Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is the .260 Rem dead?

I believe it. I watch a couple of British shooting shows on YouTube and there's a tremendous amount of interest in rifles over there, despite the heavy hand of government. In Britain, it appears the .243 is the general choice for foxes and deer smaller than the reds ( about 6 or 7 species available, I think). After that, the .308 reigns. On the Continent, there's all kinds of stuff. Tikkas seem very popular with ordinary folks.

Ther was a review of the RAR on one show a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty positive. The shocker was the price given: 800 pounds!

I can't help but think there is anything magical about one 6.5 cartridge over another. You take a good barrel/chamber, properly bed it in a good fitting stock, add a good trigger and top notch sighting, and most importantly the ability to use all of that and it won't matter what 6.5 it is- you will be able to strut around the internet crowing about the best thing since silk camisoles were invented.

I can't imagine anyone paying over $1,000 for any RAR.

I bought into the 260 Rem about a decade ago. Today I'd go with the Creedmoor. My rifle is heavy and I'd like a lighter counterpart. It'll likely be a 260 as I'm tooled up with expensive dies, but am thinking of doing it on an Win 70 short action to help with the mag length problems. The one I currently have is a Savage. I haven't had any trouble loading rounds where I want within it's mag confines. 139gr Scenar's are all I load in it.

gnoahh,

It's been proven, in many formal tests, that a shoulder angle of about 30 degrees results in the most consistent pressure (and hence velocity), especially in short-cases cartridges; 20 and 40-degree angles do not result in the same consistency.

The first shooters to make a real study of this, as I recall, were Lou Palmisano and Ferris Pindell, when they were developing the PPC rounds, but 20 and 40-degree angles do not. Which is exactly why so many "accuracy" cartridges over the decades have 30-degree shoulders, including (perhaps accidentally, perhaps not) the .219 Wasp, developed by Harvey Donaldson before WWII. Today's line-up of 30-degree shoulder, short cartridges includes not just the 6.5 Creedmoor but David Tubbs 6XC, 6.5 Grendel and the the 6.5x47 Lapua, along with others.

Now, this shoulder angle's accuracy potential may not show up at closer ranges (though I have seen it over and over again in various 6.5 Creedmoors), and it may not be relevant to those shooters who primarily consider muzzle velocity the essential attribute of any cartridge. But it's there.

For this reason I went with the tikka in 6.5 Swede 8 twist. It comes with the long action magazine and feeds like butter. 143 ELD-X touch the lands in my rifle at 3.182. Lapua brass is a plus and reasonably priced for the swede. ☺



Tristan

New England really isn't representative of America in almost any way, being far more tradition-bound than the rest of the country. Here in Montana, 6.5 Creedmoor's are nearly everywhere these days.

6BR and 6BRx and 6 Dasher also, I think.

Making the standard load 140 grains made it hard to distinguish the 260 from the 7mm-08, which also uses 140 as the standard load. It's great to have 140 grain 260 loads as an option, but making 120 the standard load would have given the 260 a clear niche between the 243 at 100 grains and the 7mm-08 at 140.

Twist rates and magazine lengths may sell cartridges to rifle aficionados, but the lack of a clear identity made it hard to sell to ordinary hunters. Believe me, I tried.

I have a Swede and soon a 6mm AI so I must be cool. The Creed seems like what the 260 should have been in the first place with faster twist and a better fit in short actions and ARs. I could happily live shooting only the Remington step children like the 260, 6.5 Mag., and 8mm maybe even a 350.

PO Ackley and other devised the ALL Around Rifle in 6.5mm x 57 but pretty close to the Creed and this was in the 1940s. The creed is also an excellent youth cartridge that one would never out grow or be limited too much with. I think it will be a Fad for awhile but will endure due to usefulness.

I bought a Rem 700 BDLtainless/synthetic stock for Hunter class silhouette the first year that Remington introduced them, 1998 IIRC, at that time the rules stated that for Hunter class it must be an off the shelf rifle available to the general public.
It must have been built at the low point of some assemblers day, I ended up having to get it blue printed in order for it to shoot an acceptable group, the machinist who did the work said it was the most out of tolerance 700 he had even encountered.

Admittedly high power silhouette competition is hard on barrels because it is 5 shots in two and one-half minutes, usually a break of one minute then another 5 shots in two and one-half minutes, so the barrels get pretty hot. My disappointment with the 260 was that barrel life was about like a 243, by 1500 rounds the barrel was gone.

I like the 260 a lot but if I were to build another Hunter class rifle I would give the Creedmore a try just to see if barrel life was a bit better.

drover

Stopped by the local gun store yesterday (regional place, big inventory) and asked what had been selling. "Bergaras in 6.5 Creedmoor" was the answer. And this is in po-dunk north Louisiana. I look at 3-4 rifles a year for buddies/family to float barrels, mount scopes, or respring triggers, and I'm seeing some Creedmoors mixed in with the .308 and .270 stuff. These are not rifle loonies. Helping a guy put together his first semi-custom on a 700 and he picked the Creedmoor, after doing a bit of reading and research. Another guy called me last month for my opinion on a Texas smith making him his first turn-key lefty custom for deer hunting. He'd already decided on the Creedmoor. None of these guys handload and the good ammo at $20-30 a box is a big factor, along with the "easy shooting / long-range accuracy" concept. Many have figured out that they don't need a big kicking rifle to be effective on deer-sized animals and maybe there is not a good reason why also shooting your deer rifle for fun is a bad thing.

Good thread.

Never underestimate the affect military rounds have/have had on the sporting world, i.e., .45-70, 30-06, .308,. 223, even 6.5x55, 7x57, etc.

A second major influence, IMO, are target shooters, thus 6.5-284, 6.5 Creed, etc. Those guys do a world of research and hair splitting developing their loads, benefitting those of us who hunt. I don't mind riding their coattails. Their data saves me time and barrels...

Not that pure hunting rounds, like 30-30, .270, .280, .243, etc. and most of the magnums, (.300 WM was a target round for years) don't have an impact. To me, the first two categories do influence the popularity of rounds hunters choose, especially us Loonies... .

DF

Dirtfarmer;
Good morning to you sir, hopefully the summer is treating you and yours well.

I too am enjoying the thread and not because we've been playing with the Swede cartridge for years here either, though I suppose the real world experience doesn't hurt.

Up here across the medicine line the biggest gain in shooters are the recreational shooters, not hunters as it was a couple decades ago. Typically they'll start with factory ammo and stock set up rifles, so the 6.5 Creed has become something we see more and more on our ranges too. As well we're seeing many more female shooters than we did previously and they tend to be results oriented in my experience - which better said perhaps would be they don't need the biggest/loudest - they just want to hit consistently and again the fast twist .223's and the 6.5 Creed does that with a tad less recoil than even a .308.

Those that wander away from shooting paper and steel and into the hunting fields are finding the .264" bullets work fine on deer sized game too and in this world of social media, the word gets around faster than it used to in print only days.

Anyway that's just one guy's thoughts on the matter and nothing more. All the best to you all this summer sir.

Dwayne

Thanks, John.

John,
I would be very interested in the procedure used to modify the Tikka SA magazine in order to accommodate longer rounds. I have a T3 Hunter which features a 1-8" twist barrel but would like to seat some bullets out further.
Thanks.

Had good luck with Prime ammo in my MRC 260 and its available at a good price. Its quality brass which I reload with the same bullet options as my 6.5 CM.

I see about the same distribution of bolt action rifles in the REM/RUG/SAV where I live, in Omaha, NE, where I travel to manage property, in Colorado, Nebraska, and South Dakota, and most places that I visit.

A lot of the breakthroughs in the shooting sports took place in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania despite people there being tradition bound. I would respectfully suggest that while what happens in Montana is fully representative of Montana, it is unlikely to be representative of the rest of America because the population is very small, approximately 1,000,000 people, and it is much more rural and less densely populated than much of the rest of the U.S.

To the OP's questions - for me the answer is NO. I love the marketing that Hornady does not only with the Creedmor but other recent releases as well. Are the advantage of the Creedmor real - sure they are and are well documented. Can the AVERAGE consumer take REAL advantage of those - likely not. The 6.5 Creedmor is a great little cartridge but so is the 260. I have hunted with and shot competition with the 260 since it was released and actually a few years before as a "wildcat" cartridge. I have no complaints about the cartridge and it has never left me down (OK a few rams at 500 meters took hits but did not fall). I like them both and if I wasn't so old and set up with thousands of 260 emptys and loaded ammo I could use the 6.5 Creedmor with no problems (and maybe even knock down those sometimes stubborn rams )......but at this stage of the game I'll just suffer along with my 260 and keep shooting it at game and steel as long as I can . That all said I like muzzleloaders too .

Ha! Somehow I had it in my head you're in New Hampshire (New England) not NE, Nebraska. My bad!

I will say however, I think you're dead-wrong in your Creedmoor prognostication.