Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Building an Extreme Weather in 260

I have a 270WSM Extreme Weather topped with a Conquest 3x9 and I love everything about the rifle including the stock that so many hate. I noticed Winchester introduced the 7-08 and 308 this year but I currently own a 308 and I have owned two 7-08's in the past, and both recoil much more than my 6mm Remington.

I think I would be waiting a long time for Winchester to chamber the 260 so now I am thinking about building a little brother to my 270WSM as my primary, go to all weather deer rifle.

Here is what I have in mind: Buy the cheapest 243, 7-08 or 308 I can find and send the barreled action to Pac-Nor for a Super Match Grade SS, 1:9 barrel in 260. I would pay Pac-Nor to lap, true, chamber and fit the barrel.

My goals are 1/2 MOA to 200yds, 1 MOA to 300, 1 MOD to 500, light recoil and much less powder than my WSM. I would top this with a Conquest 3x9 Z-600 in Burris Signature rings on Leupold DD bases.

I am undecided on the correct number of grooves and to be honest I don't know what is best.

I am also undecided on a 260AI, for my use the 260 is probably fine.

Should I choose a 1:8 for 140 grain bullets?

Any other comments are welcome!

You'll like Pacnor. I've had them do a few for me and both meet your specs for accuracy at 100, but not sure about further out as I haven't shot at those ranges with those guns. I never specified the number of grooves and just went with the standard. AI won't do anything for your accuracy, but will probably give you another 100 fps. 1:8 for sure with 140's - those buggers are long in a .264! I've had great luck with the Bergers but because they blew 5 gallon bucket sized holes in my Montana mule deer this year (6.5 Weatherby) I've switched to the 140 Accubonds and they shoot almost as good - .5's and .6's so far.

8 twist.

I recently completed a 6.5X55 build with a Pac Nor barrel, 8 twist.
Pac Nor did a great job for me and was a joy to work with.

I had lots of questions and they had lots of understandable answers. I made up a dummy round and had them chamber to it. No problem, no extra cost. They barreled in the action. Great work.

They have a vested interest in having their barrels shoot well so ask them about groove number. Ask them what they recommend.

Great folks. Impeccable work. Gun shoots fine, real fine!

Jim

I recently completed a 6.5X55 build with a Pac Nor barrel, 8 twist.
Pac Nor did a great job for me and was a joy to work with.

I had lots of questions and they had lots of understandable answers. I made up a dummy round and had them chamber to it. No problem, no extra cost. They barreled in the action. Great work.

They have a vested interest in having their barrels shoot well so ask them about groove number. Ask them what they recommend.

Great folks. Impeccable work. Gun shoots fine, real fine!

Jim

I don't think I have ever heard a negative comment about Pac-Nor and the fact they provide full service installations on the the barrels they make is the reason I will use them. I will give them a call or let them choose the groove type appropriate for my build.

Setting or choosing the chamber length is completely new to me.

If I will use 120-140 grain bullets including VLD's, what is procedure for choosing cartridge overall length in relation to the chamber and magazine?

Can ya'll help with the last question above?

Choose the bullet that's ogive is closest to the case mouth when overall length is maximum allowed by the magazine. Most likely, that will be one of the VLDs. Make a dummy round by seating this bullet to .050" (an arbitrary number, but what I would use) short of magazine length and send it to whoever is going to install your barrel and have him throat it so that you can reach the lands with that bullet. That will allow you to reach the lands with any bullet you are going to use and still work through the magazine.

John

You will be somewhat limited in what lenghth you can seat the VLD's to since a 700 mag (asuming your building off a 700)box is arround 2.800ID. You will probably have a maximum COL of 2.795 (or there abouts) to feed smoothly in the magazine. Unless you go to a wyatts extended mag box, to give you a longer COL you will not get to benifiet from shallower bullet seating depth and more powder capacity. This comes to light with the longer VLD bullets in 140 grain. So unless your going to put in a wyatts mag box, seat your bullet to 2.795(or the max length you can get to cycle smoothly in your magazine, and call that your dummy round. However, this plays a little mayhem if you choose to shoot a much lighter shorter bullet, now you will not be able to play with your seating depth as much, as you may not get the bullets as close to the lands. I hope my jiberrish made some sence?

Since you are wanting to shoot a variety of bullets you need to determine the following:

Mag length: should be around 3.0" IIRC
Chamber: The VLD's have a short ogive, given that, the throat would be shorter. Duh. Well, the "problem" would come into play whenever you loaded a TSX, Nosler Partition, Sierra, etc. which have longer ogives. The last three mentioned would have to be seated deeper than the VLD.

If it was me, I would use the VLD as a "last" resort and have it chambered for whichever bullet (TSX, Accubond, Hornady, etc.) and have at it.

PacNor tube will be good, chamber will be straight, etc. More important to me would be straight cases,straight ammo, properly bedded, etc. Surely you will find something suitable with all the 6.5 bullets out there.

Make a dummy cartridge with the bullet you want seated to your magizine length. Send it in with your action.

Easy.

well as always Mike, I see you had the same answer I'd have given..

when I got my factory 260s, I made dummy rounds with a 160 grain RN.. and I took it over to Kevin Wyatt and had him throat them out to fit that round...knew it would swallow anything else then..

on my Rem VLS though, I did the same thing with a 140 grain Corelokt..

my last two barrels I had made by ER Shaw, they are throated to fit a Win Magazine length 142 grain Sierra HP Match..

I am glad I asked for help, if I had the barrel throat reamed for a VLD and had to deep seat Ballistic Tips, TSX's or Sierra HPBT's I would have been disappointed.

I would like to try VLD's but they will not be the primary bullet type.

It also sounds like I need to have the throat reamed for a 120 gr rather than a 140 gr if I want the ability to seat .010" off the lands with both, correct?

Twist; 1:8 appears to be a great do all for the 260.

Jim

If you are going to specify something like that I would be sure to measure the mag length, select a couple of bullets with similar ogives, make dummies with same ogive length and send them to Pacnor.

If you use a Sierra and a Nosler Partition the OAL will be similar but not the same. I would highly recommend buying some brass and bullets, start seating bullets and measure ogive lengths. Anything else would be a WAG.

If VLDs aren't going to be your primary bullet, but rather something just to play with occasionally, then yeah, don't have the barrel throated for them.

Bullet shape has more to do with how you should have it throated than bullet weight does. Weight does have some effect, because, generally, the heavier the bullet, the longer it is, but that's not a hard fast rule.

Understanding a little bit more about what you want, if I were you, I would pick the bullet I will use the most, and make a dummy round with that bullet seated to the length you want to function through the magazine and go with it. If you are still unsure, you can load up several dummies with all the bullets you want to use and then pick the one that gives you the most seating latitude. With more conventionally shaped bullets, you may be able to reach the lands with several different types and still have them function through the magazine. I had my .308 throated so that I could reach the lands with a 150gr Nosler Ballistic tip loaded to 2.8". The result was I could reach the lands with most things I shot through it with just a few exceptions: 150gr Accubonds, 130gr TSXs, 168gr Ballistic Tips, or any of the VLDs. That being said, none of that rifle's favored loads shot the best when bullets were seated to the lands. Of the bullets I was not able to reach the lands with, I never tried seating them to the lands, because having my ammo function through the magazine was more important to me.

For some guys, it's more important to be able to reach the lands, and for others, it's more important to not encroach on powder capacity. I'm one of the former, as I don't think the small loss in powder capacity has much of an affect on velocity, probably no more than 50fps...

John

I have my 308 donor rifle now

Penny at PacNor answered all my questions and I will most likely ship it the first of June when I get paid.

Remington 260 (not AI), 1:8, 6-flute SS Super Match matching the 308 barrel contour.

My bullet choices in order will be 120gr BT, 130gr Accubond and 120gr TTSX. I will experiment with Berger VLD's, Sierra HPBT's and possibly others too.

I have the Zeiss 3X9 Conquest temporarily sitting on my Rem 600 for load testing but it will be sent in for a target elevation knob. I will go in with TXRam on a 50& off Redding order for comp dies and pick up a box of Lapua brass in a few months.

I already have a set of Leupold DD bases but need another set of Burris Signature rings.

I have been thinking about painting the B&C stock on my 270WSM and may do the same on the 260 but I want to do some more research. I have better than average spray guns and plenty of experience spraying cars. I like olive green and black spider web but I may look at desert tan and black spider web too.

This will be second re-barrel and I am positive it will be a better experience than the first. Back in early 2000, I wanted to rebarrel a Featherweight 7-08 that was not up to par. I had it re-barreled with a Shilen match grade chro-mo barrel but the guy was a total hack and I regretted it!

This build should be sweet

Another option is a 6.5x47 Lapua. With the shorter case length you can shoot whatever the hell you want and no worries about mag length in a SA.

Likely won't matter as both 120's and 140's have plenty of bullet in the case to be able to move them out.. You want to be able to get near/touch the lands, within mag constraints, with the bullet you want to use that has the most amount of length in front of the ogave. This isn't necessarily a weight specific issue and one you want to have bullets in hand that you want to use.
This is one of the areas the 6.5 Creedmoor has some appeal and I have decided to go with it in my latest build.
Caliber at 2.78", 123 gr. A-max shown though a 129 gr. SST seated in the 260..

RDW I had a similar build completed recently, only it was on a Sako 75, not a M70. I had the barrel contoured to match the factory finnlight barrel, and had sent in a dummy round with a 130gr AB.

I have worked up a load with 100gr BT's instead, and they are at least 100 thou off the lands, but it doesn't appear to have made much difference so far. Here is the first group I fired with it, after running 10 rounds through the chrony...Not bad for a skinny barrel that's .540 at the muzzle...