PLEASE, help a new member with .260 Rem

[noflyers]

Hey guys I am new to the forum here and I have a question regarding reloading .260 Rem. Since .260 loads are a little scarce to find I went ahead and bought a Lee Breech Lock Challenger Press Kit but the sad part was the guy that sold it to me knew nothing about reloading. (just a salesman moving merchandise)

So my questions is this what dies ie full length, neck sizing or what do you recommend I get and what brass should I start with .243 and neck up, .308 or try to find some .260 new brass. I would like to load either Berger VLD's or Lapua 139 gr Scenars since the rifle I had built has a 1 in 8"twist. I know it is a loaded question (no pun intended) but I really want to start out right with the minimum amount of headaches and the correct equipment.

Any suggestions would be appreciated because I don't think I am doing myself justice by shooting 120 factory loads.

I figure once I start reloading the bug will have bitten and I would like to start out right!

Thanks and I apologize for the long post.

 

[zigliss]

noflyers,

good calibre you have there - i love my 260Rem custom.

Others will be along to comment but here is what works for me:

- Nosler custom brass (expensive but saves fannying around with case prep)
- Redding type S bushing neck dies (can't remeber the bushing size at the moment) - neck size only and trim when necessary...
- COAL: 2.775

Load:
- 139gr Lap Scenars
- CCI BR primers
- 43gr Viht N160

It is a fairly hot load so I would recommend starting 10% lower and working up to check it is okay in your rifle. For me this yeilds 2680fps (+/- 16fps)through a 26inch barrel. I regularly shoot up to 1200 yards with good results.

PS - I use the same press as you! There are folks with very strong opinions of what is a good (or bad) press. Frankly until I get much better/more experience with reloading the Lee will be just fine. I would spend your money on decent dies - again just my opinion.

 

[noflyers]

zigliss-

Thanks for the input, that is exactly the type of advice/info I need.

Looks like I will be in your neck off the woods (relatively speaking) soon. I am due to be in Kensington sometime in the next month or so.

Thanks again.

 

[zigliss]

No problem mate - enjoy your trip to London!

 

[tackb]

Hi noflyers,

welcome to .260 ownership! I've got a custom 260 built by riflecraft here in the uk and the load i had it built for was this:-

lapua 243 brass with a 140 grain hornady amax using a cci benchrest primer and a good load of vitavori N560 I use 45 grains but the book says 44.1 so start low and work up , a hit at 2620fps is better than a miss at 2680fps so go for accuracy not max speed .

as a general hunting factory round the 140grain gameking load by federal is fab , not a sexy looking bullet but it works really well on game and shoots the tits off flys in my gun!

best of luck and if you start to high and blow up yourself,your gun or both it's not my fault 0

 

[noflyers]

tackb,

The Game King was another bullet I was looking at, so the more load reloading equip suggestions and work-ups people can offer the better off I will be.

.... you mean I can't blame someone else for my own stupidity if something goes wrong, I thought that was what we were suppose to do in this day and age!

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers

 

[Shortmagman]

I have a Remington Model 7 in 260 Rem.. Last year I had a 22 inch Hart barrel installed and it shoot much better than it did with the factory barrel. I plan to use this gun to hunt white tailed deer in Nebraska in Nov., so I am spending some time loading for that hunting trip. My shots can be from 100 yards out to 400.

First I use many Lee products. My press is Lee and both my full length dies and my neck sizing die is made by Lee(Collet die). I am using both Lapua 243 brass neck up to 264 and also 260 Rem brass. So far I can not tell a great deal of difference between the two makes of brass. My favorite deer hunting bullets are Nosler Accubonds so I am loading the 130 grainers along with RL-19 powder and WLR primers. With this load I am able to get about 2900 ft/sec and good accuracy. At least for me.

I have also loaded 120 Barnes TTSX bullets and RL-17 with Fed 210 primers. I shot them out of the Lapua brass. This would also make a great deer load.

 

[dcottrell]

Hey, congrats on the .260 REM. I just bought a LR-260 from DPMS. Had some gas block problems so I recently sent it back for servicing (those guys at DPMS are great). Anyway, the advice you have gotten so far is great. Here is what I would add.

1. First, is your gun a bolt or semi-auto? For bolt guns, neck sizing is great, but not so much for semi-auto's. (I have a set of Lee Collet dies that are of no use to me if you want to talk about that).
2. With your twist, seems the heavier bullets are gonna work for you. I had good luck with 140 gr Sierra Game Kings.
3. The advice you have gotten on brass is solid. The REM brass from what I have heard is not so good. The nice thing about starting with .243 is that the brass is a bit cheaper. I had someone give a bunch of once fired at the range the other day. I don't mind a little case prep. I'm gonna be handling this stuff quite a bit already.

Good luck with that!

 

[noflyers]

Thanks Shortmagman, everybody's help is affirming my decision to join the forum.

 

[noflyers]

dcottrell,

I am currently shooting a custom B&C stocked Savage Model 12 chambered in .260 Rem w/brake fitted with a 1 in 8" barrel and another 22-250 braked barrel on the way. Topped with a Vortex Viper 6.5x20 44mm PA with Mil-Dot. I will see if I can get a picture of the rig posted up today.

Appreciate the tips and I am starting to get a good idea of what I need to get but the more advice the better.

DPMS .260 is on the list for Christmas this year, from either my wife or Santa. (I hope)

 

[dcottrell]

Just FYI. Call DPMS and see when they plan on ramping up production on the 260's again. When the mass hysteria struck and everyone made a run on AR style rifles, they concentrated all their efforts on the best sellers and shut down production of the 260's. Hell, I am trying to get a new 4 rnd hunting mag from them and it is a 4 to 6 week lag (and it is the same mag as the .308). They just cannot keep up with all the activity.

 

[pressman]

hello and welcome to the forum their is many well knowledgeable people on here.
2 months ago i just got my fully custom 260 it is a MAK tube frame stock with a brunx 26" stainless interrupted fluting with a DE Brake bought from shawn Carlock. top off with a 5.5 X 22 X 56 Night Force scope
i just got back from Wyoming where all i did was shoot and learn to read the wind.
My gun loves 139 lapua but it really like the 140 Amax. i was shooting 1400 yards with it. i hit the 1200 yard target 8 out of 10 time and that was crossing 2 valleys with different wind. now for the loads info you requested
i just bought 500 new remington brass and compared it to some nosler. You don't have to prep the nosler before loading but for the price after i resized the remington you can not tell what brass i am shooting at the range.
I use a redding comp die to as a bullet seating die. and it is expensive but it really works nice and I only plan to buy one.
i full length resized the fist time with the new Remington brass but after i fired it through my gun i will neck size.
the power i use is H4350 42. gr with the 139 and the 140 it is 2701 fps out of my gun. H1000 really shoots well but i did not have time for a lot of testing with it before i went to Wyoming. now that i am back i will test it some more. i was getting 2750 fps with no sign of pressure and my sd was in the single digits like 5 or so. so i will probably switch to h1000 if things continue.
good luck with your gun and ask question this is the place to find the answers.

 

[USMC 338]

I have a dpms lr 260 and it likes H414 41gr /139gr lapua's berger 140's h4831 45.7 gr 2650 fps hope this helps.

 

[noflyers]

Thanks everybody on the suggestions and advice, it looks like I am going shopping today to see how many pieces/parts I can come up with

After a few phone calls though it looks like 6.5 bullets are going to be the needle(s) in the haystack. Even mail order has slim pickings.