Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 260 in a long or short action?

Getting ready to build a 260 and I want to shoot the 130 or 140 grain Bergers. Will this work in a short action or do I need to build on a long action. I already have a 6.5-284 built in a long action, long range set-up (HEAVY and LONG). I was wanting to build a "truck" (short and light) gun. Something for antelope, deer and the occasional coyote. Thanks in advance.

It will work fine in a short action if you don't mind them jumping a good distance to the lands (or turning it into a single shot). I've got 3 Rem. 700 .260's built on short actions and you can't get Bergers anywhere close to touching the lands. All 3 shoot in the 2's and 3's with factory 120 grain tsx ammo though, so I don't worry about shooting those Berger meat blasters.

Here's the Muley I shot this year in MT with 6.5 Weatherby and 140 berger. This is the exit hole. That bullet ruined 15 lbs of meat easy. Other shoulder was toast as well.

My 260AI, short action, shoots 130 Bergers accurately to 500 yds. I have shot .250 inch groups off the bench with this Rem. 700 MTN rifle. The rifle was smithed by Darrel Holland in Powers, OR. The one draw back is that the 130 Berger loads will not fit in the magazine. The cartridge OAL is too long to do so. I find this to be no real problem as such as I also load Nosler 120 BT and these fit the magazine well. I normally hunt with the 130 Bergers and have had excellent results with my load. MTG

I jsut got through building a 260 and went with a Winchester 70 short action. BUT here's the kicker, I modified the Mag box and bolt stop to allow plenty of room for the larger/long bullets I'm shooting the 140 Amaxs. To be able to get enough room to clean the throat up and not have the bullet seated way down in the case you need to go long action. Especially with the Bergers. My experience with them is if there are not seated to the lands there don't really shoot that good, or should I say "to there potential." If you must go with a SA I would look at shooting the A-max or the Barnes as they are not as finicky about seating depth. I set my rifle up to shoot the 123,140 Amaxs , 130 bergers and the 120 barnes all seated in the lands if I need them to be. Load you up a case to whatever COAL you wnat then measure it and see if it will fit. I've learned to set up rifles to be able to shoot at least 2 different bullet hopefully 3-4, just incase it doesn't like what you want it to shoot.

Did you use just SAMMI spec reamers or customs? For $140 PT&G will make a reamer based off of a dummy round you send them. They build in the appropriate freebore into the chamber so you can run your cartridges to mag length and be in the lands with VLDs.

The problem with that is that the catridge is seated so deep in the case.
It can be done but you limiting the cartridge and the bullet.

You're right, I was thinking of the 6.5x47L when I was thinking of the 6.5 bullets. If the OP wants to shoot the long VLD's in a 6.5 and stay short action, this might be the chambering that would suit him best.

OP check out this link for reamers/bullets/freebore etc for the 6.5x47 6.5x47L reamer / bullet info. Don't let the reduced case capacity of the lapua frighten you because it can be loaded to higher pressures making it basically identical to the .260 in the real world.

Check out this article by Zak Smith on the 6.5 chamberings, battle of the 6.5's.

Short action. 123gr Scenars.......

That is unbelievable. Never shot a critter with a Berger yet.

Maybe that is why they call 'em Bergers..........grin

They shoot little bitty groups, but I'm going back to Barnes TSX and Nosler Accubonds for hunting. I like to eat the things after all. My deer was almost identical in weight to another deer my friend killed. He shot his with a 180 grain partition out of a .300 Weatherby. Processor (our guide didn't have a meatpole so we had to take them to the processor) gave him 68 lbs. of boned out meat back and I got back 40.

Processor stole your venision! LOL. No doubt, some bullets can be rough on shoulders - I aim behind them myself whenever possible.

OP - short action, '260 - MATCH reamer'

Long action - 6.5x55, 6.5 - 284, 6.5/06 and AI, or 6.5x64mm Brenneke - a 6.5 on 270 case Euro factory round.

If you want to chase lands and load in stock length mag box, a 47 or Creedmoor may be your 6.5 choice in a bolt.

The only Bergers i run right now are 95gr in the 243. Shoots them or 105 A-maxes well.

That is a hell of a lot of meat damage.......

I'd build s/a,modest length(no more than 22") and of modest contour(no more than #2).

Very easy to throat in accords to your mag confines,or to stretch COAL latitude...if not both...................