What do you 260 shooters do? I could buy rem brass, buy Lapua or other "good" brass in 308 and neck down...necks might get a bit thick but in a factory chamber might not be all bad...or neck up .243 brass, but I hate dragging that darn expander....Advice??

R

Isnt the 7mm08 the best cartridge then?
At least not as thick necks as with the 308!

Just go ahead and get yourself 100 new peices of 260 brass and go at it. No need to neck up or down.....extra trouble especially if it is a factory chamber. The 260 does not seem to me to be a "brass eater"...ie split necks like some of it's family counterparts so I'd just go with the 260. Get yourself a set of LEE Collet dies and that will make life easier to boot! GHD

I personnaly use 243 brass to form 260,7mm08,308.. .243 Rem brass is cheaper then 260,7mm08 or 308 thats the main reason I use the 243 brass..

6.5 Bandit

If you neck up or down don't forget to anneal the necks.Annealing will help when it comes to split necks,from work hardend brass.

My reason for not going with 7-08 brass is that Lapua does not make brass in 7-08 (from what I can tell..). Maybe I wasn't very clear. All of the premium brass manufactures make 308 brass,and most 243 brass. 260 brass ONLY comes from Rem. I believe. I use Lapua 30-06 brass to neck down for my 6.5x06 in a two step process, 270 die then 6.5x06 die. I've had no problems with neck splitting with Lapua brass and I don't anneal.

So let me be specific. Given the choice of necking up 243 brass or necking down 308 brass which do you prefer, what are the pros cons.

Thanks!

For use in a factory rifle I would stay with properly headstamped brass. I use Rem in both my 260s and doubt I could see any improvements gained by going to another case and resizeing. If you have a custom barreled match or bench rifle it would most likely be tight chambered and altered cases would be a neccesity.

I use Remington 260 cases, they seem to work pretty good. In a bench rest rifle, maybe Lapua 243 cases would be the way to go, but the regular 260 R-P stuff works for what I need

I shoot a 260 in F Class competition and have had very good luck with the Remington brass.I bought 500 pieces from the same lot and they were very good for domestic brass. I got three lots of 100 and one of 74 pieces of match quality brass out of 500, and that is not bad at all. As much as I like Lapua 308 Win. brass, don't use the 243 Lapua brass to neck up to 260 Rem., it is very thick and heavy, giving less case capacity than the Remington brass. If you feel you must neck up or down. I would neck down Rem. 7-08 brass. But if you must use Lapua, I would neck down the 308 in a two step operation and neck turn. Hope this has helped some.



May I be half the man my grandson thinks I am....RiverRat

Thanks guys, I'll guess I'll suspend my snobby beliefs about domestic brass and go with the rem 260. I'm all for simplicity! I have a new Kimber Montana--should be interesting to see if it will shoot worth a darn at only a hair over 5 lbs! It feels like a toy!

I have some Sierra MK's in 120 and 142 that I bought for my 6.5X06 that I'll try. I want to see how the 95gr Vmax will shoot for Mr. Songdog...as well as the 129gr SST's for deer..and oh, what about those 125 gr Nosler partitions for deer? My goal would be a coyote load and a deer load....so many possibilites, so little time!

I prefer Winchester Brass over Remington. I bought an initial bag of 100 Remington 260 brass.

However 90 % of what I have now is Winchester 7/08 or 308 brass. If I had to have one preference, it would be the 7/08.

I don't shoot a 7/08 or a 308, but I do shoot a lot of 243.
So if i see the headstamp of the first two them I know it is for the 260, when it sometimes gets mixed in with the 243 brass when I am running the brass thru the tumbler after I have resized it.

Winchester brass seems to have more capacity and thinner walls then Rem 260 brass. So the same amount of powder in a reformed Win 7/08 or a rem 260,, the Winchester case will have less pressure. ( supposedly)

The 260 is a great cartridge that is for sure!

I prefer Winchester Brass over Remington. I bought an initial bag of 100 Remington 260 brass.

However 90 % of what I have now is Winchester 7/08 or 308 brass. If I had to have one preference, it would be the 7/08.

I don't shoot a 7/08 or a 308, but I do shoot a lot of 243.
So if i see the headstamp of the first two them I know it is for the 260, when it sometimes gets mixed in with the 243 brass when I am running the brass thru the tumbler after I have resized it.

Winchester brass seems to have more capacity and thinner walls then Rem 260 brass. So the same amount of powder in a reformed Win 7/08 or a rem 260,, the Winchester case will have less pressure. ( supposedly)

The 260 is a great cartridge that is for sure!

Cheers and Good Shooting,
Seafire

I've been going thru this ordeal myself lately, so here is what I've learned/found from observations and asking around, but keep in mind this is mainly oriented at 6.5-08 'match' rifles for XTC or F-Class competition, so YMMV.

Forming from .243: Works fine, can be done in one step, shouldn't require any neck turning. Downside is that the base of what is now the neck was formerly part of the shoulder, which tends to be thicker i.e. can lead towards donuts. The overall impression I got was that the Lapua .243 brass is not on a par w/ their .308 brass, so I don't know as I'd spend the extra $$$ for something other than Winchester.

Remington .260 cases: Work fine, but if you are picky about your cases you might end up culling a *lot* to get a usable number. That's the biggest drawback as far as I've heard.

Forming from .308: If forming from something w/ thick necks like Lapua or Federal, you most likely *will* need to turn necks. Forming from something like Winchester which has pretty thin walls to begin w/ may end up just about right. Downside for me is that I had more than a few cases ruined, even w/ plenty of lube, going from .308 straight to 6.5-08. Using a 7-08 die w/ the expander removed as an intermediate step eliminated that problem, and I ended up w/ a finished neck diam. of .2895-.2900 w/ no neck turning (most reamers I believe are about 0.296-0.297). Pay close attention to the published reloading data; some of the charges I've found literally wouldn't fit in a heavier/thicker case such as one formed from Lapua .308, but would into one formed from Winchester (almost 15 grain difference in case weight) w/ a little trickling.

As I mentioned above, this is what I've dug up after looking around *a lot*, plus some observations from fiddling w/ my guns. Others may have seen/experienced something entirely different. In any event, I hope it helps a little.

Monte

Roger,

Good luck with your Kimber by the way. Since I have a 260 Classic I will follow your future posts on your Montana.

The Remington brass in 260 is really good brass for this hunting rifle. I was a big WW brass fan like many others here but that lot of Rem brass has changed or at least opened my mind. I don't buy the thinner is better argument either. Remington brass is thicker in the expansion web than WW brass and to me this is an advantage.

The 260 Rem cartridge has to be really easy to load for. So far everything I have loaded has shot well with the exception of the 129 SST's that I have. I think this is a bad box of bullets.

I suggest Rl 15 for the 95 and 100 gr bullets and IMR 4350 for the 120's. I use CCI Br primers in all cases like this.

All I have needed is the Lee Collet die so far and the brass has been loaded over and over. The chambers in both of my Kimbers are far better than any Winchester, with the exception of my new WSM, than any I have seen. I have a new Redding FL "S" bushing die just sitting here and there is no use for it.

The cartridge looks like a 243 Winchester to me and could also be mixed up with a 7mm-08. Just keep that in mind.

I too have had less than great results with the 129 gr. SST's in my m700 mtn rifle.

I am going to concentrate on the 129 gr. Interlock as my deer bullet...so I can shoot and practice with my hunting load without spending a ton of $$

Excellent guys..I'm getting anxious to shoot! I may have to buy a box of factory ammo just to get going! I'll report on things as they progress.