Was surprised to see that Savage Arms no longer chambers the 260 Remington. Ruger only chambers it in a rifle or two. Ditto for Remington. Not too many factory loads out there. Whaddaya think?

Is the .260 dead? Well let’s look at it. What does it do that a .264 Win. Mag doesn't? The critics all said that the 264 died because of a poor bullet selection or a least that was one of the major reasons. Have those choices expanded drastically? Hum. Are you getting the picture? It's a niche gun in my opinion. With all of the other calibers available today there are smaller and larger guns that do the same thing, some of them are going to fade away. I think that the Manufactures are responding to the market.

The 260 is a fine cartridge but will never sell too much just as the 7mm-08 did not. It has been around as a wildcat since the mid 50s and will continue on as a defunct factory offering for at least as long. Regards, Bill.

Got a Remington VLS in the .260, beautiful rifle, but wouldn't shoot. After about 200 rounds had the barrel taken off and now have a very good target rifle in another caliber. It will go the way of the .244.

260 Remington is a great cartridge. Is it dead, can't be, because I just bought a new factory rifle in it last month. I can buy brass, factory loads, great selection of bullets, etc.

Federal, Speer, and Remington make factory loads now, 6 combined. Hornady and Winchester are the only ones who don't. Is the 300 Ultra dead? Only 2 ammo makers load it.

If hunters only knew how great the 260 & 7-08's are, we would all be shooting them. We are such a magnum crazed type that we won't even give these cartridges a second thought, but drool over the latest short mag or ear shattering Ultra Mag.

I sure hope it's not dead.

I was aware of the Remington and Speer loads, but not Federal. Federal website shows two premium 140 grainers, one a TBBC and the other Sierra's GameKing BTSP, both clocking at 2750 fps. Not bad! That TBBC load would be a real hoot. I was hoping to pick up a Savage rifle in 260 so I could get into the cartridge on the inexpensive side. I recall seeing the 260 chambered by Savage last year... Oh well, time to keep my eyes posted on the used market...

The .264 is dead? Damn, been shooting a dead round for 25 years!!!!!!! Now I just started with a .260 and it is dead too. Must be something in the water around here.

The 260 has found a following in the highpower crowd, which will guarantee it's popularity for a while. Even before the 260 was standardized the 6.5-08 was a extremely popular wildcat.

People also said the .45-70 was a dead round when the smokeless propellant was invented, look what happened there.

Yes I'm still shooting a .264 but the brass is pretty hard to come by. My Uncle's pre 64 Mod 70.

Even though it is probably a fine cartridge my first response when looking up the ballistics of the 260 round was - where is that 3000 fps load - to me that is a magical marketing number. 2700 -2800 fps unless its a big bore (375 plus) magnum or even a 350 Rem Mag, is just plain boring. I think the 6.5 is a juicy caliber - would like to see Winchester chamber the 6.5-284 which will make that consumer friendly 3000 fps. Also has an extremly strong record on the long range circuit and has commercial brass available - so it must be popular. Please put it in the long action. Tough diameter to market when you have the 25-06, 270 and 7mm already saturating the spectrum. But if you love that 140 gr 6.5 then nothing else will do.

Jay,

That is a pretty good combination of round and rifle for what ever my 2 bits is worth. Mine has never let me down as long as I keep noslers and x bullets going through it. Isn't midway still selling the brass? I have quite a pile of it and have not bought any for a few years.

I just use my Model Seven in .260 Rem as a modern equivalent of the classic 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer carbine: 160-grain Hornady round noses at 2350 fps. Works great!

The 260 and 7/08 don't make a lot of sense when you compare them to the universal .308 Win which shoots just about the same weight bullets. And those 260's are not really that powerful that they become long range cartridges either. In fact the .308 will carry more energy at any range.

Also the 260's are too big to be good varmint cartridges.

There is so much overlap that they will not be dominant. But if you like one of them it's fine with us.

The 260 might be a good target cartridge for ranges over 300 yards but that's a small market.

In Australia I have seen a couple of 7/08s at the range but no 260s.

My feeling is that neither the 260 or 7-08 is a "gun nuts" caliber and the non gun nuts are more likely to stay with 243, 270, 308 and 30/06 and with the 7mm Rem and 300 Win picking up both some "gun nuts" and "non gun nuts"

Mike

I had a 700 Rem. SS DM I bought off a guy that was like new in my store for nearly a year and could not sell it. People would pick it up, look at it, and set it down without a comment.But here in my area I know no one who owns one, and none of the stores stock ammo for it.I finally sold it on the net. It was nice, but is going the way of the .280, .284, and .264. Here in my part of the country, at least.

I think Mike375 has it right. It appeals mainly to us nuts, who've known about it for years already anyway. The highpower (target) crowd has adopted it in good numbers but as above, has known about it for a while too.

At least Rem standardized the dimensions and made factory brass available, which is a step forward.

It doesn't fit anywhere in my hunting parameters but makes a dandy way-over-there paper killer.

Redial

I think where big green messed up is they didn't focus on the market niches where the round excels. Those niches as I see them are for the youth/woman hunter looking for a light recoiling rifle, and then to a lesser extent, the dual purose varmint/deer rifle croud.

Personally, I think the .260 is a much better round then the .243 for those seeking a light recoiling round, as well as being more effective for less then perfect shots. I also think they should have concentrated on the 120-130 gr bullets, as they offer higher velocities and less recoil then the 140 gr load. It would also be nice to see 85 gr hp loads for vermin (not sure if they exist or not).

Heck, maybe we just have a saturated market for deer rifle rounds?

Sad but true, but most casual "shooter" make their decision on what caliber to buy based on what Walmart-Mart sells for $10 bucks a box.

Paul H,

You are right on. There is a market for an adequate "deer" round that has lower recoil. There has been discussions here in the past on the suitablity of the 260 for ladies for use on elk.

If Remington could come up with features that give just a little less recoil. Lighter bullets work as you point out. Maybe an inerta device in the butt stock and a Decelerator pad along with a subtle "Weatherby" type cheek piece would sell. There has to be a market for this.

Here when you bring a "magnum" rifle to the range they shake their heads. Both the fear of recoil and who needs it come to their minds.

Hmmm... there are gobs of 260 boxes on the shelves around here and 260 has become a very popular round with women and kids especially chambered in the affordable and excellent Ruger MkII. I probably will one day rebarrel my 243 to 260 and not look back as I think it'd make as dandy a deer/pronghorn/coyote round as can be imagined. As a "dual-purpose" round I think it eclipses the 257 Roberts/243 and the 7-08 on the heavy side.

BA

Who here is considering a new deer rifle?

Are you thinking about the 260 rem? If not, why?

Dead...... Nope, I have'nt felt all that great the last week or so but DEAD.........

I thought about getting a 260, quite a bit. I ended up getting a 6.5x55. I have a few Swedes that I load for but didn't want to sporterize them. And I wanted a CZ550.

I am having a custom 260 built on a Rem action right now (actually it's the 260 Ackley Imp). Hope to have it back from the gunsmith in about three weeks. I could have chosen any cartridge (factory or wildcat) but settled on the 260.

Here is the criteria I used to select the cartridge for my new rifle:

A) I like short actions for a light, handy rifle (but I like a 24" barrel)

B) I wanted to use a Rem short action (which can't feed a cartridge with OAL much over 2.8") and wanted minimize seating bullets down in the powder space of the case.

C) This is my first custom gun and I didn't want a sore shoulder (from heavy recoil) to limit my practice/plinking time.

D) This was going to be my primary deer rifle so the cartridge had to be a great deer cartridge. In my experience, 120g - 150g bullets seem to be ideal for deer.

E) There are a lot of coyotes in Ark. I would like to do my part in reducing that population so I wanted a caliber that would be effective on them. Many hunt coyotes with 50g - 100g bullets.

F) I wanted the rifle to be as accurate as possible.

Using the above criteria I started narrowing things down. Bullets from 25 - 28 cal seemed the best fit. There is only 0.007" difference between the 25 & 26 caliber bullets and also 0.007" difference between 27 & 28 caliber bullets. It seemed futile to distinguish the difference 0.007" would make. However, when I started looking at the range of bullet weights avaliable in each caliber, the 26 & 28 calibers stood out. There is a huge range of bullet weights in 26 cal.....from 85g to 160g, possibly more. Similarly, you can choose 100g - 175g in 28 cal. I couldn't find a 25 cal bullet above 120g so I gave the 26 cal the edge over 25 cal. Each mfg. had many more 28 cal bullets to select from as compared to 27 cal so I decided 28 would be the better caliber of the two.

Now I started looking at short action cartridges avaliable in 26 and 28 cal. The Rem SAUM case interested me. It's the same length as the 308 case. The case was so fat however, I was afraid it would create feeding problems (and that's a lot of powder for 26 cal). It quickly narrowed down to the 308 case in either caliber or the 284 case in either caliber. I finally chose 26 cal as I could drop down and shoot 85g bullets for coyote and load 125g-140g bullets for deer. Ideal for my needs!

I sure like the 6.5-284! I finally decided against it as the long bullets would have to be seated so far into the powder column. So now I had it, the 260 Rem was my cartridge! It's an accurate cartridge used in many competitions. It has low recoil. The 260's twin, the 6.5x55mm, has an impressive record on European Elge (similar to the North American moose) so few could seriously question it's effectivness on any whitetail or mulie that walks. I contacted my gunsmith who happened to have a reamer in 260 Ackley Improved so I went with the Improved version.

A secondary benefit is that the 260 will be great for my wife to shoot and for teaching my two daughters to shoot. I think the lack of a lightweight, factory load hurts the 260. Much of the appeal of the 260 was it's versatility; but that versatility is only avaliable to the handloader. I will probably deer hunt with 125g Partitions or 129g Hornady SSTs. I will shoot Sierra's 85g and 100g Hollow points and coyote hunt with whichever is more accurate in my gun. That's why and how I chose the 260. Surely some of the reasons I gave would apply to other hunters.

Amen to what Hogwild said!

I'm about off to the same project, for once in my life though I most likely won't AI it.

95 V-Max could be fun at 3300.

What twist are you using, I'm thinkin of going 9.

'GET TO THE HILL"

Dog

Twist?.....1 in 9. I have a 6.5X55 on order with this rate. Supposed to be the one for weights up to 130gr.
http://www.shilen.com/calibers.htm
Regards
Rick

HogWild, Thanks I now need a new barrel for my switch barrel XP

I ended up going with a 1:9 twist. I talked it over with my gunsmith. I told him the main purpose of the gun was for deer using 120g-130g bullets. I also wanted to shoot the lightweight 85g-100g bullets for coyote and plinking. If possible however, I wanted the option to shoot 140g bullets.....so long as it wouldn't affect the accuracy of bullets in the 85g-100g class. He recommended the 1:9 twist but wanted me to talk it over with Chris at Pac-Nor barrels (thats who made my barrel).

Chris, at Pac-Nor, said the 1:10 wouldn't stabilize bullet weights above 120g. He recommended the 1:9 for everything up to and including the 140g (including the 85g Sierra which he thinks is a great bullet) and said it should be perfect for my intended use.

I have a T/C pistol with 15" barrel made by bullberry. This is chambered in 260 Rem and use this to hunt deer. Its a very handy side arm essentially a short rifle and easy to carry. The smaller powder capacity allows use of faster burning powders which is more efficient in a short barrel. The bullets, I like the 95gr Hornady Vmax and 120 gr Nosler ballistic tip, give good external ballistics. A very destructive weapon on deer.

South West Oregon must be a fluke, but lots of hard core blacktail hunters are picking up 260's. Ultra lite's, sporters and heavy sporters. They are real deer medicine out to 500 yards. It does not blow the crap out of the meat some of us like to eat, and it doesn't kick like my 'ol 300 either. It hits alot harder than the 243 and shoots alot flatter than my 308s. I don't want to hunt elk with it. I like heavy varmits for sage rats. Wow! Sounds like a good idea. And who shoots factory ammo anyway. I couldn't think of a better dedicated deer gun. It not the one gun to hunt the whole earth and planets beyond. Its a just a great deer caliber. And if it goes away so what, it'll be all the more classic in fifty years.

My Model Seven is great.It has thus far handled every chore that I have asked of it... Whats better than a 260 Remington? Having Two!!!

The .25-08 would be better, you would have the heavy bullets, but it would be a great varmit-deer rifle. In 6.5mm you should step up to a 06 case.

I have a Mod.7 in .260Rem., synthetic stock, Burris Compact, etc...................shoots better then I can right out of the box. My daughter is in great shape but slightly built. She needs no recoil reducers when she shoots it and hopefully will shoot her first caribou with it this season. I, personally, love the .260 and found this one really reduced at a K-mart because, as the salesman said, "Its one of those oddball calibers."

if you're hunting whitetail deer (as most US hunters are) and you're going to buy your first gun (that will only be used on whitetail deer) then you can't go wrong with either the 260 or 7-08, because they will do everything that the average deer hunter needs - out to 300 yards (but for most deer applications, 300+ yard shots don't happen often).

not only that, the 260 is great (as has been mentioned) for the recoil sensitive shooter or first time shooters from youth to young at heart.

unfortunately, most gun salemen (retail outlets like walmart, etc) aren't gun nuts, and really don't know anything other than marketing hype. as such, they won't be hyping the 260 like they ought to - these are the yahoos that sell 300 RUMs to neophytes . . . who then give up shooting 'cause it hurts too much.

My first thought was when remmington brought out this calibur was why? The mostly ignored 6.5x55 will do everything the 260 will. They should have brought out the 6.5x284. Factory cases already available from several sources + the benefit of 270 performance and bullets from 85-160 grain.

I sure hope it's not dead.
I'm planning on getting one for my wife, in a Remington Model Seven, SS.

YES, I'm a nice man!

I don't think it's "dead" per say, just didn't catch on like everyone thought. In 6.5, most real gun nuts would consider it almost mandatory to own a 6.5x55. Model 70, M77, R93, CZ, Lightning, and other rifles are available, Federal, Winchester, Remington, Norma, and Hornady ammo is available, military surplus weapons and ammo not withstanding, brass, bullets, load data, history and nostagia, proven accuracy and effectiveness, low noise and recoil, I mean it just plain has a lot going for it. I don't think a "new kid" like the .260 will be able to dethrone it even with the short action (the only plus I can think of)in this caliber. Talk to any Swede owner! I'd never trade my battered old sporterised Mauser with crappy 4x scope for the newest of the new .260. It's just too much of a good thing in the .264-bore and probably the reason why other .264's never really caught on with the gun crowd. To non-gun or novice people, they'll probably stick with other slightly more common cartridges like the .243, .270, .308, .30-06, and 7mm and .300 Magnums. The .260 will always have a following, but will never be more than second place.

i think it's about time the rest of the world woke up to the superb dynamics of the .260.
Short action rifles are lighter, and therefore shorter ( and a damn sight handier). The shorter action is stiffer, and therefore more likely to be accurate. Same length short action rifle has a longer barrel than a long action rifle, so any argument about needing a longer barrel etc are negated.
.260 is loaded to higher pressures the 6.5x55, so why bother wiith the long action 6.5?
Overheard a gun shop attendant bleating on about how the 7/08 was a far superior round recently , and so no one was going to bother with the 260. It is this type of rubbish which wrecked the .284 Win - one of the greatest 'mountain' rifle cartridges so far developed.
Get a 260 and be VERY satisfied.