New Rifle, Savage 10 Predator Hunter Max 1

[Fleavitt]

Hi all. I just got a new Savage 10 Predator Hunter in a .260 Rem. Has anyone had any experience hand loading for this one? I will need to develop a load for coyotes and one for deer.
Projectiles?
Powder?

Any information would be helpful. Thank you.

 

[Jumpalot]

Not sure why you feel you need two different loads. I'm shooting the 123 grn. AMax over 45.5 grns. of H4350 in Lapua brass lit by CCI BR-2 primers. I've shot 4 coyotes so far and a whitetail and it's worked perfectly.

 

[davewilson]

no experience with the 260, excellent choice for your intended quarry. my suggestion is to just develope one load for everything.i've had a 30-06 for close to 30 years and i've shot everything from magpies to moose with it, including a snapping turtle a couple years ago. and one load will fix everythings wagon! go over in the reloading section there's a post about the 260 with some good info.

 

[Fleavitt]

Thank you for the the advice. I realize one bullet will do it, Where I hunt, it is possible to be taking a shot at a 300 lb deer. I want max performance out of a bullet. The A Max is a great bullet but it is not typicaly considered a hunting round. Besides if I start the season sighted in with my deer round, ill just have to go shooting more to sight it for the coyote bullet.

Thank you for the advise on the A Max. I do use that bullet in my .308 for shooting paper. I'll give it a go in the .260 .

Cheers!

 

[Jumpalot]

I think you'll find on this site that the AMax is pretty highly regarded as is the Berger. I shot the whitetail at a whopping 134 yds and the AMax penetrated all the way through and dropped him where he stood. Also, the damage to the coyote's pelts were not excessive. Pretty happy with the performance.

 

[Shortmagman]

The Savage 10 is a great rifle. My hunting buddy bought one last fall for deer hunting and I was asked to develop a deer load for it. I followed the Nosler #6 Manual and loaded his gun with 130 gains Nosler Accubonds, RL-19 powder using RP cases and WLR primers. He was able to take a buck with it in Nov.. I have a personal preference for the Accubonds as a greet deer bullet and the 130 grain worked great at about 200 yards, complete penetration with vast internal damage. This load was very accurate in his gun with 3 shot groups as small as .25 inches. I also loaded some Nosler BT with Hunter powder as a fouling load and this also shot very well in his gun. I could not think of a better coyote load than 120 Nosler BT at about 2900 ft/sec..

 

[Fleavitt]

Thanks for the information. I looked on the Hornady web site at the A Max and assumed it was strictly a target round, however, my Hornady reloading manual does say it is an excellent thin skinned game hunter as well. Sweet.

One more thing, Why does the description on the web site say Grendel/lbc/Lapua for the 123gr A Max? Is this the only 6.5 that will work well in those calibers? I assume this has no bearing on the other 6.5's?

Just curious, Thank you for your help, I'm going to work up some loads for the 123 A Max.

 

[Jumpalot]

I believe that Hornady designed the 123 AMax with the smaller .264's in mind to give a fairly high B.C. bullet in a lighter weight. I don't think I would shoot this bullet in a 264 WM. I wanted a mid-weight bullet with a good B.C. knowing this would be used out to 500 yds. You can read a thread I started about my 260 and seating depth. I found that my rifle likes the AMax to be jumped rather than in the lands. However, your rifle could be totally different. I found a load that got me the velocity I was looking for and decent accuracy then started playing with seating depth. Good luck and have fun and let us know how it goes.

 

[backwoods83]

With the 260 I like to start with a proven accuracy load, its won tons of matches and killed truck loads of game for several people. Remington brass, Fed210M primers, 47grns H4831sc, 139grn lapua scenar, 2.825" oal, also I have noticed that most of the factory 8 twist 26 cal savage barrels prefer the lapua's and hornady's over the sierra's and berger's.

 

[adiredneck]

Hi all. I just got a new Savage 10 Predator Hunter in a .260 Rem. Has anyone had any experience hand loading for this one? I will need to develop a load for coyotes and one for deer.
Projectiles?
Powder?

Any information would be helpful. Thank you.

I just found one of these in a small gun shop and I want one. The one I found is not the Max1. It is the 10 predator hunter .223 in snow camo with a detachable mag. From what I have read, this particular rifle does not have the accustock. It has a price of $679 on it, but I think I want the Max1 rifle with the accustock that I can use a bipod with. I have read about the stock flexing on the non-accustock?

I was amazed how steady it feels with the heavier barrel, but it doesn't have the heft of a full bull barrel.

 

[Jinx-)]

don't know what's deal with 10 model, but last year I had 12 LRP in 260 and you might find some good info on loads, but neither one worked for that particular rifle, but there are 8 - 9 pages of info on loading 260 http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f28/260-rem-load-recipeies-72230/