I just happened to have a short Rem 700 action lying around doing nothing so I looked around for a barrel. I noticed CDNN had barrels supposedly made by Remington "in the white" in several calibers and I bought a couple standard 24" barrels in 260 Remington and a Mountain Rifle contour 308 barrel To test. Well I installed one of the 260 barrels to check headspace and it was just a little tight but not too tight to be easily "fixed" with a standard RCBS FL die. .002 I would guess. I said supposedly because the crown does not look exactly like the usual Remington crown. The barrel was advertized as 1-8 twist but I am betting it is a 1-9 because it does not shoot match stye 140's and 130's nearly as well as say 140 gr. Sierra Gamekings or 120 gr. Ballistic Tips. However it does shoot very well in general. I have several 3 shot groups in the .4 area and many 5 shot groups in the .6 arena. The barrel does copper foul some but for the 50-60 round intervals between cleaning there is no effect on accuracy and it is easy to remove the fouling. The action is in a laminated Mountain rifle stock, Trigger is a Timney and I did most of the accuracy testing with a 10x42 SWFA scope on it. I presently have it loaded with 100 gr. Partitions on top of 43.0 grains of BLC2 for a velocity of 3200 fps. And it has been the rifle handy for GP use and I will take it to Oklahoma for the rifle deer season. If I were to snivel some it would be that the overtravel stop on the trigger is set for too soon after the sear releases and though the copper fouling does not effect accuracy it does annoy me some. So I am thinking about removing the barreled action and lapping the bore along with setting the overtravel out a bit to better suit me. But I think I will wait until after deer season to do it.
My current 260 Remington
- Thread starter rickt300
- Start date
It's a nice working cartridge, I've often thought I should build one. Keep us updated please.
Good on ya, mate. My current .260 is a heavy Benchmark barrel on a FN SPR action and McMillan A3 Built by Dave Sink out of Clemmons NC I plan on having him build me another on a 40-X action I have Love the caliber Remington hosed up the marketing of it when it was first introduced
Love my pre64 m70 chambered in 260. It shot 793-36x (with irons) in my last 600 yard match this year.
260 is a nice caliber. Remington never made 1-in-8 twist barrels. So, it's either not a Remington or not 1-in-8...easy enough to check. I found the 120 grain Ballistic Tips to be the most accurate for me and I also didn't see as good a group with heavier bullets even in a 1-in-8. If it only coppers up after 50 rounds I would suggest you keep on shooting and breaking it in. It will stop eventually, just try to keep it clean. When you cant get 10 rounds out without a bunch of copper is the time to think about lapping.
My hunting buddy got one of the first Rem. 700 Stainless 24" barreled 260 Rem. made. You could not even find any ammo or cases for it at the time. He did get RCBS to send him a set of dies. There was not even any load data out yet for it. We treated it like a wildcat. We decided that H4350 would be a good powder since in my experience of loading 6.5x55 the 4350s were great. We had Sierra 120 Pro Hunter and 140 Game King bullets. We experimented in making cases out of 308 Win but found that the neck was quite a bit short but found that 243 Win cases came out perfect. We match prepped some new Remington cases my buddy had. We did not have a chrno back then so we did not know velocity and just had to go by what the case was telling us on pressure. We used a starting load listed for the 6.5x55 and worked up. We ended up with just a slightly heaver load with both bullets than Hodgdon data when it came out but it was safe according to what we saw on the case wear. That rifle was ACCURATE. We were doing crop damage control at that time on a big east NC farm were we were to take 100 deer each year. Between us while using that rifle we took 50 deer with shots from almost on top of us to a bit over 500 yards. We used both bullets to see which did what. We only had one of the 50 deer take a jump after being hit and it was with the 140 GK. The deer was standing in tall weeds about 200 yards. My buddy was doing the shooting. The way the deer was standing with its head turned back toward it's rear end it looked like it was facing that way. He could see a little spot between the weeds open that he though was the deer's shoulder but it was much further back behind the shoulder. The bullet took out the back of the lungs and liver. It took three running jumps and piled up dead. My buddy never keeps a rifle very long. He gets it shooting and uses it maybe for a season then trades it off and starts all over just to have something to do in his retirement. I told him that I would like to have that rifle if he ever sold it. Turned out that he let another friend of his have it for his grandson for a low recoil deer rifle. I understood the reason and it's not like I really needed another rifle. LOL
I bought a Savage mdl 16 (1-8) after my shoulder surgery several years ago for a lighter recoiling deer rifle than my mdl 70 in 30-06. The rifle is light weight, not much recoil but shot horrible no matter what I tried. I sent it back to Savage and they replaced the barrel even though it was out of warranty. It shot better but was still 2-2 1/2" at 100.
So I started looking at prefit barrels and found a 24", blued 1-8 twist CM on sale at Shaw. I bought the correct gauges and a action and barrel nut wrench I made a barrel vice out of oak to use in my hydraulic press. I changed the barrels and broke it in following Shaws instructions and the rifle shot better groups than it ever did with either factory barrel.
Once it was broke in the load development started. I tried what seems to be everyone's favorite, H4350 and wasn't very impressed. I had some IMR 4060 that I had planned on trying in my 22-250, it seemed some people had good results using it in 260 so I loaded up some test loads with it and Sierra 120 gr Pro Hunters. The second test group was 5/8" so that's where I stopped.
The rifle is RH and I shoot LH so I bought a grey laminated Boyds LH thumbnole stock and inletted it for the RH action. I think it looks pretty good with the grey stock, blued barrel and SS action. It's a fun little rifle, light, accurate, mild recoiling and death on deer.
So I started looking at prefit barrels and found a 24", blued 1-8 twist CM on sale at Shaw. I bought the correct gauges and a action and barrel nut wrench I made a barrel vice out of oak to use in my hydraulic press. I changed the barrels and broke it in following Shaws instructions and the rifle shot better groups than it ever did with either factory barrel.
Once it was broke in the load development started. I tried what seems to be everyone's favorite, H4350 and wasn't very impressed. I had some IMR 4060 that I had planned on trying in my 22-250, it seemed some people had good results using it in 260 so I loaded up some test loads with it and Sierra 120 gr Pro Hunters. The second test group was 5/8" so that's where I stopped.
The rifle is RH and I shoot LH so I bought a grey laminated Boyds LH thumbnole stock and inletted it for the RH action. I think it looks pretty good with the grey stock, blued barrel and SS action. It's a fun little rifle, light, accurate, mild recoiling and death on deer.
I recently got one of the old 26" Rem. 700 VLS in 260, scoped it, threw some rounds together (Hornady brass, 250 primers,130-gr ELD Match and 42 gr. of H4350) and shot it yesterday for the first time. This was the very first group (100 yds) and it measured .367". I think I'll keep it! 
Are you seating them at mag length? In my rifle that same bullet would get 2 inch groups at mag length and slightly less loaded out to the lands and shot single shot. Same but a bit worse with the 140 gr. Barnes Matchburner. Tackdriver with just about everything else I have tried. Oddly the Speer 90 gr. TNT might be the best shooting bullet of the bunch.I recently got one of the old 26" Rem. 700 VLS in 260, scoped it, threw some rounds together (Hornady brass, 250 primers,130-gr ELD Match and 42 gr. of H4350) and shot it yesterday for the first time. This was the very first group (100 yds) and it measured .367". I think I'll keep it!
I have a Remington model 700 in .260 that came with an 8 twist barrel. They still sell them. It’s part number 84291.
I wondered how long it would take for someone to catch that...they also made that weird triangle barreled thing in a 1-in-8. Most of the 1-in-8's I have checked were actually 1-in-8 3/4".
Well I haven’t checked it so something to do later when I’m back home.
Rounds will never go into the magazine, so I don't even know what "mag length" is on that rifle. Prolly shorter than I am seating, though.
My wife's 260 with weird triangle barrel.
Shoots 123 amax and130 Berger's well, stumbles with 140 class bullets.
When you say "stumbles" do you mean groups at 100 yards or further out??? I have two Douglas barreled 260's that are 1-in-9 and they will shoot 140's in the same hole at 100....as you move on out it's not so good.
Calling it weird is actually jealousy...I never could get my hands on one to call my own...I don't think they made a lot of those rifles.
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This one shoots those triangle Bullets
No it'll shoot 140gr bullets just fine.
Short 20" barrel and magazine restrictions leaves it suffering in the velocity department below 2600fps.
130's 2700fps
123's 2820 fps
That's right, those barrels were only 20". I built a 760 in 260Remington a few years back because the 700/7 short actions limit how far out you can seat the bullet. My son hunts with a 260 I built on a 700 long action for the same reason. As if I don't have enough 260's I am thinking about putting together a mountain rifle with a wrapped carbon barrel....
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