody have experience reloading for this round? i worked up some loads last fall. every combination i tried shot very well. i've never had the same results with any other round. did i just get lucky? looking for any info i can get on other's experiences.

[picksbigwagon]

have never reloaded a 260, but have you tried the rounds out at longer distances???? that could be the real test

[sparkydm]

not sure what you consider longer distances. my targets were set at 100 yards. i know that's not very far, but my groups were consistent at about 1.5" regardless of powder type and charge weight. I've never been able to get these same results handloading for my .308 i was just curious if others have had the same experience with the .260.

[picksbigwagon]

what about seating depth/ oal? what kind of head spacing are you using? I know with .223 AR, it shoots the best with the bullet touching the lands.....with a 260 I would consider longer distances 300-400 yards. But if you are getting 1.5" groups, that sounds like a very forgiving rifle.....

Where do you go and shoot? I see you are in Lakeville.......

[sparkydm]

to be honest i'm not sure about head space. i've heard the term of course just not sure what exactly it is. maybe you could explain it? one of the bullets i'm using has a cannelure so that's how i'm getting oal. another bullet i have has no cannelure, so i'm thinking of setting it up to be touching the lands. this rifle will be used for deer hunting in northern minnesota so 100 yards is plenty of distance and 1.5 inch groups are plenty good. i just can't help myself when it comes to dinkin with this stuff. i've been handloading for about 5 years off and on. i live south of lakeville on 60 acres but centerfire rifles can't be used here unless you're shooting at coyotes? no target practice i guess. so my shooting is done at my cabin up north. is there a local range around here? thanks.

[picksbigwagon]

Ya know sparky, I typed head space, but I should have typed about case length, not head space. By case length I mean everything is trimmed to same length. Now, have you deburred the flash hole and cleaned out the primer pockets? I was amazed at the amt. of brass left around the inside of the case where the flash hole was punched by the factory.

I just started reloading this fall and have been having a blast. I am reloading for myself and a couple of friends. as far as a range goes, there is one south of the cites (almans I think, near montgomery, never been there though) and the caribou gun club outside of Lesuer. The one in Le Suere has burms at 100-150-200-250 and I beleive 350. plus 25 and 50.

I have found so far that my greatest accuracy has come by not using bullets with canalure since It is no where near the lands. When starting with a new bullet, I load it long and start cycle it into my rifle until I get to the point where it just touches the lands (light scratches on the bullet tip....

[sparkydm]

yep i deburr flash holes and uniform/clean primer pockets. i don't start checking case lengths until the 3rd reloading. when i started out reloading, i found the cases to be quite uniform until they had a few firings behind them. i've been using winchester brass with no problems. knowing that my rifle will shoot good groups, i'll try some different oal's to try to tighten them up. thanks for the tip, i don't know why i didn't think of it myself. do you reload any other calibers? what do you have for equipment? later.

[picksbigwagon]

for me:45 acp, 223, 243 for friends I reload: 10mm, 22-250, 223, 243 and 308. I usually run them through my lee case hand trimmer and then chamfer them. Lots of hand work..........I usethe lee clasic turret press and lee dies, but only use it as a turret press for handgun loads.

I weigh each and every rifle load by hand on an rcbs chargemaster scale with the hopes of getting the chargemaster powder dispenser later this spring.

best thing I have is that scale. I also have a three ring binder which I keep all of my load data and targets from sighting in. I got into reloading because of the skyrocketing cost of ammuniton, and I am sure I will break even in a year or so. when I can reload 243's that shoot less than MOA for about 32 cents a round, it is money well spent.

60 acres and coyotes? How close are your neighbors.....

[sparkydm]

for myself i load 38-55,45-70,45 colt,44-40,308 besides the 260. for others i load 44 mag,270,30-06. i have 38-40 dies but haven't gotten around to loading those yet as they need to be black powder for one of my antique winchesters. i'm using a lyman turret press and a mixture of lyman and rcbs dies. i also use it as a single stage unless i'm loading for the colt.

yep got coyotes out here but no plans to kill them-they're not hurting anything so i'll leave them alone. neighbors are kinda close considering it's wide open mostly. so i'd be nervous about ricochets and the neighbor's horses. on occasion i'll hear a shot in the night. there's a number of people around here thinning them out.

i hear ya about the rising costs of ammo. that's a big reason why i got into it. that and i like the mechanicalness of it. (new word) seems i'm always buying some new tool or gadget for my set-up. like you i've got my eye on that chargemaster. for now i'm using an rcbs powder measure. works great for ball or short cut powders but not worth a [PoorWordUsage] on the longer powders.

[picksbigwagon]

Got a flyer yesterday from Gander MT. 20% off all reloading stuff. I went tonight and walked out with 2 pounds of varget. 20 bucks a pound, better that the normal 25. not much there for bullets and their brass prices are outrageous.

If I get the chargemaster, I am not sure it will speed up my reloading time, except that I can seat the bullet while the charge is getting thrown for the next round. Which will probably save me time.

Where do you get most of your supplies? Online or in a store? If a store, which one. GM is not great, cabelas is a little better. I just found out about Gun Stop, and while they had a lot of stuff, I felt like I had just walked into group of people talking about me and instantly people stopped and stared.....BUT. they have a tremendous selection of bullets and weights and a wall that is full of brass.

[sparkydm]

yeah GM's bullet selection is pretty bad. their brass prices used to be alot better but with the rising cost of metals it's no wonder. most of my brass came from cabela's. next time i need brass i'm going to shop a little for it. one place to check would be Midway. Ahlman's west of faribault has a good selection of powders and everything else for reloading. my last powder run was to there. also, sportsmans ware house has stuff, seemed like a good selection if i remember right.

i wish i knew someone who has the chargemaster so i could see it in action. it sticks in my mind that the lyman dps is faster but i may be wrong. i've been in a number of those small gunshops over the years and it's almost always the same story as you report about gun stop. at a local shop in lakeville i even heard one guy whisper to another "does it look like he's carrying?" i find it hard in those places to get service because they are too busy talking with their "gun nerd" buddies.

you mentioned you reload for 308, what do you have for a rifle? what load(s) have you found that shoot well?

[picksbigwagon]

I reload the 308 for a friend. he has a browning blr. gorgeous gun, has the rubberized stock and satin stainless barrel. he is putting a scout style scope on it this spring with his coaching money. he wants his gun to shoot 180 grain interbond hornady, but he needs to sight in my loads. I am betting that it shoots 150 grainers better than the 180

gun nerds, that's funny................i have heard that the lyman is faster as well, but i already have half of the rcbs setup.

While I was at Gander mt. last night I looked at bullet prices, they had some federal 243 with 70 grain nosler ballistic tips for 40 bucks a box. thats 2 bucks a shot. I just did a ladder loading for that exact bullet and spent 23 dollars for 100 bullets. I think my cost for 243 is 32 cents a round or 32 bucks for 100 rounds....

[sparkydm]

gun nerds-i'm one of them probably-also known as "rifle loonies"

i've loaded my 308 with interbonds and the 150's were better than 180's. i got the 150's to shoot well enough to use on deer(2.25" at 100 yards) but the 180's were all over the place. my 308 rifle is a ruger m77 that i've had about 21 years. it shoots any factory rounds quite well. i'll keep trying i guess.

what is the velocity for those 70 grainers? with a round like that i'm guessing you shoot prairie dogs? by the way, what do you mean by "ladder loading"?

when i bought this 260 my thinking was that it could be used for deer(140 grain) or prairie dogs(85 grain). never been p dog hunting but it interests me.

[picksbigwagon]

the ladder loads is what I call load development. for example, I start at 38.8 grains of varget with the 70 grain noslers in 243 and I load 3-5 rounds and then increase the powder .2 grains until reach .2 below max load. I hopefully find a load that shoots good groups at 100 yards. I havent' shot the 70 grainers but according to the manual it should be somewhere around 3600 fps. I will use those for pdogs at some point, but I also wanted a coyote round for windy days and I don't get that kind of velocity in my AR (223). I could push 58 grainers to the 4000fps mark, but I haven't developed that load yet, maybe today is a good day to do that.

[SmilinBob]

the gander in Maple Grove doesn't have any good reloading stuff, they blame it on the fire chief, does anyone know if Forest Lake has a selection? I just built a 260 rem on a mauser at school, it has only been test fired, I am still carving a stock for it. Can't wait to get it out and see what she can do.

[sparkydm]

what kind of barrel life can you expect with velocities that high?

the 243 is a good choice for windy days with it's high B.C. the 6mm 's and 6.5mm's have the highest B.C. from what i've read so my 260 would make a good pdog round with light bullets i'm thinking. i can get an 85 grainer up around 3200 fps according to my manuals. what make is your 243?

[sparkydm]

smilinbob, are you going to a gunsmithing school? what is the twist rate on your 260? if you live on the north end of town, you could try the cabelas in rogers for reloading stuff. none of the GM stores have much selection from what i've seen. just basic stuff.

[picksbigwagon]

it is a used savage....if i burn the barrel, it means I have shot a ton of coyotes. I deer hunt in slug zone so it will only be used for coyotes and maybe praire dogs

smilinbob, on the north side of the cities near forest lake is the wolfs den, but seeing you're in Maple Grove, come south on 494 and head to Gun Stop in Minnetonka/wayzatta.....look them up for the exact address. Gun Stop has everything and anything you could want.......

[SmilinBob]

I'm in the program at Pinetech, I will be done in May, hopefully open a little shop here. the twist is 1 in 9 on a heavy adams and bennett barrel. For some reason the .260 likes to burn out barrels so I went with that one. I have shopped all over and have some suppliers, but the 20% off reloading at GM looked good on paper so I thought I would find out more.

[sparkydm]

pbw, sounds like smilinbob could replace that barrel if it does burn up. i'm not too familar with the savage rifles-what model is it? The reason i ask is i have a couple of nephews that may be hunting with me at some point so i'd be looking at used rifles for them. probably 243's.

smilinbob, good luck with your smithin'! if i had it to do over i think i'd go that route too. if there was night classes close to home.......hmmmm

got a question for ya-my 260 also has a 1:9 twist. what bullet weights will shoot best? i've been handloading 140's with pretty good results. i'm curious about lighter bullets in the 100 grain range.

[picksbigwagon]

sparky, it is a model 11 FX something....it is the sythentic/blue model that they sell as a combo at gander, fleet farm, walmart and cabelas for about 400 bucks with a scope. It has the accutrigger which I really love. Savage puts some prettys accurate barrels on their guns and that accutrigger really helps keep them close to the center. The scope is 3-9x40 by simmons but will work great for deer

[SmilinBob]

I haven't had a chance to play around with any loads yet, just the 3 test fires, but from the research I have done the .260 appears to really like those lighter bullets, I have seen the 95-120 grain seem to have the best groupings and hold the velocity longer with less drop for long distance. I think when you get into the 140's the changes are going to be less dramatic and will require more fine tuning of powders and bullet types or manufactures. Every barrel is different in what it likes due to differences in machining. The NRA high power benchrest guys use lighter bullets, but for shootin critters in this state I think about anything you want to use will be more than adequate. I will keep updating as I get to experiment, the stock is coming along. As stated above, Savage does make a nice, very accurate rifle right out of the box and the prices are very reasonable for the product you get. The going to school was one of those things I just had to make time for, working full time, family, I wish there was a night option, but I can work nights(its more fun anyway as a paramedic). I would recommend it to anyone, it is about the most fun you can have learning about guns and I have found that gun people are about the nicest people you can meet. Hopefully I can get a shop up and running early this summer, lot of hoops to jump through for the ATF and city.