Sizing .308 brass for .260 Rem.

[57K]

Hey all, new member here and my question is how I happened upon the site. Thinking about buying a Savage M11 in .260 Rem. Brass is scarce but I have .308 brass and I'll buy REDDING dies with a full length sizer. I also have a few .260 Rem. cases that were range pick ups. What are your thoughts pro or con about using the .308 Win. brass?

 

[RT2506]

Back when the 260 was brought out by Remington my buddy got hold of one of the first Rem 700 SS 24" barrel rifles that came out. You could not even find any ammo at that time and there was no reloading data out yet on it. We had to treat it like a wildcat. We found that using 308 cases necked down to 260 were actually a bit too short in the neck length, if my memory serves me around 15 thousands shorter than minimum length, but using 243 Win. cases made everything perfect. We also found through much experimenting that THE powder was H4350. We came up with 47 grs H4350 with 120 Sierra Sp and 45 grs H4350 with 140 Sierra Sp as the max load which was the most accurate also. My buddy and I were doing control hunting on a big farm in NC where we had to take 100 deer a year. We killed 50 deer with that rifle that year from on top of you to a little over 500 yards using both loads and only had ONE deer take a step after taking a bullet. That deer was a big doe a little over 200 yards that was in some high weeds at the edge of a field about 5 minutes before dark. He had a guy that wanted a deer to eat waiting at the farm house for him to bring one. It was a full moon period and the deer just did not move that day except this one right at dark. When he shot the deer she jumped out in the field and took three jumps and piled up dead. He found that the bullet had missed the front shoulder and went in at the back of the lungs. He found a little tree about the size of a pencil round with a nick out of it just in front of where the deer was standing. It deflected the bullet a might. A friend of my buddies really wanted that rifle for his young grandson and gave him twice the price of a new rifle for it. Fast forward a number of years and that same boy now a man is still using that rifle and he says it still shoots lights out. Your 308 cases will probably work OK but the bullets will have to be seated just a bit deeper in the case to get proper neck tension and thus they are farther away from the lands. That is the reason that we used 243 cases.

 

[57K]

Back when the 260 was brought out by Remington my buddy got hold of one of the first Rem 700 SS 24" barrel rifles that came out. You could not even find any ammo at that time and there was no reloading data out yet on it. We had to treat it like a wildcat. We found that using 308 cases necked down to 260 were actually a bit too short in the neck length, if my memory serves me around 15 thousands shorter than minimum length, but using 243 Win. cases made everything perfect. We also found through much experimenting that THE powder was H4350. We came up with 47 grs H4350 with 120 Sierra Sp and 45 grs H4350 with 140 Sierra Sp as the max load which was the most accurate also. My buddy and I were doing control hunting on a big farm in NC where we had to take 100 deer a year. We killed 50 deer with that rifle that year from on top of you to a little over 500 yards using both loads and only had ONE deer take a step after taking a bullet. That deer was a big doe a little over 200 yards that was in some high weeds at the edge of a field about 5 minutes before dark. He had a guy that wanted a deer to eat waiting at the farm house for him to bring one. It was a full moon period and the deer just did not move that day except this one right at dark. When he shot the deer she jumped out in the field and took three jumps and piled up dead. He found that the bullet had missed the front shoulder and went in at the back of the lungs. He found a little tree about the size of a pencil round with a nick out of it just in front of where the deer was standing. It deflected the bullet a might. A friend of my buddies really wanted that rifle for his young grandson and gave him twice the price of a new rifle for it. Fast forward a number of years and that same boy now a man is still using that rifle and he says it still shoots lights out. Your 308 cases will probably work OK but the bullets will have to be seated just a bit deeper in the case to get proper neck tension and thus they are farther away from the lands. That is the reason that we used 243 cases.

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it. I knew the necks would be short but not exactly by how much. .015" below trim length is pretty short. I also have some .243 range pick-ups, so your input is valued. As far as .260 range pick-ups I only have 9 or 10. Maybe 25 in .243.