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 ??