Starting loading for 260

[beerbelly]

                                   
   I just started loading the .260. I also have a box of Federal factory loads, with 140 grain Game King bullets. The bass is Remington. With these loads I get 2650 Ft Per Second on my chronograph.
  My loads with Hornady 140 Gr SST bullets and near max loads of RL15, 38 GRs. The max in Lymans #49 book is 38.5 Grs. I get 2450 Ft per Second. The book gives 2635 with the max load. But then I never get the speed they give in the book always lower.
  I noticed the factory loads are seated 100 thousands deeper than the book loads, or the bullets are that much shorter, as they have that much less sticking out of the brass. But , would seating the bullet that much deeper rase the pressure much higher?
                                     Beerbelly

[Lone Star]

Reloder 15 is not the best powder for heavy bullets in the .260 Remington if you want high velocity.  Alliant doesn't even list it in their website data.   Neither does Hornady, Nosler or Speer in my manuals anyway.  It just isn't a powder I'd use if I wanted top velocity.

Your SST is a very long bullet which will intrude more into the powder space with the same oal, potentialy rasing pressures a bit.  The factory bullets are shorter and have a different ogive so it is not surprising to see them seated to a different oal.  What really matters is where the bullet surface is compared to the leade.  Otherwise they just have to feed from the magazine.



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[beerbelly]

           The Reloader 15 is the first powder in the list in my Lyman # 49 manual. I had some on hand and gave it a try. I also have some H414 that is listed in there and will give it a go. If that don't work out I will try some thing else.
  What would you suggest?
                                      Beerbelly

[Lone Star]

With the 140s and 142s in my M700 VLS I had very good accuracy (sub-moa) and high velocity (2700+ fps) with RL-19 and IMR4350.  H414 is reasonably close to them in speed, it may work well too.


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[huntducks]

BB

What are you hunting with it?

I have a 260 it's in between my 243 55gr blitz for varmints and 270 130gr NP bullets for antelope and deer.

I bought it as a back up to my 270 i'm shooting lighter bullets like 100gr Nosler BT goats and 120gr partitions deer they both shoot great using RL-15 and I have used it to take hogs 150-200 lb range using the 120gr NP.

IMO it's a great deer size caliber.

[beerbelly]

I am going to deer hunt with it. I am going to try some lighter bullets as I go along. When I bought a box of ammo the guy a the store said it should shoot the federal 140 gr bullets well. And it dose. That is why I was loading 140 gr bullets.I will try several things and go with what works best.
                        Beerbelly

[BBF]

Hornady#7 Page 313
Lists all of their 140 gr bullets with the same loads for a max V of 2700 fps .
Rifle: Rem 700, 24" barrel
Case: Rem  Primer Rem 91/2
The following Powders are listed for 2700 fps MV
IMR 4831, AA 4350, RL-19, Viht N-165, H-4831, RL-22, Win WMR, H-1000

FYI
 Nosler lists 46.5 gr of IMR 7828 as a MAX load for their 140 gr PT for 2822 fps from a 24" barrel.
Two other powders(  IMR 4831and N-560) achieved 2800+ fps with their max loads.