Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tell me about the 260 Remington

Yep. The Creed benefitted from advertising and really filled a niche that was already filled. Both the 260 Rem and the 6.5mm Rem Mag actually beat the Creed but didn't get the hype. For what it is worth I can also beat the Creed with my 6.5x55 Swede and handloads.

In a 2.8" magazine?

Maximum velocity was not the driver behind the Creedmoor idea.

My last 6 kills with my .260 on deer , antelope and a hog are from most recent are 705, 450,475 ,665,615 and 475 yds. all shot with a 130 gr berger and all dropped with out a kick. If your gun has a 1-9" twist it will limit to some degree the bullets you can use , But a 125 gr Niosler partition is murder on deer to elk size stuff and will shoot fine. I also have a .243 and it sits second chair to my .260 everytime.............

You're yet another example of the typical 6.5 Creedmoor hater who's never fired one--and has no clue about why it succeeded so well. It was NOT about velocity, which is purely a matter of powder room, but accuracy, especially with factory ammo. I would be willing to bet you've never fired a 6.5 Creedmoor...

And no, the Creedmoor did NOT succeed due to "advertising." Have pointed this out many times before, but will again: The cartridge came out in 2007, with almost no advertising or other publicity. But within a few years some hunters started trying it, and discovered even factory ammo was very accurate, often more so than their best handloads in the .260 and 6.5x55. Only after that did the "publicity" start--which was fueled by results, not advertising.

The very first FIVE-shot group (not just three-shot) group I fired with my first 6.5 CM, a Ruger Hawkeye purchased in 2010, measured a little under .6 inch at 100 yards. And that was with factory Hornady ammo. After handloading for that rifle and a couple others, the very first 5-shot group I fired with handloaded in a Ruger American Predator at 100 yards measured .33 inch.

That sort of accuracy, especially with high-BC bullets, matters far more than another 100 fps in muzzle velocity.

To the OP, I've shot just about every brand and style of factory ammo that I could find for the 260 and have found that in my rifles the Hornady Superformance with 129 grain SST bullets has shot the best groups.

EDIT: I've been shooting the 260 for over 24 years and the 6.5 CM for just over 8 years. My 260s are all capable of producing hunting grade accuracy, 1.5 MOA or better, if the bullet style and weight is in sync with the ROT and magazine length limits. My 6.5 CMs are, on average, more accurate than my 260s, but not enough more accurate with the same hunting bullets to make a difference in any hunting scenario that I've found myself in. That said, I am not a long range hunter and a long range hunter's need for a rifle, cartridge, and bullet combination that produces MOA or better groups is greater than mine.

For the record, I've been shooting the 6.5 CM rifles more frequently than the 260s since 2014 because they were new to me and a tinker has to have something new to tinker on.

As with many things, YMMV.

Have had excellent results with that .260 ammo too, in more than one rifle....

Today's SSTs are also excellent game bullets.

If I was starting over, I'd choose the Creedmoor over the 260, mainly for the better ability to shoot vld bullets. But I still like the 260. Had good luck with 95 grain vmaxes on coyotes and either 129 grain Hornady Interlocks or Interbonds on deer.

I switched to a .260 Rem for my main deer rifle after using a .30-06 some time back. It was a Sako 75 stainless. I was amazed by the accuracy of this rifle. It became my favorite rifle. Fast forward a few years and a buddy and I decided to build .260 target rifles from Savage 12FV actions and spinning on Criterion heavy bull barrels. We bedded the rifles ourselves into B&C A5 stocks. Our range goes out to 1,250 yards...Those rifles have no issues connecting on IPSC full size targets at 1,250 yards.

I decided to build a 6.5 Creed after that to see what it was about. It's another great round that is equally capable. It gives up 50-75 fps compared to the .260. It would be the preference for the guy that doesn't handload. All of this to say that there are absolutely no flies on the .260. It may not be worthy of benchrest accuracy. However, for hunting/NRL/PRS activities, it works if you do your homework at the loading bench.

I was and still am a 260 man, long before the 6.5 CM ever hit the seen. No way would I take a 260 barrel off and put on a 243. I am getting 3275 FPS out of a 20" barreled 260 with a Nosler 100 gr BT and if you want they make a Partition in the same weight. That 100 gr BT has many bang flops to it credit on whitetail deer.

I would not think the difference in the 2 rounds would justify the rebarrel. 260 is a great round.

My above statement was not about being a Creed hater. It was simply stating the way things went down.
I have shot the Creed and it’s ok. I’m just saying it’s nothing magical. Edk

Not quite. I have shot one. A deer hunting buddy of mine has one. I see no benefit over that round over my Swede. It isn't more accurate than my Rem 700 Classic in Swede. It doesn't give any significant difference in velocity or performance. A 140 gr bullet fired at the same velocity from a Creed or a Swede will do the exact same thing. The bottom line is they did not need to create a new cartridge since they had existing rounds. Either the 260 rem or the 6.5 Rem could have been tweaked with different barrel twists or powders and carried on smartly.

But had they done that they would not have been able to sell the hype and that is the desired effect. Gun companies sell more rifles (not a bad thing), ammo makers sell more ammo (not a bad thing) and gun writers like yourself get to write gushing articles about the whizzbang round catching on (again not a bad thing) but the niche it is filling was already filled. Period. By the way, they did the same thing with all the WSM rounds.

The .260 Remington had been around a long time before Remington came out with it in 1997. It was known as a 6.5-08. A few years ago on the Sierra Bullets blog the Creedmoor koolaid drinkers were gushing over their baby. A shooter by the name of Mitch Maxberry, ask them to name one shooting record the the Creedmoor had broken that the 6.5-08 had already set. Nobody could then and I don't think anyone can now.

The 6.5 CM's shorter case length does allow for longer/heavier VLD bullets to fit in 2.84" short action magazines and not run into the COAL issues that the 260 has with the same bullets in the same short actions.

Plus, 6.5 CM factory ammo has offered more options, has been sold in more places, and often at lower prices than the 260. Remington didn't do the 260 any favors, particularly so when the only common factory load was a slow 140 grain bullet that was not the best option for their original standard 1-9" ROT. Remington's poor choices, limited factory ammo options and suboptimal ROT, did more to hurt the 260 than anything that they did to promote it. It seems odd, at least to me, that they offered factory loads for the 6.5 RM with 100 and 120 grain bullets, but, initially, only the 140 grain in the 260. A 260 with 100, 120, and 140 grain bullet options might have gained more traction with a wider spectrum of hunters, but they didn't and the 260 floundered shortly after it was launched.

Many of the "new" cartridges that are introduced don't get embraced by shooters and become niche cartridges within a few years of their introduction. The WSMs, WSSMs, and SAUMs all work, but out of the 9 only 1, the 300 WSM, seems to have been successful.

Or so it seems to me.

That is the prime point that people don't, or maybe won't, seem to get.

To be very explicit for the "niche was already filled" crowd, it isn't simply the overall length. It's not having the beginning of the bullet ogive get below the end of the case mouth when the overall length is constrained by the standard magazine.

If there is a cartridge that conceivably already had the niche filled it is the 6.5x47 Lapua.

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Not quite. I have shot one. A deer hunting buddy of mine has one. I see no benefit over that round over my Swede. It isn't more accurate than my Rem 700 Classic in Swede. It doesn't give any significant difference in velocity or performance. A 140 gr bullet fired at the same velocity from a Creed or a Swede will do the exact same thing. The bottom line is they did not need to create a new cartridge since they had existing rounds. Either the 260 rem or the 6.5 Rem could have been tweaked with different barrel twists or powders and carried on smartly.

But had they done that they would not have been able to sell the hype and that is the desired effect. Gun companies sell more rifles (not a bad thing), ammo makers sell more ammo (not a bad thing) and gun writers like yourself get to write gushing articles about the whizzbang round catching on (again not a bad thing) but the niche it is filling was already filled. Period. By the way, they did the same thing with all the WSM rounds.[/quote]

So you shot ONE 6.5 Creedmoor.

I've owned at least half a dozen, and shot several more. Here's the very first 100-yard group from a $400 Ruger American Predator. I'd owned enough Creedmoors by then to know what worked in handloads, so loaded some up and once the rifle was on paper at 100 shot a group. That is FIVE shots, not three.

So you shot ONE 6.5 Creedmoor.

I've owned at least half a dozen, and shot several more. Here's the very first 100-yard group from a $400 Ruger American Predator. I'd owned enough Creedmoors by then to know what worked in handloads, so loaded some up and once the rifle was on paper at 100 shot a group. That is FIVE shots, not three.

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Impressive... thanks for your insight.
Carl

Carl,

Thanks!

The load used, by the way, is pretty standard among 6.5 Creedmoor handloaders--any accurate high-BC bullet around 140 grains, and 41-42 grains of H4350. In this instance I used the 140 Berger Hunting VLD and 41.5 grains.

John

If there is a cartridge that conceivably already had the niche filled it is the 6.5x47 Lapua.[/quote]
To a one shot and done hunter that may seem the case, but to a competitive shooter who is looking for something that will do what a bigger case will do, but with reduced recoil the 6.5 Lapua fills the spot. I don't know how much Kevin Thomas, the head ballistic guy at Lapua had to with getting the case on the market, but he shoots several different competitions. The case wasn't really designed to be a hunting round, but a few hunters have taken a like to it.

I think you're reading me backwards. The 6.5x47 already took care of the need before the Creedmoor arrived. The niche being a case suited to long, low drag bullets that will still fit into a short magazine.