Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Short Action throat length ?

I�m looking to rebarrel a Remington 700 short action to a 260 Rem. I would mainly be shooting 140's.
What specifics do I need to communicate to a gunsmith to insure he throats it so I have enough room in my magazine to reach the lands. The rifle is a BDL version with a stock magazine.

Is it worth going with a Wyatt box?

I would definitely do a Wyatt's box if I were building a 260 on a short action remington. If you want to use a standard box then go with a 6.5 Creedmoor or better a 6.5x47L. 140's are problematic in a 260 in a standard short remington box.

What kind of 140's? Nose profile, not weight, is what makes the difference. If you are talking Gamekings, Interlocks, or even Ballistic Tips, those will often make lands with a reasonable factory throat and a 2.82" OAL. VLD's or A-max's may be another story, even if they are less than 140gr. It may take a mighty short throat to allow the VLD to make lands at 2.8" and this may make some factory ammo tough to chamber without lots of land engagement.

The Creedmore seemed like the answer to this problem, but then they went and standardized the factory reamer with such a long throat (0.200") that it partly defeated the flexibility of the shorter case. Like the 260, cutting a shorter throat may not allow factory ammo.

You should educate yourself, research the loads for 140's, seat a bullet to touch the top of the powder or compress the powder somewhat. Next, make 3 dummy rounds with the 140's loaded at the length that you want, and send them to a gunsmith that will be able to throat to that length. It will require that the gunsmith have a reamer with no throat on it, then he cuts the throat separately....not all can do this...

Buy the wyatts now.

It is a bitch that guns will have a sweet spot where they like to kiss the lands, jam the lands, or jump the bullet ever so slightly in order to have top notch accuracy that you expect from a custom rifle.

If you can't kiss the lands, it is hard to find pressure, and makes it even harder to "Rock On"! Lots of people have trouble with with the "Rock On" part and forever end up chas'en their azz round and round, up and down stuff they should not even be on.

You may consider making that 260 and AI, there is no down side!

Make life easy on yourself and go buy a Weatherby Vanguard S2 Creedmoor, or a Ruger Predator. Money saved, NO issues with COL.

Agree the Creedmoor has LESS issues with COL than the 260 but a Nosler Accubond 140 grain is 1.368" long. (if you used this example of a 140 grain)

Seated standard short action OAL it is still near .2 into the powder column area.....just saying, better, not gone unless the factory mag was changed out to a longer one.

1.6347 (to base of neck) + 1.368 = 3.0027"

Some don't mind bullets down in the powder column. Works, some just don't like it, others don't realize it.

2 cents.
God Bless

I would call Dave Kiff at PTG or your reamer maker of choice and get a reamer made for your project. The reamer maker can adjust freebore, leade angle, etc.

Would cost about $150, but you get exactly what you want.

I have a 260 in a Pierce short action with a Wyatt. I shoot either 140gr SMK or 140gr SGK. Need the Wyatt to make it work.

405wcf

Like Jpro said its a matter of which 140. Nose profile makes the difference. Creedmore would be better if it didn't come with such long freebore on the standard reamer. My creedmore used the standard .200" freebore reamer and 140 vld's jam at 2.92" but shoot very well loaded at 2.89". Thinks like 140 ab's and 140 CC's with different nose profiles jam at short enough lengths they would jam from a 2.82" rem mag box.

Wyatt's boxes can take a little work to get running right and can reduce your round count by 1 because the follower can hit on the back rim of the bottom metal where the floor plate locks in.

Best way to fly and stick with a standard rem mag box is 6.5x47 L with somewhere between a .140-.160 freebore. You could do a creedmore reamer with .100"ish to but factory ammo might either not chamber or have pressure issues and toast you primer pockets. Trying to go 260 in a standard rem short box and kiss the lands is very tough with most sleek bullets. The case is just too long to start with. That said my 260 is adl style rem box and shoots awesome with 130 nab's at 2.82".

Your question mostly depends on what bullets you want to use. Many do well off the lands anyways but I think it's always best to be able to kiss the lands as an option. You can also gain some overall length going the detachable mag route.

Would be nice if someone made a Wyatt's style box with bottom metal that worked well with it or that could run well adl style. A rem SA with a working internal 3" mag box would open a lot of doors.

Bb