Anyone here reloading the .260 Rem for long range shooting?

Having become frustrated shooting my .308 in regularly gusty conditions at my local 800+ yard range, I have decided to have my Sako TRG rebarreled to a .260 Rem. APA will be doing the work and it will take a few months for the 1:8" Broughton barrel to arrive. In the meantime, I'm doing my research on loads which perform well at long range (I have access to as far as 1,200 yards). The .308 has been great, and I'll pick up another in the near future, but my 175 SMK's really seem to get pushed around in moderate cross winds and the drop beyond 500 yards makes range estimating pretty unforgiving. In calm conditions at known ranges, I've been very happy with the .308.

The people I've spoke with seem to favor H4350 with 139 gr Lapua Scenars and 142 SMK's in the .260, but I don't know many people who reload this round. Any guidance based on your experiences would be appreciated Thanks in advance!

I shoot the Hornady 140 hpbt, .580bc,over h4831sc . I like the bergers but the Hornadys are half the price. I run them around 2950 fps out of a 28" barrel. 6.7 mils to 1000 yds.

I reloaded about 650+ rounds for my buddy's Surgeon/AICS/Rock/Jewell rifle a couple of years back.

H-4350 and AA-4350 for powders. Both are very close, but H-4350 is the go-to powder for the 260. You might try RL-17, as well. 210Ms, RP brass (was $44/100 back then) and the 140 AMAX and 142 SMKs.

The 139 Scenars would also be on the list of bullets to try.

Like the 308, it's not too hard to load and to get it to shoot right.

He had gotten the Redding Bushing dies, so it was the .289" and .290" TiNi bushings, with me using the latter most of the time for .002"ish of neck tension.

You'll have to see where your lands are on your new barrel, with the bullets you choose, so seating depth will have to be fiddled with.

Chris

H4831SC and H4350 are the powders to try.

For most Long Range Tactical matches, 260 is normally in the winners circle. Although the 6mm cartridges are making a good showing. At the 2012 Steel Safari 8 of the top 10 used 260s. First and second place went to 6mms.

We load quite a bit of 260, both 139s and 142s. H4350 is my choice for powder, as it feeds just a little better than H4831sc. Seated to 2.790" cartridge OAL, 42 grains is a sweet spot for either bullet in Remington brass. For Lapua brass, or necked down Winchester 7mm-08, back it off a grain and to about 41.

As always, start 10% below these and work up your own loads.

Thanks,

Mike


Edited for punctuation

Thanks for all the replies. I was planning on using Lapua brass which I'm told only recently became available for the .260 Rem. I hate paying $1 per case, but a couple hundred pieces should keep me shooting for quite a while. Has anyone here compared the accuracy of Lapua vs. Remington brass?

From what I've heard from Ray Sanchez and Zak Smith, Remington brass is ok for casual shooting, but if you're really trying to get the best out of the gun, use the Lapua brass.

I just read on ARFCOM a couple days ago that one of the major long range matches last year was won using Rem. or some other cheap brass.

I jumped from 6mm to 7mm but may return to 6.5mm one day.

Here are some bullets from a famous mail order arfcom industrial participant, he recently posted.

S1740M, Sierra Bullets 6.5mm {.264}, 140gr HPBT Match, Box of 500 $132.00

I only know that the 2 guys I referred to don't have a high opinion of Remington brass in 260. Maybe other calibers its better. I don't have a 260 gun myself, and I have no idea if the newer batches of Remington 260 brass have improved or not.

I have no dog in this fight just trying to keep an open mind and report what I find. Here's a quote from the first post on the second page of this thread in the precision rifle forum.

"In terms of the .260 Remington Brass, used to be plenty of people $#!@ talking it, then Sherri Gallagher used a .260 with Remington Brass to win the 2010 NRA High Power National Championship, that shut a few people up, but some people still argue you can't do anything with it. Per Rob's comments above, I don't think that you have to use Lapua to be successful."

Regarding brass, I agree that you can probably get great accuracy from Remington brass, but I've used nothing but Lapua in my .308 for the last several years and I've always had great results. I'll most like likely stick with Lapua for .260 Rem because I don't shoot enough to make it cost prohibitive. In true AR15.com fashion, I will buy both and experiment.

You seem to have a rational approach.

For my part, when I bought brass for my 260, I bought Remington. It was the first Remington brass I'd ever bought as I had heard bad things about it. I was skeptical and apprehensive but did not want to spend the money on Lapua if I did not have to.

I was buying 1,000 cases and the cost for Lapua was too high. I wanted cases with the 260 headstamp, too. It was too much of a headache to visually separate the 308 from the 260.

One of the first things I did was measure the uniformity of the neck wall thickness, which turned out surprisingly good.

Then, I weighed 100 cases. My recollection is they were all within a few grains (2 gr?) of each other. I can research this in my records.

There were two anomalous cases out of that 100 which I found during the weighing. First, one case had a punch pin broken off and stuck in the flash hole. When punch-forming the hole, their die broke and the case with the broken pin got thru the line to me. Second, one case was some ridiculous weight heavier than the others (20-30 gr?). As it turned out, this case had a a HUGE spiral of brass trapped inside the case, possibly from machining the case to length. You couldn't see it from the outside but it was there. I found it and dug it out with a Q-tip.

Having said all that, that 260 Rem brass remains the most consistent brass I have ever purchased. Just watch out for the gross anomalies.

Enjoy!

P.S. - H4350 and H4831SC are probably the powders of choice. I tried Varget but it's too fast for the 260. It works but you will not get the highest speeds from it (pressure tops out before velocity peaks.

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.