been messin with this new to me 260 remington mountain rifle for a few weeks now.



i got it in, first thing was to free float the barrel and bed the action, with about an inch under the shank area.
shot like crap with just about every powder, bullet, and seating depth i could try.
then i dremeled out the bedding under the shank, which seemed to improve it. barrel is now fully free floated to the recoil lug.

asked questions here, as i've not owned a 260 before nor such a light barreled rifle either.
so far 46.0 grains of h4831sc under a 130 tsx set at 0.050 off shot the best.
load suggestions were tried except rldr 19. bought a can friday, and loaded some 120's up, and went 2.72 oal. that's about 0.70 off the lands. shot 6 saturday and as usual, big group !
some fellow members had said nuetral bed it, and some said pressure.
got home saturday afternoon, and took the thing apart.
coated the barrel and front part of the action and barrel with release agent, mixed up some accuglas, brown dye, and put a glob between some modeling clay in the foreend just back from the sling stud, and just a touch under the shank and front of the action.
didn't tighten the front screw tight. next morning at 3:30am, up for work, but took the remmy apart.
took the stock to work , and while loading, lightly sanded the excess off, and chipped out the skim over the front of action area.
got home and reshot the stock with satin clear paint, let her dry and loaded up some more rounds.

i loaded 48 grains of rldr 19 under a 120 speer hot cor, set at 0.020 off the lands as a middle point for adjustment to oal seating depths. loaded 10 up. i also took 6 loaded 130 tsx's with me today.

got off work, about 2:30, was at the range in but a few minutes, wind was blowing quarting to me off the right side (out of the ne) about 5 mph to maybe 8...

here's the total target with all rounds on it looking like a shotgun hit it.



i put 2 targets up, 1 on top of the other, figured it would shoot high, and it did.

here's the first 5, 120 speers. did let the thing cool a bit, maybe not enough.shot 5 ?? but it was a start.

moved scope down and fired the next 5. 1 and 2 surprised me, then it opened up. shot 5 again ?, tightened the front screw after shot 4, just to snug it up tight. maybe i didn't let it cool enough again, maybe it moved from tightening ?

did a quick bore scub with some barnes cr-10, a few dry patches and fired a 130 tsx. it hit dead center right at the tip of the diamond. walked out to look, but really to let the barrel cool.
fired the next shot and saw it moved 1 inch up and 1/2 inch right. okay first round fouler.....
shot 3 went 1/2 from shot 2 ! hmm... maybe just maybe...??
shot 4 !!!!! wtf ?? the wind IS blowing, maybe me, maybe ???
so there my group was ruined.

i have 2 shots left and thought, shoot the other diamond and see where these go...
shot 1 ? couldn't see it in the spotter, so it had to be in the black. shot 2, i could see where the edge of the white got hit, hole was in the black tho...
walked out, and wow ! ragged hole....


now if i throw out the first fouling round, and shot number 4... i have 1 nice ragged hole group....
by george, i think i may have got it !!

now for more testing with the 130 tsx load..
gonna clean it now, then back in the case, garb more pre loaded tsx's, and maybe test again tomm.... i love having a private shooting range not a mile from work...

so what do ya'll think ? am i on to something with this lil bugger ??

I have a Remington 700 stainless mountain rifle in a Ti stock, and it seems to like 129 Hornady SpirePoints under 41.5 gr of Reloder 15 best so far. That load prints consistent 3-shot groups under an inch at 215 yards. It shoots 120-gr TSX's really well at 100 yards, but they open up signnificantly at 200+. Dunno what that's about.

I would say you're on the right track with 130 TSX's.

Dennis

Full length bed it...
http://www.asrealasitgets.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=71981#Post71981

Quit cleaning it! Many rifles shoot better with a bit of fouling built up. Good luck.

+1 On Quit cleaning it. Was reading here on a couple of different forums that you should shoot till accuracy slumps. Cleaned the 7 mag once more and then watched the best group yet after 7 shots. I am up to roughly 30 and am still shooting groups I'm quite pleased with from this rifle. It's a walnut/ebony BDL with a trigger job, that's it. groups range from under an inch to 1 1/4.

oh yeah, i agree. i have a vintage remmy varminter in .243 that won't group worth a darn til about 10 shots have fouled it.
i cleaned last night and today it shot like crap ! and it's doin the flier thing again...

so, i have off tomm., and this thing get full bedded. most likey with a 10 lb weight hangin off the stud to pressue it..

1 last try, then it's off to benchmark barrels for a new stainless tube.

hmmmm, what to chamber it in ? 7mm-08 ? probably 260 again.

And another +1 on quit cleaning it!
My PD shooting partner was anal about cleaning every 25 shots ( .223) Finally one day with some arm twisting I got him to stop, finish the day ( about 300 rounds) then take it to the range and put it on paper, mega-fouled and all. His groups were as good as ANY he had ever shot...
Ingwe

alright, alright ! i quit cleaning it....
now it's sitting in the gun cradle drying.
i think there's enough goop in the channel, but i just couldn't bring myself to put it all the way to the tip and have a brown line in the black.
now, we'll see how she shoots tomm.

Ingwe

in real words ?

In real words... happy you quit cleaning it
Looking good!
Ingwe

and the finished product.
all is bedded, lugs lapped, loads made up.....

now to see how she shoots tomm.. gonna bring several guns to shoot, so i can make sure this one is cooled off between shots.

Bedding job looks good too. I have only full length bedded two of them, and both were short ( 8-9 ") Rigby style forends. Anxious to see/ hear the results...
Ingwe

i'm leaving in a few, range report later thi evening.
bringing a 338-06, 338 wm, and a hb 243 also.
have a great day all, off to the range, then work.

See you took my advice on bedding it - nice looking job. I hope it shoots

In my experience, it's hard to go wrong with Reloader 19 or IMR-4350 in the 260. I'm personally quite fond of 15 and 19 for the 260 and 7mm-08 especially.

today started out well, with the first 3 shot group looking like this..

it was about 3 inches high and just a bit left. i move the luppy 2-7 1 line down and 1 line right.

and the next group looked like this, but way off from 1 inch adjustments.

shaking my head...
so i go back 1/2 a line back up and just a touch back left.
and here's the pattern it shot...

i think i know why the luppy was for sale...
the last 3 are in the center just a touch low from the 2 inches high i wanted it. so i bump it up again, just a touch...

i give up.. here's the last 3 shots, the barrel was stone cold and cooled between each shot. plus it was 37 degrees outside.


but on the bright side, i took along my ruger 338 wm, that i had cleaned and put up after elk season.

1 shot is all it needs to foul and it settles right in. i have 5 boxes of pmc eldorado ammo left. they have 225 barnes xlc's loaded.
it shoots like this...


i do have a 3-9 nikon monarch that came with the remmy now sitting atop it. we'll see tomm. if it is the scope that's messed up.

I should have read your first post a bit more carefully - I had thought that you had checked the scope out. Sorry - nice bedding job though.

If the scope change don't fix it then chuck the barrel looks like the only option left.

Nice group from the 338 by the way - shows that the "nut behind the butt" isn't the problem

I have a 50's vintage FN Mauser 270 that's doing me the same way right now. I haven't bedded it yet. That's next. Scope was the first thing I changed. It was OLD and noname.

.. HAVE YOUR CHAMBER GAUGED...IT MAY BE OVERLY LARGE OR SMALL, AND YOU MAY NEED TO ADJUST RELOADING OAL ACCORDINGLY TO GET
GOOD ACCURACY OUT OF IT REPETEDLY

AND CHECK THE TWIST RATE...VS. THE BULLET YOU ARE SHOOTING...DO THEY MATCH UP ?

well guys, this is the first time i have had a luppy go bad on me.
i put the nikon monarch on it, that i got with the gun.

just gettin home, but today's conditions to say the least... sucked.
but, i had to shoot.

the wind is blowing about 20-30 mph, with higher gusts.
here's the range flag standing straight out. tumble weeds were rolling cross range, and the dust !



i did a quick bore sight looking down the barrel at my targets, then up thru the scope.
moved it a bit, and was ready to fire.

here are the first 3 shots with 48.0 grains of reloader 19 and 120 grain speer hot cor's set at 0.030 off the lands.
i tried to wait for minutes for the hard gusts to die down, and shot when it felt calm enough.
i was impressed, but not confident yet.....



i moved the scope 13 clicks up and 7 right, and fired again.. hmm, a bit low, but the wind was have'n me and rifle, and the wind just would not stop howling for very long.
fired the next 2 and called it quits, as the dust was eating my face up and i just couldn't hang onto the rifle very steady amymore.
but i just had to fire one more, and it about cut the 1st shot just 1/4" higher. i took the pic, while letting the barrel cool and didn't take a last one because i was sick of the wind.

yep, scope issues. now to send it back to luppy and get them to look it over and fix it.
it' the first time in a lloooooong time of owning luppy's, that i had a problem.

so it's now full length bedded, and decent scope on it, and 120 speers shoot pretty darn good.

now for more experimenting with 129 hornady's and i think i'm going to try 120 barnes tsx's next, instead of the 130's....

there is the tale of the remmy mtn rifle from hell, and all that was done to make it shoot better, but it was an optic issue all along.
hope someone else learns from this and checks the scope first....

You call that a bad day at the range??



Trade ya It looks downright tropical in NM right about now. We just had another 8" of snow last night up in the hills (and winds up to 40 MPH)


I'm willing to bet the Loopy broke the erector spring. Imagine a truck leaf spring folded in half over hte axle and your close. Any mechanical device fails sooner or later. Granted the seller of the scope probably knew he juiced it

Get it fixed, I'm sure on a 6.5 it'll outlive you...

splattermatic-I sent you a PM in regards to the scope I sold you. I had the scope mounted on a pump 30-06 for years w/o a problem. Friction Leupolds have never tracked perfectly, however if you dont like the scope, suspect it is broken, etc. I will buy it back. I have sold/traded many scopes on here and never had any problem.

no worries tom, i'll send it back and get it fixed.
i just shake my head i didn't check the scope at first., before chasing my tail, thinking it was the light barreled lil gun.

it's a machine, it could have let go, when i cranked on it, to get it zero'd. just jumping to conclusions, and finger pointing, instead of at myself.