Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles anyone have a .260 Montana?

I just received mine and am working on a load. Does anyone have any load experience with this rifle? I'm trying to get a jump start. I have Nosler 100,120 BT, 125 Part. Barnes 120 TSX, Hornady 129 sst as different selections for deer. What has been your experience with A.O.L. in this rifle?

Thanks,
Kev

There is plenty of load data on the site. Do a search "260 Rem". Be sure to include the quote marks. Set your range for 2 years. The 250 post limit won't let you get that far back, so once you harvest the first go-round of data, reset the date range of your search parameters to longer than 1 year but less than 2 years. You'll get a big hatful of additional hits--all you'll need.

AOL will likely be determined by you max mag length assuming your rifle is a short action; in which case theoretical maximum length based on the leade may not matter. You'll be stopped out by the magazine length first.

Or use a Stoney Point gauge or candle to determine max cartridge length based on throat/leade, but compare to max mag lenght before loading up a bunch of rounds. Back off 0.050" from the lands for a Barnes X, and experiment with 10-50 thousands for most other bullets, according to group size and pressure signs. Be careful not to seat TSX's, Trophy Bonded or Failsafes (if you have any) to close to the lands. Watch for pressure signs.

don't have a Montana, but I got a model 7, so does a pard of mine, both love a max load of H414 with Winchester primers and Nosler 100 gr BT. Deer drop like lighting hit them. Very Very accurate. Painless has seen some of the groups.

How much ballistic advantage over the .260? Sounds like a great cartridge.

pepaw

"How much ballistic advantage over the .260? Sounds like a great cartridge"

????
There`s a difference in the 260 over the 260?

6.5whitetail, try the 129 Hornady. I`ve had good luck with them in 2 - 260s (1 a Kimber M84) and in a couple 6.5 Swedes on both paper and game. H4831 or R19 work well, and H4350 is showing promise.

I assumed the "montana" was a new thing! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

pepaw

I can account for the H414 groups, I never thought that a skinny barrel could shoot that good........Blake

Kev,

There are also some 260 loads shared over on the www.kifaru.net web site. Choose "hunting", then "bulletin board", in the menu.

Any of the 4350 powders really perform well in the case. I use IMR, but H is excellent also.
Basically, I have the 100 partition for speed and distance, and 125 partition at near 270 win factory velocities. Lot's of 260 data here, and other places. I;m also useing Ramshot Hunter in the 260.

RL-19 has worked real, real well for me with the 120 weight bullets. IMR 4350 worked real well with 120 BT's in my rifle, but RL19 worked better with the Speer 120. I have always wanted to try H414, but always seem to have too many irons in the fire.

For some reason I've had little luck with the lighter Partitions in mine. The Hornady 129s shot better, but still not great. I have had great results with the 140 grain partition and the 130 grain TSX, and I'm still tinkering with a load for the 120 TSX.

If someone has a tack driver combination in their Montana using the 100 or 125 grain partitions, I'd love to hear about it. I'd like to work up a light load using the 100 grainers for my daughter.

Hawk_Driver, I hear ya, I have wanted to try that one also. I really find the 260 Rem to be the least finnicy of any cartridge I have loaded, stuff it, and it shoots. More of that 308 cartridge characteristic. Now I am even getting a little bug to go get a Stevens Model 200 in 7mm-08 and play with that.

Fireform, care to share that 130 TSX load?

for anyone who's interested, several years ago in Rifle Barsness wrote an article titled "6.5 Petite". It had his favorite 260 loads. Unfortunately, I forget the month and year and the magazine is not nearby.

I've had very satisfactory results in my rifle with the 130gr TSX over 45 grains N165 or 45 grains of RL22, seated to about 2.77 oal, using the WLR primer. I get great velocity but not great accuracy with H4350, usually a stellar performer in this sort of case. Those are warmish loads in my rifle, so start low and work up.

pullit,

I've heard several folks on a couple of forums talk about how well the 100g BT drops deer. I have a few questions for you about that load if you don't mind answering.

About H-414, does this powder seem to be very temp sensitive? Does it burn dirty?

Do you mostly wait for double lung shots? How does the 100g BT perform from other angles? How does this bullet perform when it strikes a shoulder or on a shot where the deer is quatering toward you?

How far are your typical shots? (or asked another way, what is a typical impact velocity where theses bullets perform so well?). What weight deer do you use this bullet on?

I loaded up some reduced loads for my 11 yr old daughter using the 100g BT. I used 24g of SR-4759. I haven't chronographed the load yet but I'm hoping for 2,400 fps.....think this will work ok? I'm tempted to try this bullet out of my 260 AI but my shots are typically 50 yds and sometimes less in timber. Not sure how the bullet would perform with over 3,300 fps muzzle velocity, a close shot, and possibly not the best presentation. I would sure appreciate your thoughts. I realize shooting across fields where you can choose your shots is a different game.

BTW, I've heard good reports about the 120g Sierra Pro Hunter as a deer dropper.

You might want to try Varget it really works well in mine pushing 95 VMax and 100gr Nos. BT, I think I'm shooting 41.5 gr.very accurate, using Win Lg. Primers
Navarro

I also use varget and 100grn. NBT works for me David