260 Hunting Loads

[COhntr]

Looking to see if anyone has a good hunting load for the 260, i picked it up for my wife and this is going to be primarily her deer gun, with an occasional cow elk thrown in. I have quite a few powders to use and 100 rounds of new peterson small rifle primer brass. Been contemplating which bullet to use, so any input will be welcomed and top range for her will be 300 yards. Thanks in advance

 

[cinch]

I have several 260s that I hunt with...I use a 140 Amax and 43.5gr H4350 with a CCI 250...it hammers anything Ive shot with it including elk at 500 yards...

 

[26Reload]

Ex has 260 ruger compact....very successful with rl17 and 130gr accubonds....would think the lrab would be perfect bullet in the cartridge....even though it is supposed to be used for longer range the lrab opens at lower speeds....and a 260 for 300 or less would be a no recoil rifle.....

 

[Savage 12BVSS]

Hunt with a 20" barreled 260 and have found that 43.9gr of IMR4350 with Fed 210M primers and 130gr Accubonds are a lethal hunting load. Shot a 138lb dressed, so maybe a 160lb live deer with a high shoulder shot. Broke and pentrated thru both shoulder's and left a golfball sized exit wound. Deer was down and dead within a body length. Very light recoil for a light short barreled gun as well. I love the 260 and feel it's a perfect mid size game rifle, would work well on elk with either the 130gr or 140gr AB. Accuracy is great with accubonds, yesterday at the range it shot a perfect 3 shot cloverleaf group while doing a distance off lands test.

 

[Tank308]

140 Nosler accubond over H4831sc is awesome for mine I've used it with both Peterson small primer (cci 450) and lapua large primers(Fed 210's). It's compressed but still fits in the mag.

 

[just_jon]

I'm shooting 120 BT over 39.0 grains of a IMR 4064 out of my 1:9 Rem 7 SS. I've not had a whitetail take 10 steps. All shots have been within 250 yards.

 

[jimbires]

here is a thread I had going on a 260 that I lengthened the throat in . I have a fair amount of load info and targets in this thread . it might give you some ideas .

throating , the one I couldn't pass up part 2

here is part 1 on this rifle . viewtopic.php?f=9&t=32610 I received the throating reamer from 4D Wednesday . I was disgusted when I got it , I thought I would get the "T" handle to turn the reamer since it's pictured with the set on 4D's website , but I didn't . so I thought about...

forum.nosler.com

I think for deer hunting I'll load the nosler 140 gr ballistic tips . right now I'd load the 125 gr nosler partition for elk , I'd want to play with the 140 partitions before I made up my mind though .

 

[RT2506]

Back when Remington came out with the 260 my hunting buddy got a Rem. 700 24" barrel stainless rifle. At this time he could not find any factory ammo available or even cases to load and there was no load data available. We treated it like a wildcat. We found that we could make some good cases out of Remington 243 Win. cases by necking them up. You could get proper neck length with 243 and 308s were a bit short. We used as a guide starting loads for 6.5x55 and found that H4350 was THE powder. We worked with 120 and 140 gr Sierra bullets. We were doing crop damage control on a big farm in eastern NC were we took 100 deer each year. Between the two of us we took 50 deer with this 260 that season. We shot them from close range to a bit over 500 yards. Only one out of the 50 took a step after taking a bullet and that one took three jumps before going down for good. This rife was extremely accurate with either bullet. By the next deer season my buddy had traded this rifle off to another friend that wanted it for his grandson to hunt with. My buddy never keeps a rife long. Usually gets one gets it shooting and uses it one season then trades it or sales it and starts all over with a new one.
These days if I had to pick just one bullet for elk down to deer it would be 130 or 140 gr Nosler Accubond depending on twist of rifle. I shoot the 130 AB in my 264 Win mag and it is awesome on deer but I am running it 3350 fps.

 

[COhntr]

Forgot to add that this particular rifle is a Mod 700 with a 1 in 8 twist, 24" barrel. I read that when remington first came out with this round, they gave it a 1 in 9 twist, which limited the bullet selection from what i have read. I have been mulling the 130 gr AB, LRAB, and Partition, but have also been looking at the sierra's too. My issue now is that H4350 is almost non existent in my neck of the woods, there is a little IMR 4350, no reloder powders, so i will continue to look at other options. Thanks

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

After a LOT of fun testing, I settled on 142 gr Nosler ABLR, 44 grs. RL-19, Lapua Brass and CCI BR-2 primers. I get 2820 out of that load from a 22(ish)" barrel in a SAKO 85 stainless grey laminate rifle. That's a bit warm so start lower and work up. It shot so good with everything I tried I almost couldn't decide. Wound up using the math from Chrony and statistics analyzed by my college statistics professor buddy. I like the performance on game for that bullet, the ballistics coefficient, sectional density and precision in my rifle. I also got similar performance using 43 grs IMR-4350 but about 2770 fps.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

Oh yeah, that's a 1/8 twist rifle...

 

[Pootyng]

I have good results with:
140 gr. SST
41-43.5 grns. N160
Either Federal match or CCI PRIMERS
26" 1:8 twist
I've used this combination since 2003 for hunting in Ky.

 

[Chino Tom]

My favorite load is 45.5 gr of RL 22 in my Tikka. MV is 2725 or so with very good accuracy. The pic in my signature was with the 260 right at 250 yards. Using a
143 ELDX with Lappua brass and Rem 9 1/2 primer. This deer spun around, took about 5 steps and dropped. I've taken several Texas white tails with the same load and results
(although the white tails always seem to run 20 -100 yards before dropping even with
perfect vital shots). I really like my 260!

 

[Savage 12BVSS]

Just a side note about 260 performance, in my OCW tests the other day when I hit the quiet node perfect the groups pulled in and yielded some ragged hole groups I didn't expect (the gun had never done better than four's and five's before). Final distance off lands test is Monday so I will end up with a 20" bbl deer rifle with 130gr accubonds shooting like a target/varmint rifle. IMR4350 is unbeatable in this gun, Varget, IMR4064, and RL15 failed to come close. 1 in 7.5" twist walther barrel is working good.