Anyone have a 260 if so what is your best load?
posted on another board,no one gave any info so no one must have one on that board.
I have arem BDL and am curious to know what works best for other owners.
Shot some different loads yesterday and got one group of .183 in. using 120 gr serriaHP and H4831.Was wanting to find a good load for the 129 bullet but the loads I tried with them wasn't that good.

I have tried the 129 Hornaday SST and found it be a very inconsistent bullet with numerous powders. Ir really wanted to shoot this bullet, but I finally gave up on it. Like you I have found the Sierra 120 HPBT MatchKing and the 120 gr. Sierra Pro Hunter to very accurate bullets, though I use different powders than you. I found the 90 gr. Speer TNT to shoot very well also. Tomorrow I am going to do load developement with the 140 gr. Sierra GameKing. I have been bugging Sierra about a high B.C. 130 gr. GameKing for the 6.5 bore. They told me don't hold your breath it probably wont happen. If you try the 129 SST it will be interesting to see what you find.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight......RiverRat

I have a stainless mountain rifle in that caliber. I shoot 120 grain Sierra bullets using H414 powder. Shoots under an inch. I've killed two deer with it with two shots. Both dropped right there. Can't ask for more.

Bob257

I have tried the sst's too and cannot get a decent load with them,but I got a pretty fair load using the soft point hornadys in 129 with H4831,loaded 1/2 gr over max.I am going to try and add a pic of some groups I got yesterday,any one of them would be good hunting loads but I like the tiny one the best. Bob you did good with the 120 I will probably try them when I hunt the mtn section this year.They shoot very good on the range. The red dot is one that someone left on the target board at 200 you can see where I hit at 200 only had one bullet left loaded up some more to try at 2&300 yds next time.

I have been shooting 50 grains of RL 19 behind a 120 Gr X bullet for a couple of years now. Shoots into about an inch at around 3000 FPS.
1 cow elk and a bunch of coyotes think it is a decent load.

I use R19 with 129 & 140gr Horn SPs, works well for me.
It`s a toss up with H4831 and R19 in my rifle. The lighter (120 matchking & Nosler BT) bullets are more accurate but I get very good hunting accuracy with the 129-140gr and have settled with the 129 SP as my bullet of choice for deer.
I had good luck with H4350 and the 129 also, but ran out before I finished working with it.

I have a #5 shileen barrel on a old m77 action. It throws out some really nice groups. I use R19 with 120 Nbt, 125 Partitions and 129 SP Hornady's. I bought 2 boxes of 129 sst's but I could not get a decent group. For 100 grain sierra Hp I use r15, with excellent resolts.

44gr H4350 with 129 gr hornady. 2850 fps or so and .75"/100 yds all day long.

Good to see some 260 shooters here. I've had a hankerin' for one but in a bit different set up. I'm thinkin' about a Palma length barrel 30-31 inches and a nice prone stock to lock in to...?

Should be perfect for my new 20x Unertl.

Best - redleg

I shoot several of them. I second the use of RL 19 with the 120s and above. I had mine throated out to shoot the 160 grain RNS also, both are Ruger 77s. The 700 VLS, Rem I throated out to shoot the 120s to fit the magazine. I also concur with my fellow southern Oregonian, Rogue 6. RL 15 is a great powder for the 260!

For the 260, I stumbled across a load that worked so well with me with 100 grainers, why mess with success! One 260 is loaded with a Nosler Partition that is for the European Market but I get it as a factory second from Nosler: a 105 grain Semi Spitzer. My powder of choice is IMR 4064 / 43.5 grains. The brass is Winchester 7/08 brass ( I prefer Winchester over Rem brass) and a Rem 9 1/2 primer. Velocity is 3350 out of a 22 inch barrel. My 26 inch Remington VLS hits 3450. I load the same powder up in with the 90 grain TNT and get 3500 fps with 44 grains in the Rem Varmint rifle.

The second 260 is loaded for brush hunting. It carries a 4 x Weaver loaded with IMR 4895 with a Remington 140 grain Corelock. Bought a box of 500 or so on a close out somewhere. Velocity is 2500 fps, and it is zeroed 2.5 inches high at 100 yds, so it is dead on at 200.

Just as a word of wisdom, based on experience, do not use the Nosler 100 grain ballistic tip at 3300 fps on a deer and not expect having some blood shot meat. I shot one at 300 yds last year and watched it go down in the scope set on 4x. However on the oft shoulder, we lost an area of meat as big as two hands with your finger tips all the way out. Strictly the partition this time.


[ 08-13-2003, 09:34: Message edited by: seafire ]

Thanks to all,the reason I am interested in different loads is that I had a ruger in the 260 and it really shot great took many deer with it,year before last shot a buck in the throat at 110 yds,shot one in the neck at 85 yds and the insides was turned to jelly,shot one with a factory 140 corelock when I first got it at 45 yds,it ran about 50 yds down the ridge,got to it and turned it over to see where the bullet exited and its whole pouch was outside it body,intact it had blowed out the bullet exit hole,now that was something to see.Shot 2 with one shot year before last,was standing broad side and the doe was standing behind the buck,it was either sex and we have a 2 per day deer limit.
I traded the ruger for the rem bdl because it has a 24 in barrel and it doesn't shoot the same loads as the ruger did.
POp and seafire I am going to try those loads you suggested and see how they work.
seafire looks like you only got another 100 fps with a 4 in longer barrel,is the 43.5 gr load the max? Hornady gives 34.3 to 40.9,will have to work up carefully.

**These loads appear safe in my new Model 700, but may be dangerous in another. Reduce 5% and work your way up**

100 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip
42.7 grs. RL15
CCI BR-2
R-P case
~
3034 fps/22" barrel
-------------------------------

120 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip
49.0 grs. H4831sc
CCI BR-2
R-P case
~
unknown velocity, sub MOA for 5 shots @ 100m
-------------------------------

129 gr. Hornady Interlock SP
49.0 grs. Winchester WXR
CCI BR-2
R-P case
~
2796 fps/22" barrel
--------------------------------

140 gr. Nosler Partition
46.0 grs. Hodgdon H4831sc
CCI BR-2
R-P case
~
2612 fps/22" barrel
--------------------------------

140 gr. Sierra GameKing BTSP
46.6 grs. RL22
CCI BR-2
R-P case
~
2620 fps/22" barrel

---

These loads have worked well in my stainless 700.

I didn't want to mention the 105 grain partition, because it usually starts a fight with posters. I picked up 250 seconds from the Bullet Depot. I've been hording them for my kids to hunt with. For general hunting its hard to beat the 125 partition and the 129 grain SP interlock. 2900-3000 fps and tons of sectional density. They are real deer zappers. I have a 1-8 twist barrell and I still couldn't get the sst's to shoot under an inch.

Owensby,

The loads in my Ruger of the 4064, are a half grain over what is listed as max in the Ruger manual. I had originally gotten it out of a magazine article somewhere before a lot of load data was available.

I do know the Ruger has a 1 in 8 twist and the Remington has a 1 in 9 ( I believe). I do use Winchester Brass in mine, which have larger powder capacities, so I assume a little less pressure than Remington cases. The Winchester cases are necked down 308 or 7/08 brass I use.
MY two Rugers have been throated out to take 160 grainers in the magazine length. The Remington has been throated out to be able to take 120 grain ballistic tips and 120 Sierra Match bullets to magazine length only.

With the 120s, the Remington VLS sure likes 40 grains of W 748 in that rifle.

These have all been safe in my rifle, but one has to give the " work up accordingly" disclaimer in here. If you get too much velocity on a load, the critics are thicker than mosquitoes in a swamp on a hot June Night on this board. Normally quoting out of some book with no hands on experience of what they are attacking.

Good loads...Where did you get the 43.5 gr of the 4064 load. Man who needs a 25-06 if you got that!

[ 08-25-2003, 23:09: Message edited by: POP ]

It is kind of interesting how many of you use 120 gr bullets. And how many seem to like Reloader powders. I tried IMR 4350 and 4064, H414 with Nosler 100, 125, and 140 gr bullets. My gun really hit its stride, though, with .....

You guessed it....

the Sierra 120 gr Prohunter over a healthy dose of Re 19. Hmmm... maybe there's something here...

By the way, the three deer I took last year with this load never made it past the 10 yard mark. Very effective. In fact, I can only recall one animal that has ever made it past the 50 yd mark, and that one I hit a bit farther back and destroyed its liver instead of its lungs.

CAL

One of my friends has the 260 bDL like the one I got and his best powder is R-19 (47gr)with 120 gr BT,but with the ruger I traded or the Bdl I just got neither would shoot the R-19,I tried 46 to 48 grs and couldn't get less than 2 in grs.
The ruger shot its best with IMR 4831 and the bdl so far likes the H 4831.
Have a 270 wsm and the last can of R-19 the same lot I tried in the 260 shoots allmost as good as the IMR 4350 that I use in it.Don't know why but the R-19 changes with lot numbers.the older can I had wouldn't even group in my 270 but got a new can with different lot number and it shoots less than 1/2 in grs.

Thought I would post the results of the load testing with the 140 gr. Sierra GameKing. I found a load using 42.0 gr of H 4350 EXT. in Rem. brass, with a CCI BR 2 primer. Three 5 shots groups averaged .409" @ 2737 fps avg. velocity from my 24" barrel. I am done testing. I am really happy with this rifle. I have a load for the 90 gr. TNT, the 120 gr. Sierra Prohunter, and the 140 gr. Sierra GameKing that all shoot well under .5 MOA at magazine length. Can't wait to hunt with it.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight.....RiverRat