260 Remington
My primary hunting rifle is chambered in 260 Remington. I really like the penetration characteristics of the 6.5mm bullet.
Hodgdon Extreme powders for this cartridge are H1000, H4831, H4350, VARGET, H4895, and Benchmark.
Rifle: Kimber 84M
Bullets: MidSouth,
MidwayUSA
Brass:
MidSouth,
Graf's,
MidwayUSA
Status of Load Development
My only reasonably accurate load so far is the 120 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter. They were good enough to take hunting this year. Still, I am getting 1½ MOA groups with it, and I would like to find a better combination.
Early next year, I want to start working on loads using heavier bullets. First, I will try the 140 gr. Partition and the 130 gr. Triple Shock. Then I'll try the 140 gr. A-Max*, GameKing, AccuBond, and Core-Lokt. I should probably give the Hornady 129 gr. InterLock SST and 129 gr. InterBond a try.
* Hmm, Hornady seems to recommend the 140 gr. Interlock SP rather than the A-Max for hunting. Hornady seems to consider the A-Max a target bullet.
I should perhaps try some other powders. I have tried several bullets, but my load tests have used only H4831SC and H4350. The cases I loaded to fire-form my brass were fairly accurate, and I believe they had H1000 in them.
| Light Game: 120 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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This has clearly been the most accurate bullet in my Kimber so far, giving me 1½ MOA groups. I will be looking for something better, but until then, this is what I will take hunting.
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125 gr. Nosler Partition: Dismal results with both H4831 and H4350. This bullet touches the lands at approximately 2.777" COAL.
120 gr. Barnes TSX: I got some okay results with these using H4350, but nothing sub-MOA. Seating this bullet to a 2.700" COAL seems to give just the right initial clearance from the lands, and also lines the case mouth up with the uppermost groove, allowing me to give it a heavy crimp.
120 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter: Okay results with this bullet using H4350, after some misleadingly good groups. I am seating this bullet to 2.750" COAL.
120 gr. Hornady A-Max: Poor results using H4350. This bullet touches the lands at 2.802", so I am seating them for now at 2.775".
140 gr. Nosler Partition: This bullet touches the lands at 2.795" so a seating depth of 2.775" seems like a good place to start. Not so great results with H4831 (smallest group was 1.710").
Reloder 19: I bought a bottle of this to try in the 260 Remington. It meters okay. We'll see how it performs.
Reloder 22: I bought a bottle of this a few years ago. It isn't the best velocity powder for this cartridge, but I think I should try it, in the hope that it might prove more accurate.
| 120 gr. Speer SP | Start | Max | Velocity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hodgdon H4350 | 43.5 | 46.5 | 2960 |
| Hodgdon H4831 | 47.0 | 50.0C | 2954 |
| Reloder 19 | 48.0 | 2950 | |
| Hodgdon Benchmark | 37.0 | 40.0 | 2935 |
| Reloder 17 | 44.0 | 2912 | |
| Hogddon VARGET | 36.0 | 39.0 | 2877 |
| Reloder 15 | 39.0 | 2819 | |
| Hodgdon H4895 | 35.0 | 38.0 | 2813 |
| Hodgdon H1000 | 49.0 | 51.0C | 2810 |
| 125 gr. Nosler Partition | Start | Max | Velocity |
| Hodgdon VARGET (Nosler) | 35.5 | 39.5 | 2875 |
| Hodgdon H4350 | 41.0 | 44.3 | 2867 |
| Hodgdon H4831 | 45.0 | 48.0C | 2862 |
| Hodgdon H1000 | 48.0 | 51.0C | 2821 |
| Hodgdon VARGET | 34.5 | 37.5 | 2785 |
| Hodgdon H4895 | 34.0 | 37.0 | 2743 |
| 140 gr. Sierra MatchKing | Start | Max | Velocity |
| Reloder 19 | 45.5 | 2731 | |
| Hodgdon H1000 | 48.0 | 50.5 | 2730 |
| Reloder 22 | 46.0 | 2701 | |
| Hodgdon H4831 | 43.0 | 45.7 | 2686 |
| Hodgdon H4350 | 39.0 | 42.0 | 2677 |
| Reloder 17 | 41.0 | 2645 | |
| Hodgdon VARGET | 34.0 | 36.0 | 2578 |
| Hodgdon H4895 | 32.0 | 34.3 | 2517 |