260 Rem Load Recipeies?

[lisagrantb]

308 Lapua brass 26" tube, 140 grain Berger vld, Fed LR match primers, 41.5 g RE 17 2880 FPS 1/2 moa or less, RE 17 moves 2 FPS per 1 deg temp change, standard deviation less than 8

 

[trebark]

308 Lapua brass 26" tube, 140 grain Berger vld, Fed LR match primers, 41.5 g RE 17 2880 FPS 1/2 moa or less, RE 17 moves 2 FPS per 1 deg temp change, standard deviation less than 8

A girl on LRH besides the Prairie Princess??!! woooooooo-hoooooooooo!

 

[Jinx-)]

Thank you Lisa! By the way have you tried anything higher then 41.2, or this is sweet spot of your barrel? Right now I load few 140gr with 42 RL-17, I don't have my rifle yet , so I set bullet to 3.396" minus hornady bullet comparator, if its to much I can always push it back.

 

[Jinx-)]

Finally I got 260, had few issues with 20 MOA scope base, I bought it for Savage short action model 12 but it wouldn't fit on target action, so I slap 2 piece bases I had laying around and took to the range. Basically I was fire-forming 308 re-sized brass and break in new barrel. Using 42 gr of RL-17 I got 0.62" 5 shot group and 36 gr of RL-15 grouped 0.59".

Almost forgot, the wind was gusting 25 mph, so I saw lot's of horizontal stringing... no more then 1, 1.5"

 

[lisagrantb]

I could go a little higher than 41.5 of RE 17 but in the summer it is as much pressure as I want to shoot.

 

[Jinx-)]

lisagrantb, how's throating in your rifle? Does it allow to seat 140 grainer without pushing it pass datum line? On the rifle I got throat is very shallow, it suited to seat 120 gr hunting bullets like SPH. So far I tried 140 gr Nosler CC and 139 gr Lapua Scenar, with this bullets case capacity is very limited.

 

[dwm]

Ok, here is something a little different.

Try RamShot Magnum. I ran the numbers in Quickload for Varget, IMR8208XBR, RL-17, H4350, RS Hunter, H4831SC, and RamShot Magnum.

Quickload showed RamShot Magnum produced the highest velocity with the lowest pressure of them all with the Berger 140 Hunting VLD in a 26 inch barrel.

The load I have been working on for a 260AI with a 140 Berger Hunting VLD, is 53 Grains RamShot Magnum, with a REM 9 1/1M primer, seated to 2.9" OAL, in Nosler 260 cases.

I would start out at 50 grains RS MAG in a regular 260 and work up from there.

RS Hunter and H4831SC are also producing good results for me, but RS Mag showed the best velocity potential in Quickload ....

Not sure how temperature stable RS MAG is though.

Seeing people have success with RL-17 is great, I have a bunch that I haven't had much success with in the past.

I will have to give that a try in the 260AI.

 

[Jinx-)]

dwm, I guess I could get chamber in my rifle rebuild for AI, is yours cut specificly to handle Berger bullets? From what I understands Savage used standard 260 reamer for their Target LRP rifles, so it has standard hunting rifle chamber.

looks like your post is gone

 

[dwm]

Mine is a Shilen prefit. Not sure exactly what the reamer is designed for, it was chambered by Shilen.

 

[Jinx-)]

Doug, how about MAX OAL you chamber allows using Berger 140 VLD, which is 1.42" OAL. with with 260 case 2.035" max OAL , well AI might have different case OAL. SAAMI states for 260 OAL is 2.800" this would leave big portion of the bullet, specially bearing surface pushed way down the cartridge.
This "way down" will take 3 - 7 grains out of the load capacity and probably beeing seated that way decrease accuracy. The last statement is questionable.
​

 

[dwm]

At 2.9 inches OAL the 140 Berger Hunting VLD have land marks on them all the way around, maybe 0.010 inches long in my rifle.

They chamber and come back out without any problems, they are not jammed so far as to stick in the rifling when a live round is extracted.

You have to watch out pushing bullets back in the case for known loads, that can drive the pressure way up!

The short action Savage centerfeed detachable mags are 3 inches long internally.

 

[Jinx-)]

I'm not planning to use magazine, I will insert follower and load one by one like in the single shot rifles. Usually one shot is all I do when hunting...

 

[dwm]

Totally agree, I still like a mag though.


Jinx-), I am just an amature / hobbiest at this so please take that into cosideration.

There are serious competitive long range benchrest shooters and professional gunsmiths that respond to a lot of posts ...

 

[Plade]

DWM, I shoot a 260AI down under here in New Zealand and read your post with interest. I have done a significant amount of load development work using a variety of components. Appreciating that this is a 260 load thread, I thought that I would contribute by saying that there is a noticable difference in both velocity and pressure when maximising a load and you take into consideration case capacity. By way of example (in fire formed 260AI)Remington 260 brass has an average water capacity of 56.96 gns with quite a wide range of values. Comparatively .243 Federal brass provides a capacity of 55.7 gns when fire formed with almost absolute consistency. These subtle differences can make one max load safe in one case and not the other and certainly make a significant difference to accuracy and consistency when shooting. The 260 shooter if using brass from diffent sources/types will be faced with the same dillema and will carefully need to assess (if looking for max performance ) which case is the best option. I am eagerly looking forward for the arrival here in NZ of the Lapua 260 cases as based on history these should provide a consistant base for reloading and performance. Does any 260 shooter on this thread happen to know the water capicity of a lapua 260 case? I would be interested to hear if someone already has one and can measure it