260 Remington
Greg Rodriguez
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January 04, 2011
Favorite Loads.
By Greg Rodriguez
Like many great cartridges, the .260 Remington is the product of wildcatters who saw the value of the short .308 Winchester case necked down to accept those long, pointy 6.5mm bullets for long-range shooting. And 6.5-08 wildcats enjoyed an excellent reputation among target shooters for many years, but this fine cartridge was not really "discovered" by hunters until it was legitimized by Remington in 1997.
With 120-grain projectiles, the .260 Rem. is a fine deer and pronghorn cartridge. With 130- and 140-grain bullets, it will do the job on elk-sized game. Long-range shooters favor long, heavy bullets like Berger's 140-grain VLD and Lapua's 139-grain Scenar. Regardless of bullet weight, the soft-recoiling .260 is a great choice for women, slight-of-build hunters, and young shooters.
My favorite powder for the .260 Remington in Alliant's Reloder 19.
The SAAMI Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) for the .260 Rem. is 60,000 psi.
Greg's Favorite Loads |
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| Starting Load | Max Load | | |
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| Powder | Velocity | Powder | Velocity | Cartridge Length | |
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Bullet | (Type) | (Grs.) | (fps) | (Grs.) | (fps) | (inches) | Comments |
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Speer 120-gr. SP | Benchmark | 37.0 | 2768 | 40.0 | 2935 | 2.780 | Good whitetail load. |
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Barnes 130-gr. TSX | IMR-4831 | 39.5 | 2514 | 43.5 | 2754 | 2.705 | Low recoil and accurate at starting load. |
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Barnes 130-gr. TSX | Reloder 19 | 41.0 | 2598 | 45.0 | 2758 | 2.705 | Compressed. Accurate. |
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Nosler 130-gr. AccuBond | H4831SC | 43.5 | 2628 | 47.5 | 2818 | 2.800 | Compressed. |
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Nosler 130-gr. AccuBond | Reloder 19 | 43.0 | 2649 | 47.0 | 2887 | 2.800 | Extremely accurate. Compressed. |
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Lapua 139-gr. Scenar | VV N560 | 39.6 | 2311 | 44.1 | 2586 | 2.800 | Very accurate. |
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Berger 140-gr. VLD | Reloder 19 | 38.0 | 2395 | 42.5 | 2680 | 2.800 | Accurate. Great for long range. |
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Berger 140-gr. VLD | VV N550 | 36.0 | 2419 | 40.3 | 2685 | 2.800 | Favorite long-range load. |
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Better Late Then Never