Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 260 Rem Almost gone ?

I am reading in the last few months quite a few comments about the 260Rem that it is a the 'secret cartridge amongst knowledgable deer hunters."

hopwey they don't keep the secret too long......

Not sure I understand the question. Unless my memory fails, the .277 130 grain bullet has about the same BC as the 180 or 190 grain .308 bullet and can go 3100 fps. This is the same "long range capability," as far as hitting is concerned, as a .300 Weatherby firing a 180 or 190 grain bullet, which is much more than a 30-06. By "hitting" I mean drop and wind deflection, not striking energy.

Try comparing bullets of the same weight in the 270 and 30-06. Granted, the 30 cal bullets have lower SD (and maybe BC, depending on the bullets used).

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OK. Without consulting the ballistics tables, I suspect you will find the following:

With decently pointed bullets, the 130 grain .277 bullet has A LOT BETTER ballistic coefficient than the 130 grain .308. It will be far superior at long range in terms of wind deflection. The 130 grain .308 will start off at higher velocity but after a litle bit, perhaps 200 yards or so, the .277 bullet will be moving faster. If it's moving faster, it will strike with more energy and more momentum.

The 180 and 190 grain 308 bullets have a much higher B.C. than the 130 grain 277 bullets of equall form. your memory must be getting like mine.

Hi BR,
With all due respect, I was stating what has been a trend for over 50 yrs with a fair percentage of the firearms buying public. A want for speed, so that they may shoot a little farther. I in no way meant it to be statement of practicality.
But, it is pretty much accepted that the .270 shoots faster than the 06 with bullets of like SD's. If it shoots faster it also flattens trajectory, making ranges "slightly" extended. But only if you set up each the same way. For comparision, PBR(point blank range)on the computer works about as well as any.. The difference between the NP 130 gr. .277 at 3000fps vs the 30-06 NP 165gr at 2900fps is a wopping 8 yds on 6" target. Pretty skinny I know, so skinny it's anorexic. But again, I didnt say it was pragmatic, just that's what is perceived by a good share the buying public.

Personally, I have never owned a .270, and have been served quite well with the different 30-06's I have had.

Best Regards
Dave

Also, it really isn't logical to compare different calibers with the same bullet weight. BC's of course will have an effect, Ideally one would want the same SD, and same BC to get an apples to apples comparision. But when you compare same bullet weight for 2 different calibers, it becomes apples to oranges.

For the above post I used Nosler Balistic Tips in the program, for like construction, although there was a .042 difference in BC in favor od the .30 cal. 165 gr but only .006 difference in SD. That SD difference is about as close as one can get, unless you go to 120gr/.277 vs 150gr/.308. Then you are looking at better than 200 fps difference in favor of the .270.

Again, all due respect,

Dave

For example, let's look at the 140 grain .277" TSX vs. the 168 grain .308". Out of the .270 Win the 140 is doing 3030 fps at the muzzle, from the .30-06 the 168 is doing 2850. Zero the .270 at 310 yards and the .30-06 at 290 yards and we have a 'point blank' of 367 yards for the .270 and 345 yards for the '06. Out at 500 yards, the drop for the .270 is 25.4 inches and the wind drift in a 10 mph crosswind is 16.9 inches. The drop for the '06 is 32.4 inches and the wind drift is 19.5. So there is your 'range advantage' for the .270, 22 yards more 'point blank range', 7 inches less drop and 2.6 inches less drift out at 500 yards. How useable any of that is clearly depends on the situation. The .270 retains a 180 fps velocity advantage out at 500 yards, the energy is pretty close to the same. The lower recoil of the .270 might allow a shooter to shoot more accurately, but of course that depends on the shooter and the situation.

Thanks DK, for adding that. I was being fairly conservative with my program. With only reference to one manual and load. And I agree, shooter capability have more to do with extended range shooting than cartridge capabilities.

Dave

Not this 270 vs 30-06 $hit again. Its been beat to death too much and the original post was about the 260.

You guys are right - the 270 shoots a little flatter. I knew that and should not have questioned it, especially on this 260 thread. I was just fishing for a bit of disinformation to have a little fun with.

How 'bout that little 260, eh? What a sweet little deer rifle. Mine is a Rem M7SS, and it outshoots me. Hits pretty hard too, certainly hard enough for deer. My youngest son has laid claim to mine so I might have to get one of those Tikkas before they jack-up the price.

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"I was just fishing for a bit of disinformation to have a little fun with."

And just what made you think you were dealing with someone uninformed?

If you handload is really doesn't matter if it disappears as a factory round. It'll take a lot of years for brass to disappear and even then you'll have .243's and 7/08's to reshape to your heart's content. Plus the factory rifle you have in .260 Remington will be worth more than the basic calibers. After all, it'll be "Rare!" as they say at gun shows.