The Case for .260 Remington
DEMIGOD LLC has an interesting article on the .260 Remington, a necked down .308.
The .260 Remington provides long-range ballistics conventionally limited to the magnum calibers. Because its parent case is the ubiquitous .308 Winchester, building a rifle in .260 can be as easy as fitting a new barrel. The .260 provides much less wind drift and drop than .308 but has less recoil.
The hunting pedigree of 6.5 mm in Europe proves the caliber is formidable for practical use. For long-range shooters who want a better cartridge than .308, but don’t want the costs associated with big overbore magnums, the .260 is just the ticket.
More here
Hi, welcome to my blog! This blog is dedicated to all things firearms related. I hope you enjoy it.
Possibly I do not understand the wildcat-cartridge mentality, beyond “wouldn’t-it-be-neat-if.”
What does this new cartridge do that the .308 doesn’t do better? Note also that there has never been and will never be cheap surplus ammunition available for practice, or for stockpiling against “interesting times,” in any of these oddball 6.35×73mm Foon-Farnham Belted Magnum Speshul cartridges that the ammo companies delight in creating and then, five or twenty years of lackluster sales later, abandoning.
Meh. Color me unimpressed.
I never had any problems with the .308, but we only shot our M24’s to 800 Meters.
How the .260 improve on the .308? What are the disadvantages?
This just my uninformed opinion, I have been reading up on the .260 but have not fired a rifle chambered in it:
I think the .260 makes good sense. It offers superior performance than the, popular in Europe, 6.5×55mm Swede in a shorter action.
Swede 140 grain @ 2651 ft/s , 2185 lbs
vs.
.260 140 grain @ 2750 ft/s, 2351 lbs.
And also much better hunting performance (for median size game) than the .243 Win. The .243 Win cannot drive bullets weighing more than 105 grains.
Over the .308 it has a better trajectory without magnum recoil, and less recoil than the .308. Sure there is nothing a .260 will kill that a .308 will not, but the same case could be made for many other popular cartridges.
I would also say that this is a cartridge that is being pushed organically by shooters, rather that the NEW BEST THING from the firearms marketing firms. Time will tell.
Because the brass can be formed from .308 brass, and in many case a barrel swap from the .308 and its offspring will be enough to convert to this caliber, I think it will be around for a while, regardless of whether it is adopted by the industry.
[...] has a comparison of the 6.5mm rounds, the .260 Remington vs. 6.5×47 Lapua vs. 6.5 Creedmoor. It’s been a good year for 6.5 mm. The .260 Remington [...]
how do you convert .308 brass to .260 rem step by step ?
I am the author of the article.
For those of you who question “why?” for .260 Remington, or think it is a wildcat cartridge– read the article before you jump to false conclusions.
.260 offers trajectory (drop & wind) performance about equivalent to a 300WM shooting 190SMKs, burning about half the power and having about half the recoil. It is not a wildcat– 6.5-08 was commercialized by Remington as the .260 in the late 1990’s.
-z
I have a 260 Rem, and find it a really accurate, and easy on the shoulder cartridge. The 260 Rem in my opinion is what the 243 win was supposed to be, a dual purpose cartridge, varmints to big game. I can push a 100 grain partition to 3250 fps easily and that is a flat shooting setup. A 243 win is not capable of that performance with a 100 grain bullet. This setup is perfect for blacktail or whitetail deer hunting purposes. My other load is a 125grain Partition moving at 2925 fps. If you know anything about the 270 win, then you understand that this pretty much duplicates the performance of standard factory ammunition sold for the 270 win in 130 grain bullets. Only now, your 260 Rem duplicates it in a short bolt which usually is a much lighter rifle to pack, and with the short bolt, more accurate than a long bolt rifle. The 260 Rem can really be wrung out if you are a reloader. By the way, the 125 gr partition setup is perfect for all deer hunting, wild hogs, black bear, and elk if you are capable of placing the bullet where it belongs. If loaded with a Barnes 120 grain TSX, I’ve no doubt, you have a decent Elk setup, and an excellent deer setup.
Load it with a 85 to 100 grain bullet and you have a fast, flat varmint rifle.
Now realize you can also load 140 grain bullets for the 260 Rem and you begin to understand why it is a much better choice as an all around varmint to big game cartridge than the 243 win.
Like I say, the 260 Rem is really what the 243 Win was supposed to be. It is a great cartridge.
Hi Frank, thanks for your comment. How does the recoil compare to the .243?
Steve, with 85 to 100 grain bullets, it kicks about like a 243 win. When you move up to 120-125 gr, or 140 gr, etc, as bullet wt goes up you get alittle bit more recoil energy, but very pleasant to to shoulder and shoot.
Someone was commenting on why the need for these cartridges. Well for one, there are a bunch of us who frankly get bored with the so called standard cartridges. I am a reloader, and I enjoy working with different cartridges.
If you think about what the 260 Remington offers, it goes down like this:
85-100 gr bullet loads and you are in the 243 win range, except you can push your 100 grain bullet faster than a 243. In reality in this range, you are close to duplicating a 25-06, only in a short action rifle. Load up a 120-125 grain bullet, and you are very close to 270 win performance. Load up a 130-140 grain bullet, and you have a hard hitting cartridge similar to the 7mm-08.
The best way to describe the 260 Rem is it is very accurate, and a pleasure to shoot. I have several magnum rifles, and I find myself reaching more and more for a 260 or the 7mm-08. Both are accurate, and effective.
The 260 covers the varmint to big game range very well.
Thanks Frank for that info.
I hunt with a .260 in a Rem 700 ADL. Bought it as a low cost setup to see if I liked the .260. Previously I used a Ruger M77 in 6mm Remington, sometimes a Savage in .270 WSM, and an old Rem 700 BDL is .30-06. They are now in the gun safe and the .260 goes where ever I hunt. Can’t be beat. It is accurate, flat shooting, easy on the shoulder and deadly on medium game. I think the real reason it is so accurate is that it just doesn’t recoil. My 6mm kicks more than my .260.
I hunt in Alabama, both north and south, and most shots will be within 200 yards. Some unusual situations might give you a 300+ yard oppurtunity. But the .260 seems to be able to handle all situations.
I do reload but really don’t have the time to work up a load. This past season I used the 120 grain Remington Accutip factory load. Shot at two deer (one doe and one buck (8)) and both dropped where they stood.
I would recommend it without reservation for deer, bear and hogs.
I just had a rifle rebarreled to 260 Remington. It should be a phenomenal rifle for coyotes, antelope and deer. I haven’t picked it up or shot it yet, but I think it is soon to be one of my favorite rifles.
As a reloader I will be working up my own loads. My intent is to begin with a 95 grain V-Max for the coyotes and some 100 grain Nosler’s for antelope and deer.
@ Heath G:
Let us know how it shoots when you get it!