I was in a local pawn shop today and looking awful hard at a Savage SS Striker in .260. I've never been around this caliber and was wondering what experience there was with this round here. Is this comparable with a 6.5x55? Any info would help. Price seems fair and I'm already starting to think I "need" this gun. Of course, I have 26 sets of dies and thousands of bullets on the shelf and none have anything to do with a .260 and it doesn't have a scope or mounts so there's more expense. With luck, it'll be sold before I go back.

I have a Kimber 84 in .260 Rem. It is the American equivalent of a 6.5x55. The .260 is essentially a necked down .308 Win and is suitable for short actions.

Ammo in factory form, the .260 is a tad bit faster than a 6.5x55. The 6.5x55 however has more powder capacity and when sanely handloaded to it's potential will exceed the .260s velocity in modern strong rifles. When handloading, most load manuals indicate medium-slow to slow powders get the most velocity. 4350s, H4831, Re 19, Re 22 etc are often cited, depending on bullet weight used. Hunting bullets from 120-140gr work well for large game.

The .260 has little recoil and is often chambered in lightweight rifles/carbines, i.e., Remington Model 7s and Kimber 84s.

If you are looking at a Striker, you are going to buy a bolt action handgun. In a handgun the 260 is one of the best choices available. Because of the 6.5 x 55 and smaller capacity 6.5 rounds that have been commonly used in europe and other places, the bullets are soft enough to perform very well at the velocities possible in psitol length barrels.

Most pistol shooters opt for the lighter weight bullets in 6.5 to get as much velocity as possible and gain flatter trtajectories. Nosler makes a 100 gr Partition and their 120 gr BT is also a reliable performer on game, but the 140s offer highest BCs and more retained energy down range.

The Nosler 140 gr Partition has a BC of .490 and the Hornady SST checks in at .521 I believe. There is also Barnes' 130 gr TSX and Swift's 130 gr Scirocco, with a BC of .571 for the Scirocco. It's hard to find a bad hunting bullet with the 6.5s.

I use a 300 yard zero. It's 6 inches high at 100 yards, 7 inches high at 200 yards, dead on at 300 and about 11 inches low at 400 yards. That's with the N Partition. You need 2,000 fps for reliable expansion with partitions, so you can't go much over 300 yards in a 260 with that bullet. The SST will expand down to 1,600 fps, so it will work out to as far as you can hit with a handgun.

The long high BC bullets in the 6.5s loose velocity very slowly and penetrate comparably to 180 gr 3006 loads in game. 2,400 fps is plenty of velocity with the 140s, with the 120 giving about 2,600 fps. Accuracy is all that could be asked for in most guns but the twist rate is important if you want to shoot the heavier bullets, with faster being better than slower. I would prefer a 1 in 9 or faster twist rate.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the 85 gr Sierra, 90 and 100 grain bullets for varmints by several other makers. These are also highly accurate even in the fast twist rate barrels. Recoil is low and terminal performance on game is all out of proportion to the paper ballistics. The 6.5 x 55 kills thousands of moose in skandnavia every year. You also have 150, 155 and 160 gr bullets available to you in the 6.5s, and don't forget all the excellent match bullets as the 6.5 has come to dominate long range match shooting to a large extent recently. It's hard to go wrong with a 260 Remington or any of the 6.5s...Rusty.

I have 2 encore barrels in this bore diameter. A now discontinued factory 15" 260 rem and a VV Custom 13" 6.5X55. Velocities run within 50fps of each other. The 6.5 being built on a douglas match blank gets the nod for accuracy but the encore bbl in 260 gives me an honest 1.5" to 2" group with a solid rest at 100 yards. Recoil is almost non-existant.
I also own a Remington Model 7 in 260. My next project for the Encore will be a carbine length barrel in either 260 or 6.5X55............. When it comes time for that decision I may have to draw from a hat.

I have one in a M77 compact.Great little round.Shot a turkey at 225 yds.Brass is available,but everyone has 308 + 243 brass laying around.(I guess most people do,I do anyway).I found however to have better results necking up 243 than necking down 308.I am a great fan of the 6.5 family.

rich i own a savage super striker in 308 its a super handgun, they savage made the ss for 2 years i think then discontinued it, in the 260 it would bee sweet-petite,there shooters no question . is it factory ported or not? regards jjmp

quote:

Originally posted by jjmp:
rich i own a savage super striker in 308 its a super handgun, they savage made the ss for 2 years i think then discontinued it, in the 260 it would bee sweet-petite,there shooters no question . is it factory ported or not? regards jjmp

Nah, it's not the ported kind. It does look practically unfired though. I had just about talked myself out of it until I read your post. I've already got three new guns I haven't had time to develop loads for. Including a 25-06 Encore Pro Hunter pistol barrel I just bought. Oh, the stress...