260 Remington

Greg Rodriguez - 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
	Starting Load			Max Load
	Powder		Velocity	Powder	Velocity	Cartridge Length
Bullet	(Type)	(Grs.)	(fps)	(Grs.)	(fps)	(inches)	Comments
Speer 120-gr. SP	Benchmark	37.0	2768	40.0	2935	2.780	Good whitetail load.
Barnes 130-gr. TSX	IMR-4831	39.5	2514	43.5	2754	2.705	Low recoil and accurate at starting load.
Barnes 130-gr. TSX	Reloder 19	41.0	2598	45.0	2758	2.705	Compressed. Accurate.
Nosler 130-gr. AccuBond	H4831SC	43.5	2628	47.5	2818	2.800	Compressed.
Nosler 130-gr. AccuBond	Reloder 19	43.0	2649	47.0	2887	2.800	Extremely accurate. Compressed.
Lapua 139-gr. Scenar	VV N560	39.6	2311	44.1	2586	2.800	Very accurate.
Berger 140-gr. VLD	Reloder 19	38.0	2395	42.5	2680	2.800	Accurate. Great for long range.
Berger 140-gr. VLD	VV N550	36.0	2419	40.3	2685	2.800	Favorite long-range load.