COTW - .260 Remington

[AJ]

In the early 1980’s gun writer Jim Carmichel was experimenting with the .308 Winchester case looking for a good high power silhouette cartridge. He necked the casing down to .26 caliber or 6.5mm and started using the 6.5 Panther wildcat. His idea was to develop a cartridge that had good top accuracy potential, a reasonably flat trajectory, and used high ballistic coefficient bullets that would have a greater resistance to wind and enough energy retention at 500 yards to topple the big steel ram. Since then, the 6.5/308 has become very popular with high power silhouette shooters.

In January 1997, Remington commercialized this round calling it the .260 Remington. Remington has initially offered the .260 in their lightweight Model 7 rifle with a 20" barrel and their Model 700 Mountain Rifle with a 22" barrel, or their standard weight Model 700 with a 24" barrel. Browning, Kimber, Ruger, Savage, Steyer-Mannlicher, Thompson/Center, and Winchester have also produced rifles in .260 Remington. Any rifle currently chambered for the .243, 7mm-08 or .308 could be chambered for the .260 Remington.

The .260 Remington is a modern cartridge somewhat shorter than the old 6.5x55 Swede with similar capability. The .260 Remington is loaded to higher pressures (60,000 psi) than the 6.5x55 (51,000 psi). The .260 Remington’s performance is slightly better than that of the older cartridge. Many people wondered why Remington bothered to release a new cartridge that was almost identical to a cartridge that has been in existence for 100 years.

One of the reasons for the popularity of this case is its versatility. It can handle anything from varmints to most big game. It offers adequate power for big game hunting and flat trajectory with minimum recoil. Because of this it is particularly suitable for lightweight "mountain" rifles like the Remington Model 7 bolt action. Recoil generated by the .260 Remington is between the 243 Winchester and the 7-08 Remington.

Federal, Remington, and Speer are offering factory loads for the .260 Remington. Bullet weights offered are 120 grains, 125 grains, and 140 grains. Generally speaking, the 87-100 grain bullets are for varmints and small predators, the 120-130 grain bullets are intended for medium size deer, sheep, goats, and antelope, the 140 grain bullets are the favorite choice for larger or tougher animals like wild boar, black bear, and caribou, and the heavy 150-165 grain bullets are for the largest non-dangerous game. Some say these bullet weights are too light for their intended applications. The sectional density, which is the ratio of a bullets weight in pounds, to the square of its diameter in inches, are said to determine how a given bullet will penetrate. The .260 caliber uses “heavy for its diameter” bullets. The above mentioned bullets, are relative to popular bullet weights in other calibers. For instance, the .26 caliber 120 grain bullet has a SD of .247, almost identical to the 165 grain .30 caliber bullet. The 125 grain .26 bullet has a SD of .256, identical to that of a 170 grain .30 bullet. The 129 grain .26 bullet has a SD of .264, nearly identical to that of a 180 grain .303 bullet. The long 140 grain .26 bullet has an outstanding SD of .287, which is essentially the same as a 160 grain 7mm bullet. The 160 grain .26 bullet has a SD of .328, about like a 220 grain .30 bullet. When the properly constructed bullets are chosen, the .26 caliber will do it with the bigger calibers.

The Remington 120 grain factory load features a Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet at 2890 fps with 2226 ft. lbs. of muzzle energy. This load when sighted in 2” high at 100 yards is ¾” high at 200 yards and 6” low at 300 yards while still providing over 1400 ft. lbs. of energy at 300 yards. It does all this while only producing 12 ft. lbs. of recoil in a 7.5 lb rifle. By comparison a 9 pound 30-06 with a 165 grain bullet produces 20 ft. lbs. of recoil energy.

The 125-130 grain bullets may be the best all-around bullet weights for this cartridge. With sectional densities of .256-.264 they are essentially equivalent to the 140 grain bullet in a .270 or the 145-150 grain bullets in the 7mm calibers, and are slightly higher to the 165 grain .30 caliber bullet, all of which are highly regarded as "all-around" bullets in their respective calibers. High quality bullets with high BC numbers in these weights include the 129 grain Hornady Spire Point, the 125 grain Nosler Partition and 130 grain Barnes X-Bullet. Unfortunately ammo with bullets in this weight range is not offered factory loaded. They are handloaded only.

Since the .260 Remington is based on the .308 Winchester case, as are the popular .243, 7mm-08, and .308, finding a supply of brass to reload should never be a problem. The handloader also has 87-100 grain, 125 grain, 129-130 grain, 150 grain, and 160-165 grain hunting bullets from which to choose.

Reloading offers the greatest versatility to the .260 Remington. Handloaders can choose from 95 grain Hornady V-Max varmint bullet to the 160 grain round nose bullets. The 95 grain V-Max can be pushed 3200 fps from a 24” barrel. When this round is sighted in 2” high at 100 yards, it is 1.5” high at 200 yards, 4” low at 300 yards, and 8” low at 400 yards. This is a fairly flat shooting varmint round.

The 125 grain Nosler Partition or the 129 grain Hornady can be pushed to 3000 fps in a 24” barrel. This offers the big game hunter a superb combination of penetration, flat trajectory, and energy retention out to 300 yards. When the bullet is sighted in 2” high at 100 yards the path of the bullet is 1” high at 200 yards and 5” low at 300 yards. Energy is almost 1600 at 300 yards and combined with the high SD of the bullet will provide more than adequate performance on most medium sized big game animals.

While the 6.5mm bullet diameter never really caught on in the USA, the .260 Remington is becoming increasingly popular. Only time will tell if it will take off as one of the “do everything” cartridges.

[ 03-22-2003, 09:05 AM: Message edited by: AJ ]

[too_pointer]

Re: COTW - .260 Remington

Welcome Stan, and thanks to you and AJ for some good info

too_