Best Powder w/ 260 Rem w/ 120-130 Bullets

[rcw3]

Along with the other thread asking for the best bullet weight for the 260 Rem, I am curious what people are finding as the best powders for the 260 Rem with the 120-130 gr bullet weights.

I am thinking something in the rate like N150 but I am curious to hear what people are finding that works well and provides consistent accuracy,not just a great 5 shot groupe here and there). I have a wildcat 6.5 mm cartridge I am working with that is of similar case capacity to the 260 Rem and I am trying to get a handle on what might work the best powder wise with the 120-130 gr bullets.

Robert Whitley

 

[Dgd6mm]

rcw3,I've never shot 120-130 out of my .260 rem. But 140 a-maxes loaded with 49 grs. of H1000 shoot verywell out to 600 yards. My 200 yard 5 shot groups were sub-1 inch. Hope this may help you.I believe my buddy was shooting lapua's in his .260 and he was using H1000 also and they shot just as well.

 

[memilanuk]

Robert,

When I was shooting a 6.5-08 for XTC, I'd looked through a lot of posts on the old Florida HP forum and other places. H4350 behind a 120gr SMK worked really well for 200/300, and I had been running RE-19 behind a 123 Scenar - shot really well, but my loads that were okay in April started beating up the brass pretty bad come July/August.

Monte

 

[Raptor]

Robert,
I used to shoot 140s in my 260s with Varget but have gone to nothing but 123 Lapuas now. I love this bullet in the 260s. I have shot it out to 1300yds.

When I went to the 123s it was like having my 6.5x284 back again. I could nearly use the same data as my 6.5x284 with my 260 shooting the 123s.

I found the H4350 to work the best with the 123s in my rilfe. It has a very low ES an SD with 43.5grs an a Lapua case. I use 44grs with a WW case.

This load out of my tactiacl rifle shoots consistantly in the .4s with both the WW brass and the Lapua brass. It will shoot .5MOA all the way to 800yds if I do my part. I have shot it only a time or two at 1000yds so I can't really say how well it will do on a consistant basis. I do a lot of shooting from 400 to 800yds.

I have some R17 loaded up to try with the 123s but have not had a decent day to get out and try it yet.

,My 43.5grs or H4350 nets me 2975 across the cronograph.)

 

[rcw3]

Raptor

Thanks! Great info - exactly what I was looking for.

Robert

 

[Raptor]

Robert,
Glad I could help you for once!!! You have really been a great help to me over the past couple of years.

If your intrested I will let you know how the R17 shoots with the 123s when I get a chance to get out to shoot them. It looks like rain an wind again this weekend though.

 

[HTSmith]

I built my first 260 back in the late 90's. Its a sporter and it took a lot of work to get it to shoot like I thought it ought to. The load is a stout dose of N550 in Remington brass with Remington primers behind a nosler 120 Gr ballistic tip. I say 'stout' because it is a heavier load than I can find published now. Sierra faxed me the data back before there was data published.

I also have a 260 with a varmint weight barrel. It shoots most everything pretty good. Go to load is 44.0 H4350 in 243 Lapua brass, fed match primer behind the same Nos 120 Gr. Really accurate.

Hope this helps.

 

[rcw3]

Raptor

Just an update. I tried out your load in a 30' Bartlein 1:8.5' twist barrel and it was very consistent and accurate. My Load was with 43.5 gr of H4350 with Russian Primers and Lapua 123's .012' in the lands. Accuracy was excellent and my velocity is a bit more ,Mean Velocity 3026, ES 19 and SD 6 for a 5 shot string across the chrono). I may drop it back a little just to guarantee consistency and tight knot accuracy. I had some ammo loaded up with 44.2 gr of H44350 and that was accurate as well but not quite as tight as the 43.5 gr which leads me to believe the heavier loading is on the way out of the sweet spot.

Robert Whitley

 

[RickB]

Robert,

This is largely to confirm what you have found out. H4350 has worked well in a number of 6.5-08s for me, particularly with any of the heavier bullets. I think your preliminary results show this. I have used Rel 19 with some 130 Normas that got more velocity than I was able to get with H4350, but they were rather warmish loads. There seemed to be little practical difference between Rel 19 and Rel 22 as the loads were compressed. One fellow I know was fond of certain lots of H1000, but he never reported the velocity that the 4350 class of powders achieved.

In my experience, pressure signs showed up before reaching the true velocity potential of the cartridge when the bullets were 'jammed' into the lands, especially with the 130 and 142 gr bullets.

In general, I think that the 6.5-08 likes slower powders, much like a magnum case.

I still shoot some Varget with lighter weight bullets,108s and 123s), but I am not trying to achieve the velocities you want. The loads seemed to work nicely at around 2825 fps or so which was plenty for what I was doing with them.

N160 never showed me anything and I refuse to shoot the 500 series VV powders. It gets too hot where I shoot and they are simply not temperature stable. I have seen the results of some of their temperature/pressure excursions and it was not nice.

Rick

H4350 also seemed to be reasonably consistent from one day to the next in terms of zeros and such.

Those Russian primers seem to be doing the trick for you. That is a good ES.

I may have missed what brass you are using, but the Lapua .243 Win cases have not been all they are cracked up to be in a number of years. I do not know if Lapua actually got some changes implemented after quite a few people told them about unfavorable experiences with their brass that were not getting relayed to them by their distributor. At least they listened though. I have been using WW .243 Win cases and really have nothing to complain about with them.

 

[Obtunded]

I am just having a 260 built right now and it is ear marked for 130-142 grain bullets.

I have recently finished some astonishing experiments with my 6-6.5X47Lapua with 105 and 115 gr bullets and using Reloder 17. The velocities were unreal. I expect that if 4350 works well in the 260, RL17 should be a viable choice.

 

[RickB]

Obtunded,

Would you care to elaborate on your Rel 17 experience with the 6-6.5x47L? I am going to have one built shortly and have a few pounds to experiment with.

Thanks,

Rick

 

[Moderator]

H4350 w Lapua 123s

When I was shooting the Remington .260 cartridge I tried a bunch of bullets and a half-dozen powders. After much messing around with the 139-142gr bullets, I pulled out a box of Lapua 123s I had been saving.

Seated about .020' off the lands, the 123 load with H4350 was like magic at around 2950 fps from a 24' barrel. With turned, fresh Norma brass, I was seeing single digit ES over five shots. Noticeably, my groups were nearly always nice round clusters. With the heavier bullets and N550 or RL19, I got many fliers.

The same bullets might work seated into the lands but my particular barrel wouldn't shoot anything well jammed... I just learned to live with that.

Anyway, I'd try H4350 with CCI primers and work up to 2940-3000,velocity will depend on your barrel). Somewhere in that range will be your 'sweet spot' with the 123s.

 

[Raptor]

Robert,
I did get a chance to get out last night and shoot a couple of R-17 loads with my 260 and the 123s before the wind drove me home. The wind had dropped so I grabbed my gear an headed for the range. By the time I got there and got set up on the 400yd line the damn wind came back up!!!! SOooo I went down to the 100yd line an tried a couple of groups.

I had cronographed the one load or R-17 with 43.5grs an the 123s so I wanted to see how well it shot.,It had cronographed @ 2992fps for a 5 shot string.)It was the first load out of a clean barrel and went into a .565 group with three in a tight cluster an one each high an low just out of the group. I had called the high round so that probably was my fault.

The wind was getting worse so I jumped over my 44gr load an went to the 44.5gr load to see what it would do for pressure signs. It shot into a nice knot at .360 and showed no sighs of pressure at all. I would guess this load to be closer to 3100fps than 3000 with the extra grain of powder.

So far the R-17 is showing some promice. I will still need to do some more load testing at 400yds then walk it on out to see what it does in the real world. It would be nice to pick up another 100+fps if it shoots as well as the H4350 does.

Robert,
Your numbers with the 43.5gr load are very nice out a 30' barrel. I think you will find it to be one of the most consistant loads you have shot. It just shoots nice tight groups day in an day out for me. I have had some strings where the ES and SD have been in the single digits for 5 rounds.

I shot this load against my 243XC,Your case) using the 105s and they both use nearly the exact same data for wind and elevation to 1000yds out of my rifles. However the 123s seem to shoot better groups at longer ranges an I honestly believe its because of the heavier bullet.

 

[rcw3]

Raptor

Actually I am shooting a 6.5 Super X,not a 260 Remington). I will try to post a picture of the case next to a 260 Rem.

Robert

 

[Raptor]

Robert,
I got a chance to get out to do a little more shooting. I tried the 123s with R17 @ 400yds. I only had a half a dozen or so left so I just shot two 3 shot groups to see what they would do. One group was 1.420 an the other was 1.355 @ 400 so it looks like this is going to be a good load.

I also had some 120AMAXs loaded with Varget that I wanted to try. I had problems with this bullet shooting well with earlier loadings. I had tried H4350, W760 an Varget with the Varget being the only thing that showed any pro mice.

I had some loaded at 40.5grs an had cronographed this load on two different cronographs an it came across the wire at 2965fps.

I shot it at 100yds for 5 shots an it went into a .385 just ripping a key hole in the pastor. I then shot it at 400yds trying to fight a fishtailing wind an it shot just over 3's but the thing I liked about the group was it only had about .5' vertical an had three shots in just under the 1.5' range again..

 

[jdfletch]

Robert,

I've been very interested in your 6.5 Super X. Please keep us informed about the load testing and accuracy. I like the longer neck and 30 degree shoulder and I'm considering it for 1000 yard shooting. I think the heavier bullets might do a little better in the wind, even at a 100-150 fps or so slower initial speed. However, I must say that the 123 Scenar and the 130 Berger VLD look pretty good in theory,and on paper from the other posts)!

Good shooting!

Doug

 

[Raptor]

Robert,
I got a chance to shoot the RL17 loads again at longer ranges. I started at 400yds and shot both the H4350 load and the RL17 load side by side to give a good comparrison.

,I only shoot 3 shot groups because that tells me what I need to know for my shooting). The first group of R17 at 400 was just shy of 1.5's with the 4350 load coming in at just under 2's.

At 600yds the R17 load shot 1.75' an the 4350 load was around 2.75'. The other thing is the R17 load is now shooting around 1 MOA flatter and is using around .5 moa less wind drift.

I then shot at 800yds but had to much wind dialed in and lost two rounds off the target on my one load so just put up one paper plate in the center of my cardboard and reshot. The RL17 load shot about a 6' group with two in the plate an one off high an right. The 4350 load shot into a 2.75' cluster low off the bottom of the plate.

I decided to reshoot the 800 again to see if the flyer on the RL17 was me or the load or conditions. I also wanted to see if the 2.75' with the 4350 was a fluke group. I shot both loads again and to my surprise the RL17 shot the other 3 up with the high right 'Flyer' an was in the area of around 6' again. What really surprised me was the nice cluster of the 4350 rounds in the same spot as the first three with all 6 rounds landing in a 3.25' group an 5 of them in 2.75' at 800yd!!

I have no explanation as to why the RL17 shot tighter at 400 an 600yds but opened up at 800yds. I will try the load again when I get a chance. An will try to get out to 1000yds an also try some Lapua cases with the RL17.

 

[n8lusk]

I was hoping to get any updates on the powder issue.I just finished my 260 on a Montana 99 action with a Hart Remington varmint contour 24' 1-9' twist,I wish I would have gone with the 1-8.5', but made a rushed decision since the barrel was on sale). It's mounted nicely on a McMillan A5.

I have only been to the range once with her and she seems to like the 123's better than the 140s. Does anyone have any pet loads they're willing to share or at least a starting point,as load data seems hard to come by for the 123's). I shoot out to 800 and hope to have a 1300 spot ready next week.

 

[Raptor]

Try the 43.5grs of H4350 in Lapua brass, that is a damn good load for most of the 260s I have shot it in.

If you want to try Varget my one 260 likes 40.5grs with the 123s in WW 7-08 brass necked down to 260. Both of these loads are very consistant for me. Vertical spread is nill on both loads.

 

[n8lusk]

Thanks a million...I should be at the range on Wed or Thurs. Hopefully I will have some good news!

Thanks Again,
Nathan