Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 260 Rem and 120's

I have a bud that has a 260 and a customer bought a 260 Predator Hunter Savage. They stopped by and man I`m sayin the groups the Savage shot were very tight. All shots touch at 100 for the several 3 shot groups. The guy was using RL17 with the 120BT and RL19 with the 130 Accubond, HTH, Tim

I ve been using Nosler brass, Fed GM210M primer, Nosler #6 max load of 40.0 Gns RL15 in a 22" Shilen barrel, giving precisely what Mr Nosler says @ 2895fps with 7fps ES. and at less than .5 MOA all the time. Obviously I worked up to this load, and played a bit with the distance off the lands, in my case it ended up at .030".

All in a Tikka 595 that has been worked on a bit.

My 260 seems to like both the 120 TTSX and 130 TSX.

I think ya'll covered just about every powder once but H4350 seems to be well received. I was thinking about starting with it once PacNor rebarrels my Extreme Weather.

H4350 - 5X
H414 - 4X
Varget - 2X
IMR 4064
IMR 4320
IMR 4831
IMR 4895 - 2X
R15 - 2X
R17 - 2X
R19 - 2X
Win 760
Ramshot - 2X

I ran the lil rig again today and tried like heck to do some shooting in between gusts.

One load it seemed to like is 46/H4350 and a 120 NBT. This is a 22" take off mtn tube and it was going 3009 fps. Good enough for me.

To date, this barrel sure doesn't seem to like bullets much heavier than this. Did find one load for the 129 Horn that it liked but speed was in the mid 27's.

Thinking it'll be the 120 NBT and H4350 for the rest of the falls hunting. Then during winter I can see what else it may like.

Thx
Dober

The 1 in 9 twist Remington factory barrels have may not like bullets heavier than the 129 gr Hornady, just a thought.

I've shot the 130 berger and it puked them, shot the 130 Accu and it puked them. The 129 Horn will work at slow speed.

Just loaded up some of the S2's but I have much hope for them.

Thinking it's gonna be the 120 NBT for all that moves out it and that's fine with me.

Dober

That's mighty fast Mark...

I kind of thought so to G, back it off a bit? Hogdon shows 46.5 as max for 2960 fps and 58,200 PSI.

I'll clock it again just to make sure it wasn't a bad reading as well.

Dober

I wouldn't back off if you are ok pressure wise and good accuracy...

Just a general comment with a 22" tube in my experiences.

I'd run that bullet at that speed all day long...

Pressure appeared to be ok, will keep a close eye on it though.

G-have you shot any of the following?

*Speer 90 TNT

*123 A Max

*107 SMK

*100 Berger

Many thx, mainly thinking after season yotes, though the 120 NBT will handle it fine I'm sure that is if I can hit the buggers... grin

Dober

I haven't had a problem running Remmy and Hornady 140s from my factory tubes. Must have a bad one or do you have one of the rumored 10" twisted barrels? Just a thunk.

Not sure, it could be me as well...

Dober

I've got some 140 Amaxs loaded up. Not expecting one holers but we will see if the factory tube can handle the really long ones. Somewhere between 43.0 and 43.5 of H4350 seems to be the sweet spot for these.

I loaded 43/H4350 with the S2's to give a go tmrw.

Dober

I have not Mark...

Dober - Re: 130 ABs, I ran 44/IMR4350, first 2 in same hole, and the 3-shot groups went 1.25, at 200 yds. This was Fed 7/08 and 308 brass respectively.

RP brass did about the same size group, but triangle shaped. At 100 yds, RP did .5-.6 out the box in a custom heavy bbl, while Noz shot in the 4s and under when I did my part.

Not sure what load you ran in your 130 tests.

The 129s shot great in my 9 twist custom 6.5-308 23" long ago.

A 129 has a bearing surface similar to many 120s and has speeds close - in the 2800s often.

No doubt your 120BT/3K load is a deadly one. In the past I ran IMR4350 and 414 for best results. 414 metered great, but not used enough to know if temp sensitive.

H4350 is what I use now, though RL series may get tried and a few more. Varget can do well w/light bullets, as 4320 if you have any to burn up.

My 9" custom did not like OVER 129s, but a Sako 75 also w/9" did fine w/Amax 140s, Berger 139/140, and 142 SMK HP, all under 1", but that gun again - put 2 in the SAME HOLE at 200 yds twice back to back out of 3 shot groups, using a 20x scope.

Good look, and good hunting.

I've run 129 SSTs with RL192850. That is a little heavy on the powder though. Accuracy was excellent. Hope those 130s run for you.

Hi Mark,

I have experimented with a bunchof different powders in the 260rem with 120 grain bullets. I awlays thought that was the perfect weight and the 120NBT is the bullet I settled on. Funy enough, my pet load is 45.5 grains of H4350 for around 3030 from a 24 inch tube,like you with no signs of pressure.

I could never get RL19 or W760 to reach the book speeds for the designated powder charge.

One other powder I liked was Varget. This also gave good results and if I was to shoot the 100 grain pills in the 260, that would probably be my first choice. 40 Grains got the 120's to 3,000fps as well.

You are playing with one of my all time favourite cartidges in the 260rem, I hope it gives you as much pleasure as mine has me, both in the field and on paper.

LowBC

To those of you running the 130 Berger, out of curiousity what are you using for a COAL?

And, yeah I know they varry from rifle to rifle but please humor me. I tried the 130 Berg in my 700 once and it didn't do so well so am wondering if I am just twist screwed?

Thx
Dober