Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Best powder for 260 Rem in a short barrel

What have you all found to be good powders in a 260 Rem with a short barrel?

Barrel is 16", 1 in 8" twist. Shooting Nosler 120 ballistic tips, 140 ballistic tips, and 140 partitions so far.

Don`t own a shorty tubed 260 but do have a 16.5" shorty barreled Ruger Frontier compact.

Whatever powders that work good in the longer barrels should also work well from the shorties.

There is a general misnomer out there, that faster burning powders work better from the shorter tubes than do the slower burns. Not necessarily. Your overall accuracy will depend more on your individual rifle itself rather than the barrel length.

For reloading, don`t treat your rifle any differently than one with a longer barrel.

I've had great luck with IMR4831 in a 18 1/2" Remington Model 7 in 260 with 129gr. Interlocks.

IMR 4064 is my usual go to powder for my 260s...from 100 to 140 grain bullets...

back up is IMR 4895, RL 15, W 748, BLC2, H 414 and IMR 4350...

but those are for the few times I am running low on 4064.....

noting is more accurate in my five different 260s than 4064.. regardless of bullet weight for 100 or over..

for under 100 grainers, I tend to use light loads of Rl 7, IMR 4198 and SR4759...were the bullets are flying out of the muzzle below 3000 fps... 30 grains of RL 7 is my most popular...

I use IMR4350 with 140's in my 18 1/2" Model 7. This rifle just flat out refuses to shoot lighter bullets.

IMR 4064 kicks ass, especially in the lighter weights.

I really like H4831 for the 140's and 4530/19/Hunter for the middle weights.

Haven't shoot of bunch of R15 in it, but it works great as well. A very easy round to load for......

Ruger Compact 260 with 120 Speers liked Hunter the best.

I was having a hard time finding a powder for my 20" 308. The only place in town that sells powder had 3lbs of really old Norma 201. Works great with the 135SMK. Don't know if it will help ya any, but it might be worth a try if you can scrounge some up.

W760/H414 in all bullet weights, if you don't like ball powders........I'd try RL17, RL19 or any of the 4350 powders from various manufatures, in all weights again!!!

Varget for lighter bullets.

Yep, IMR 4064 works for me as well.

My current load for my 18.5" model 7 is Winchester WXR under a 129 Hornady.

I've also used IMR4320

It is like you load at my bench. Exactly the same for me.

Don't know if this needs a new thread or just add it here...

but proposed question to all that have plenty of experience with loading the 260....

Anyone ever load powder in a 260 case with a bullet and powder combo that DIDN'T work well???

all of mine are about as finicky as what kind of gas to put in a VW... darn things ran just fine on no matter what gas you put in 'em....

H414 worked very well in my 18" Model 7

mine likes h4350 best.

Haven't got around to reloading for it yet, but my .260 shoots factory
Corelokts into 1" at 200, and 2.5 at 300.

Kinda begs the question, don't it, since I only shoot (after initial stuff) to kill meat, or check POA.

A box of ammo can last a couple years...

But I'll get around to it, I've been saving brass..

RP fell far short on ammo speeds, claimed 2750 IIRC on 140CL but many tests showed 2550. That can matter on long shots, and doesn't help that most of their rifles had 9 twists, some with stubby carbine tubes.

What rifle and twists do you use?