Would I be under gunned with a .260 Rem when hunting black bear? I am in PA. and am planning to build a new rifle and it will mostly be a deer rifle but I would like to use it when I start bear hunting also. I am thinking a .260 with a premium bullet, while not the rifle I would build if planning on hunting big bear should be fine for bear here in SW PA.

Not a bit undergunned. Just use a good bullet that shoots well. 140 Nosler Partition or any good 140 or 160 would work fine.

A better quality 140-160 grain bullet ought to do quite nicely.

Don,

I have one of my 260s set up with a 4 power scope for brush and such work... I use it to hunt bear with at times.. although a bear hasn't cooperated yet, to test the lethality...

However, I am loading a 140 grain Remington Corelokt, with a load of 44 grains of IMR 4350... and it gives me an MV of 2750 fps out of a 22 inch Ruger 77 Mk 2....

I think that is more than plenty for most of the black bears one could find in the lower 48.... a partition might give a little extra margin... but the Rem Corelokt doesn't make me loose any confidence in the loads ability...

good luck with it.. hope that helps ya out..

cheers
seafire

Use "heavy" bullets and no need to go fast. You will do just fine.

Seafire,

Funny as before I read your post, I was thinking of the old 140 corelokt myself, nothing fancy, but it will get the job done in good fashion.

Lots of penetration, good accuracy, and I would perhaps try anchoring the animal by going for both shoulders if presented, just to shorten any possible trail, but doubt you would have one go far enough properly hit to lose it.

Given a choice, a 338 Federal or 35 bore might be my choice, a 338-06 would hammer them, but a 260 with good bullet will do them in. My brother shot one with a 6mm mohawk, not ideal, but that is what was at hand, and he has a rug on the wall.

6.5BR,
The .338 Federal is another caliber I thought of but I am looking for low recoil. If it was just for bear I would do it anyhow.

I would go bigger than the 260, although I am using a long throated 6.5 Swede with 160s, however, a 600 pounder was taken in my area and if I am hunting blk bear only I use my 338 Win Mag

Well to be frank, never killed a bear, but seen them shot before on video's, I respect them and would want them to expire asap, they remind me of how cat's of various sorts seem to just absorb lead w/o signs of being hit. I can imagine without breaking them down or hitting the nervous system they go on a dead run for a ways.

What is typical? I would assume as a deer they get 35-60 yds or so with lung shots, then go down. Would that be accurate? I do know the momentum of 338/06 vs smaller bullets really hammered the whitetails I hit, though more gun than needed, it did flatten them. I had it built for elk by the way, and would expect it to be excellent on bear.

I really think some people overrate bears, and think they need a bigger caliber to kill one...

Around here, the average one weights between 150 and 175 pounds... we have a lot of them also, but you seldom see one... we have a county bigger than the state of Rhode Island with only 100,000 people in it... 75 % of the land is all forest service... see tons of bear crap, just the bears are long gone before a human can get close to them....

6.5 BR, I have to admit, I was carrying my 338/06 out elk hunting and was also keeping my eyes peeled for a bear, as I saw a lot of sign in the areas I was hunting in....

While I love the smaller calibers, I gotta admit, for 7 days hunting elk and then still carrying it a couple more days this past week, while deer hunting... a 200 grain bullet in a 338 bore, with an MV of 2900 fps, does give you a lot of confidence in the package...

I sure hope this doesn't get out and people start calling seafire a big bore fanatic...

I'll never be caught without several different 6.5 mm bores in my cabinet, and never be without at least one 30/06 in a Winchester Model 70, and also never without a 7 x 57, a 6mm Rem, a 22.250 and a 223... and a 444 Marlin....but I have to admit, I sure love that 338/06 an awful lot! guess I will never be without one of those either....

Now I just wish I could hunt in about 10 states each fall, and be guaranteed being in a game rich environment like those gun writers....

But I have to admit, walking the mountains in Oregon, during hunting season at high altitude, and just carrying a rifle with me.... I really don't get disappointed if I skunk... It is just a beautiful place to be....
'A bad day hunting is better than a good day at work....' especially when the sun is shining and you are up at about 5000 to 6,000 feet above sea level...

I have used the 250 Savage with good results on black bears, I kept the shooting distance to under 100 yards and took many with one shot. So I figure the 260 will be a fine bear killer.

quote:

Originally posted by Jacobite:
Would I be under gunned with a .260 Rem when hunting black bear? I am in PA. and am planning to build a new rifle and it will mostly be a deer rifle but I would like to use it when I start bear hunting also. I am thinking a .260 with a premium bullet, while not the rifle I would build if planning on hunting big bear should be fine for bear here in SW PA.

Here is a pic of an exit wound on a Black Bear I took in northern alberta in september this year with a 260 using 125 nosler partitions
Shot was 100 yards give or take a couple of yards. Bear made it 10 feet before piling up. The hide squared 6'4" and was in perfect shape and is currently being made into a rug. Weight was estimated in the 500 pound range.My buddy shot one the day before right on the shoulder with his 30-06 and that bear went 75 yards had he have been using a partition instead of an sst I suspect the results would have been the same as mine.

Put a good bullet through the shoulders and you should have a nice rug for the house.

The 257 Roberts has taken a very many bears and it would be safe to say that the 260 would be a bit better. I haven't shot bear with mine yet but wouldn't hesitate to use it even though there's a 30-06 is the cabinet beside it.

Nice one Hipster!

Great info, that 125 sounds like it busted both shoulders, I assume that is where you like to hit them? It allows that partition to do all it is made to do before exiting.

I would love to see terminal bullet performance test between the 129 sp and the 125 pt. I would think the 129 does very well also for a conventional bullet, under 264 mag velocities of course.

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?Q=167590&A=11
Edit: A 733# anything makes that S-10 pickup overweight. Easy steering, though!

Scroll down to the second last paragraph. There are some bruiser black bear living in PA. Now I'm not saying that one can't be killed by a .260Rem but I would want something bigger. Just because there's a lot of state game lands and the rule is "possession is 9\10ths of the law." If you don't anchor any size bear on the spot, there is a good chance some other hunter will put a 'finisher' in him and then claim him for his own. Just my 2 cents.

I'd step up just a hair to 7MM-08 it will give you a much better selection of bullets in both factory and premium bullets.

A 260 would be fine for bear but a .308 might be better. But hell i like both...tj3006

Well I know the 7-08 or .308 would be better, heck if it were only going to be for bear I would build a .338 federal as I really think I would like that round and still might go with it. 7-08 is not even in the running as I don't load for any 7mms. I allready load for my brothers .260 and really like the cartridge that is why I want to go with it. I also like how little recoil it has

Hmmmmmmmm check out the recoil .260 vs 7MM-08

Hmmmm

I don't want to start loading for a 7mm. I allready load for a .260.

Shoot the bear right thru the heart with your .260. It will die.

If you are comfortable shooting the .260 , load it with premium bullets & place the shot in the vitals, Smokey will never know the difference.
Dave

quote:

Originally posted by Jacobite:
Well I know the 7-08 or .308 would be better, heck if it were only going to be for bear I would build a .338 federal as I really think I would like that round and still might go with it. 7-08 is not even in the running as I don't load for any 7mms. I allready load for my brothers .260 and really like the cartridge that is why I want to go with it. I also like how little recoil it has

Same reason I bought the 700 mountian. I wanted a light carry rifle that would take animals up to 400 or so pounds with less recoil than my 30-06's. I shot a 200 pound whitetail with the same load at 300 yards "bang flop" with very little blood shot meat. On the other hand had I known that I would be getting a shot on a bear that morning I would have been toting one of my 06's stoked with 180 grain partitions. That bear made me a beliver in the 260 when loaded with a good bullet.

I was lucky enough to put the bullet in the right place when I had the chance. I have also found the 260 to be very easy to load with a lot of different bullet weights and powders. Accuracy has been superb throughout.With a 100 grain it is pretty close to the 25-06 with a 100. A 120-130 gets in the ball park of standard factory 270 loads.I have not ventured to the 140 grain bullets as of yet, and being a realist can't see a need for them with this rifle's intended purpose.

If you want my load data for the 125 partition drop me a private message and I will be glad to send it off to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Jay Johnson:
Hmmmmmmmm check out the recoil .260 vs 7MM-08

Hmmmm

They are pretty close with the 260 rifle weight being 1/2 pound lighter than the 7-08 seems like a toss up between the two as far a recoil goes. Either cartridge would be an excellent choice in a light fast handling rifle.

Hipster take another look at that the 7MM is a full pound less recoil energy. That is 13.6 for the .260 vs 12.6 for the 7. The 7 also provides 110 more fps velocity with that 140 Gr. bullet weight.

Yes I did see that but the difference in rifle weight was 1/2 pound with the 7-08 being 8 pounds and the 260 being 7-1/2 pounds. Now if one wanted to go one step further and put both calibers on an even footing as far as SD and BC for both where they would be very close you would come up with something like this.

I have taken the values from Nosler partition data.

6.5 mm 140 grain partition
BC .490
SD .287

7mm 160 grain partition
BC .475
SD.283

This does change the dynamics of bullet speed and recoil a bit in one versus the other. Now you could throw the AB into the mix in the 7mm but the 6.5 mm AB does not exist yet.
A 140 AB in 7mm
BC .485
SD .248


160 AB in 7mm
BC .531
SD .283

BC is never etched in stone with listed numbers in my limited experence and I suspect the only true measure of gaining accurate BC is by shooting at various ranges with a known muzzle velocity and comparing drops from ballistic softwear to real world drops with the cartridge being shot. Hell a 5% change in humidity up or down can screw the pooch so to speak on the numbers not to mention altitude and so on. Thats what makes shooting so much fun the never ending quest to nail it on the head for all conditions one might encounter in the field and the range.

Time to take some brass out of the tumbler

I can't understand how recoil got into this, If a 7mm08 or a .260 creates enough recoil to bother a guy ,I would recomend he either not go bear hunting at all, and just hunt dear with a .243 or a Roberts,
or borrow a magnum from sombody and shoot it just a little, then no 308 type round will be a problem...tj3006

TJ,
Recoil got into the topic because my reason for building the new rifle is I want a lightweight rifle with low recoil. My main rifle is a .300 Winny I have set up for stationary hunting hillside to hillside. I have a brake on it and it has next to no recoil. However it is not the rifle I want to be toting around all day. I am mostly a deer hunter but want a rifle I could take bear hunting also. My reason for the .260 is my brother has one and I allready reload for that caliber and really like it.
I could go .308 as the rifle I will be useing for the build is allready a .308 but I want something different and I really like the .260

I'd take the 260 over the 7mm-08 anyday!! 6.5's just penetrate!! 100,000's of Scandanavians can't be wrong!!

quote:

6.5's just penetrate!! 100,000's of Scandanavians can't be wrong!!

I do not think they are either. That is why I am building a 6.5X55, but I do recognize that it is typicaly thought that a heavy for caliber bullet [155-160grain in the 6.5] at ~2400 fps is the preferred medicine for Alg.

Having owned several 708's and 260's and 6.5x55, the 708 kicks a little more, not much, but it does. Similar bullet weights at similar speeds are not going to show much difference.

Neither is unpleasant, even for extended range sessions, though I prefer 6 and 6.5's for volume shooting.

2 of my 708's are 21" and are danged loud, as I load up and they zing 140s at 2960 with Varget/4064

I shot mostly 100's and 129's in my 260's, 140 would never stabilize in the rem's 9 twist rifles. My custom 6.5/08 also had a 9 but the barrel maker mistakenly did it, I requested 8.

Both are great rounds for small bore, lots of performance- very efficient.