Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 260 Rem loads. Any suggestions?

Thanks. I'd say inch groups will work for most everything that I'd use a TSX for.

Can anybody get some information on the minimum and maximum load limits for H4350 with 120 TSX's?
I can't find any. I am in the ball park of 44 & 45 grains.
Thanks for any info that you may find share -
Heeman

Heeman,

I called Barnes today for loading data with the 120 TSX.

H4350:
Min. 38gr./2558 fps
Max. 42gr./2780 fps.

24" barrel, Federal 210M primers.

GB

Georgia,
Thanks a lot for the info. I was looking more at 44 grains.
I guess I'll have to load a little lighter.
Thanks again,

Heeman

Went to the range last week Friday and shot 42, 43, 44 grains of H4350.(120 TSX's)
They all grouped at about one MOA.

What should I do now?
Go 41 & 45? or just split the difference with 43 grains?
I am pleased with the results already.

Thanks-
Heeman

If 42 gr of H4350 is maximum with a Barnes 120 TSX, and only produces 2780 fps out of a 24" barrel -- a different powder choice is definitely in order!

2900+ fps is very easy with Re 15 and H 414, out of a 22" barrel, without undue pressures. Each rifle is a law unto itself, and you have to work up, and all the standard caveats. But I would never trifle with H4350 in a 260 Rem if that's the best it can do.

Dennis

The only way you can empahticly say a load can be over book max and still be under pressure is with a strain guage.

Any other method is just a guess. You can mic it, look for flattened primer, shinny spots, loose primer pockets, sticky bolt lift, whatever, it is still a guess.

Whether or not another powder should be used....maybe.

GB

John,

If you were wondering, it still shoots good groups and is being well cared for. It might not be as pretty as some of my other 260s, but its functional and doesn't complain about the rifles that are keeping it company. I pamper it a bit and have only shot coyotes (and only in nice weather) with its 95 grain VMax pet load. If I am up and about after my knee rebuild and can get to SD in June, I might take it and see if it still has any 900 yard PD magic left in it.

Jeff

Hodgdon data shows a maximum load of 45.5 gr of H414 or 45.5 gr of WW 760 producing 2968 fps with 120 gr Speer bullets -- which is just a little more than my chonograph is showing me from my rifle. Their data shows 58,600 psi for those loads.

Nosler's data shows 45 gr of H 414 producing 3005 fps with 120 gr Solid Base Ballistic Tip; and 47 gr of Re 19 producing 2980 fps with 120 BT or 125 Partitions.

My loads are by and large within the limits of the loading manuals, and were fairly carefully developed watching chronograph data as well as the other signs. Certainly the concept of exceeding 2900 fps with 120 gr bullets is solidly grounded in quite a lot of reloading book data -- just not with H 4350 -- hence my suggestion to go to a powder that produces reasonable results. Nosler alone lists eight different powder types that will get you to 2900 fps, or within 5 fps of it, with 120 gr bullets.

Incidently, I have found that TSX's exit the muzzle going faster than other 120 gr bullets in my Remington, given the same (safe) powder charge. Which would seem to indicate something, though I will leave it to others to decide for themselves what that might be.

Dennis

In the case of the TSXs that would be excessive pressure.
In many calibers, the tripple shocks will not equal the velocity of other bullet designs (like the BT) in the same bullet weight if held to SAMMI pressures.

That would be a different opinion than held by the ballisticians at Barnes, and everyone I know who shoots TSX's in a multitude of calibers and cartridges. It was true of the old Barnes X and XBT bullets, which I began shooting in about 1994, but it is not true of the TSX's. That being said, Barnes #3 shows at or just over 2900 fps with 120 gr X bullets and H 414 or Re 15 loads. And I don't think anyone is prepared to suggest that TSX's produce more pressure than X's...

Speer and several other 120 grain cup and core bullets have significantly more bearing surface than do TSX's -- pretty easy to see.

You, of course, should do what you like -- but you're wrong about TSX's in the .260.

Dennis

This I will concede. I tried using the original X bullet in 308 and 30-06. We chronographed several 308 and 30-06 loads and could not get the velocities that standard bullets gave.

I stoped using the barns when thay came out with the blue coating. Hunting mostly white tails, the bullet was really more expensive the need be, having had excellent results with Hornady interlocks.

In reguards to any bullet, TSX, Speer, Nolser ect., I would rather change powders to get the velocities I desire, rather than exceed the recommended max. for a praticular powder by 2 or 3 grains.

I think changing powders was more to your point, and this much I agree with you on.

GB

I suspect we are in more agreement than disagreement. I quit using Barnes X for exactly the reasons you cite, except in my .257 Roberts -- where I got velocity and accuracy along with devastating terminal performance.

I finally got talked into the TSX's by folks up here, and for light bullet, high-velocity loads in cartridges like the .260 and .280, they just can't be beat. I hve little interest in going that route with my .35 Whelen, or even .375 Ruger, because once you get over half an ounce of bullet construction becomes somewhat less important. (Let's see if I can start a riot with that statement .)

And changing powders was my entire point, originally. In the .260, I believe, and the manuals support this belief, that Re 15 and 19 and H 414/WW 760 produce higher velocities (at safe pressures)than other powders. Changing powders to something that works is way better than stuffing more powder into a case.

Whoa, dude. We just had an entirely civil argument about ballistic gack. They should give us prizes or something .

Dennis

Must resist tring light for caliber TSXs....must resist.

Resistance is futile... .

DN

I ve got a load using Ramshot hunter 46.3 gr with a 125 gr partition that gets 2923 fps. That's in a steyr Prohunter with a 23.6 inch barrel 260 Rem.

Awwwwww CRAP!!! Steyr makes a pro-hunter in .260??? I need to buy a rifle for my nephew, he'll be hunting in about 13 years or so I was thinking another T3 Tikka in 6.5 swede until you screwed it all up Aggie

Dan,

IIRC, they stopped chambering the .260 a few years back but they can still be found on Guns America and other sites; you just have to look. Go for it!

Best Regards

I'd have to imagine a Steyr 260 as in any round, should do very well, very nice triggers I recall and ultra fast lock time via rear locking lugs. Not sure if they did an 8 or 9 twist?

As to 260's performance/accuracy, FWIW it would be a nice option for WW to mfg brass, perhaps holding 1.5-3 grains more powder would not hurt, and quality would surely be at LEAST as good, and likely better than REM, at a price better than Federal and Nosler brass, w/o forming from Lapua.

It seems there are many competition shooters, and handloaders in general that like this round, as I do (built my first aka in 6.5/308 Win form in 90's prior to Rem version) that would keep it alive. Amazing Rem commercialized it, yet they seemed to have dropped more options than they kept from past runs. Makes a Rem fan (not one myself) want to refrain from anything new from Big Green....

If I had worked at Big Green, I'd standardized an 8" twist, put a 25degree or better shoulder that fed well, a tad longer neck....well heck, I guess Big Red (HORNADY) just did that with the 6.5 Creedmore.....they seem to do a better marketing job starting with engineering and ending with more commitment over the long haul....oh and listening to shooters needs.

Anyway, for the record, Jim Carmichael never 'invented' this round as Outdoor Life tried to make readers believe.... look up 263 Express in PO Ackley for those who did not know....little trivia.

Come on... I thought JC invented the internet too I've always thought the guy was a dweeb.

The day after 308 Win brass hit the shelf in the 50's you know it got necked up and down to every other caliber bullet that was available at the time. 50 years later it happened with the WSM cases too. But everybody thinks they did it first.

I actually form a lot of my 260 cases from Lapua 308 brass, and once fired military brass (if you order it 2000 at a time, you can make 100 same weight cases pretty easy) but then like you, the 260 and I go back to when it was still the 6.5-08. Just don't tell Jim, because he invented it, remember?