.260 For Long Range Hunting?

[kidcoltoutlaw]

if you asking does it have 1000 foot pounds of energy at 700 yards.i don't know but when i get the chance i will run the charts for it and let you know.my brother is a wimp when it come to recoil .so im thinking the 260 would be a gun deer gun for him.how is the recoil i have never shot one or seen one.there is some stuff on the 260 at www.accuratereloading.com ,thanks,keith

[chris matthews]

Don't worry about KE.Put the bullet where it belongs and it will cleanly harvest a deer at those ranges. There are guys on here who have done the same with a 243.

[speedbump]

Yes, they shoot very well in light to moderate wind & will have enough energy to kill deer at 600. A shooting buddy routinely plinks his at 1,000 and is tough to beat in f-class at 500.

[milanuk]

I shoot a 6.5-08 aka .260 Rem in my XTC match rifle. Shoots pretty well when the driver is up to it. I haven't used it for hunting yet (haven't done much of *any* hunting for a while [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] ), but IIRC the 'standard' numbers I recall people giving as minimums for retained energy were 1000ft-lbs for an elk, or 800ft-lbs for a deer. The load I'm shooting now (for the moment) propels a 142gr SMK (moly) @ 2815fps from a 30" barrel (got up to 2940, but things were a little sticky, w/o much benefit in the wind for the extra wear and tear... one or two clicks on a 1/4 MOA sight), and according to RSI Shooting Lab it has the following retained energy levels:

700yds 1119ft-lbs
800 984
900 864
1000 758

Accuracy was about 1/2 MOA @ 300yds, scored a 95-1X @ 900yds (iron sights) when the driver momentarily got his stuff all in one sock [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

From what I recall running the numbers for a .308 and for the .260, as a general rule (general is the key word here) since the .260 starts out slightly faster w/ a higher B.C. bullet (in general) than a .308 Winchester, it should be good to go in terms of ft-lbs at any distance a .308 Winchester would be acceptable. Now whether or not you would rather have a bigger frontal area, raw mass impacting the target, whatever, I can't argue one way or the other.

HTH,

Monte

[kwanjangnihm]

I'd like some opinions using a .260 Remington for long range deer hunting. The bullet selection is good, with most having high BC's & SD's. I hunt a lot of open pasture land where a shot out to 500-700 yards can present itself. My question is whether or nor this caliber has enough KE to make a clean kill at those yardages. Thanks for any input!

Jeff [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[DMCI]

In the state of Washington the 6-308 (AKA .243 Winchester) is considered minimum acceptable caliber for deer at normal (<300yards) as I understand it.

The .260 (AKA 6.5-308) has a slightly larger bullet and similar velocities, and so if used prudently should work fine as well.

I think the 7mm Remington Mag and even the .264Win Mag were developed as a factory cartridge for those wanting to push the yardage from 300 to over 400.

Seems in retrospect the 6.5 never got any traction mainly because of problems inherent in the caliber's introduction and marketing, again in my opinion.

D. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Mysticplayer]

I am just completing a 6.5-06 to do just that. My goal is to launch 140gr SST at 3000fps.

With the 140gr bullets, the 260case is a bit small if OAL for a short mag (vel around 2600 to 2700fps). If you throat out and improve the case, you get closer to the 6.5-284 or 6.5-06 in vel (2700 to 2800fps).

I prefer the larger case just to ensure I get the muzzle vel I want. Put a bullet in the boiler room and the deer will go down.

Jerry