260 Rem Vs. 6.5-06
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Harry Sanders
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2009
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I like them all. I've got 2 260's in Steyr platform one a mountain (20' bbl) Prohunter SBS (my wife claims this gun as the stock fits her with the adjustable LOP spacers) and the other a Stainless full length barrel Pro Hunter SBS. Both Steyr's are 1/2 inch guns or better if I do my part. The long one loves Federal 120gr Barnes Triple shock factory ammo. But in my experience these two rifle like everything they're fed. Both of these guns wear Kahles 3.5-10 TDS scopes.
My 6.5x06 was the first custom I built out of school Whitworth Action and Shilen bbl. I've taken many deer with 140 Nosler partitions (this gun shoots better beyond 200 than it does close - Have shot .700in groups at 300yds) and groundhogs at extreme distance with 85gr Sierras. If I had to pick one 6.5 it's likely be this gun. It wears a swaro 3-12 TDS scope.
Lastly and not yet developed but one I'm VERY intrigued with is my 6.5x65RWS on the Mauser M03 platform. It will wear a 4-16 Schmidt & Bender with TDS reticle. Should go a bit better than the 6.5x06AI If I load it that fast.
My only general comment on any of this is that I doubt any game would ever know the difference unless your talking big heavy game with big heavy bullets (140 to 160gr) at extreme ranges (beyond 600yds) in that case the bigger cases with heavier loads of slower powder may hold an edge. Yet still if the 260 is accurate you can accomplish the same thing. All things considered it's wonderful to have choices for threads such as this.
My 6.5x06 was the first custom I built out of school Whitworth Action and Shilen bbl. I've taken many deer with 140 Nosler partitions (this gun shoots better beyond 200 than it does close - Have shot .700in groups at 300yds) and groundhogs at extreme distance with 85gr Sierras. If I had to pick one 6.5 it's likely be this gun. It wears a swaro 3-12 TDS scope.
Lastly and not yet developed but one I'm VERY intrigued with is my 6.5x65RWS on the Mauser M03 platform. It will wear a 4-16 Schmidt & Bender with TDS reticle. Should go a bit better than the 6.5x06AI If I load it that fast.
My only general comment on any of this is that I doubt any game would ever know the difference unless your talking big heavy game with big heavy bullets (140 to 160gr) at extreme ranges (beyond 600yds) in that case the bigger cases with heavier loads of slower powder may hold an edge. Yet still if the 260 is accurate you can accomplish the same thing. All things considered it's wonderful to have choices for threads such as this.
ranger1183
Active Member
I shoot a lot of .260 Rem and .260 Ackley Improved and have been able to push Berger 140 grain Target VLD's at +3000 fps using the Ackley, a case stuffed full of powder and a very long barrel. That being said, I can't get those same results with a traditional hunting bullet even if I reload to the point of blowing primers.
For a hunting rifle I had a custom reamer made by David Mason that necked down Nosler 280 Ackley Improved brass to 6.5mm and stuffed the longest bullet I could find in it. I don't have the rifle built yet but with the heavy 160 grain 6.5mm sledgehammers, I'm looking to get 3000 fps or more out of a shorter 24-26 inch barrel.
I still love the smaller 6.5mm for everyday range shooting and "tactical competitions". Build up a 6.5x47 Lapua, 6.5 Creedmoore or .260 Remington and you'll have a very accurate, fun and easy on the recoil rifle.
But for elk, or black bear or a big ole ****ed off cat, I'll take a long action cartridge and as much powder as I can pack into it.
Oh yeah, and using a necked down .280 Ackley reamer allows me to use .25-06, .270 and .30-06 brass as well as the .280 brass. lightbulb
For a hunting rifle I had a custom reamer made by David Mason that necked down Nosler 280 Ackley Improved brass to 6.5mm and stuffed the longest bullet I could find in it. I don't have the rifle built yet but with the heavy 160 grain 6.5mm sledgehammers, I'm looking to get 3000 fps or more out of a shorter 24-26 inch barrel.
I still love the smaller 6.5mm for everyday range shooting and "tactical competitions". Build up a 6.5x47 Lapua, 6.5 Creedmoore or .260 Remington and you'll have a very accurate, fun and easy on the recoil rifle.
But for elk, or black bear or a big ole ****ed off cat, I'll take a long action cartridge and as much powder as I can pack into it.
Oh yeah, and using a necked down .280 Ackley reamer allows me to use .25-06, .270 and .30-06 brass as well as the .280 brass. lightbulb
elkaholic
Well-Known Member
You should be able to reach your 3000' goal with a 160 grainer. I can get 3200' with a 140 in a 26" barrel in my 6.5 Sherman if I really push it. It holds about 2 or 3 grains more than the 6.5/.280 A.I..........Rich
ranger1183
Active Member
do you have pictures or a reamer diagram of the 6.5 Sherman that I can look at? Here is a 6.5-280 Ackley Improved stuffed into a Wyatt magazine. Next to it are .308 Winchester and .260 Remington.
ranger1183
Active Member
the .280 case is actually a tad bit longer than the .30-06 case.
elkaholic
Well-Known Member
The .280 has the shoulder moved forward a bit more and still maintains a better neck because it is approx. .046" longer than an '06. The Sherman moves the shoulder forward even further and blows the taper out of the case to .460" at the shoulder. I use .270, 280, .280A.I. or the best are 6.5x65RWS cases.......Rich
There's been some things said about barrel life for some 6.5mm rounds that appear to me to be way off the mark.
Years ago, a friend I used to shoot 1000 yard matches with had a 6.5-06 with a Hart barrel in a custom made solid bottom Weatherby action (made by Roy Weatherby's shop just for him). It lasted about 800 rounds of excellent accuracy before going really bad in less than 20 shots. I was shooting a .264 Win. Mag. at the same time that lasted 640 rounds before going bad in less than 5 shots.
A decade or two ago when the 6.5-.284 was first used in long range matches by a friend of mine as well as his wife and her two daughters, they won lots of matches and set a record or two amongs them. They've worn out a few barrels with this cartridge. They get about 1500 to 2000 rounds of good accuracy before the barrels start going bad. That's better than 1000 to 1200 rounds with the 30 caliber magnums they used to use. And a lot better than the 800 rounds or thereabouts the 7mm Rem. Mag. was getting. They've also been using the 6.5-.308 across the course for 200 to 600 yard matches winning a lot.
Note that these barrel life numbers are based on those that shoot 1/4 MOA or better at 100 yards, 1/2 MOA at 600 and 3/4 MOA at 1000 yards. Barrels that start out with worse accuracy will seem to have a longer life. US service rifles starting out in the 1 to 2 MOA accuracy at 100 yards will have a barrel life of near 10,000 rounds. Remember that the more powder burned for a give bore size, the shorter barrel life will be.
Someone mentioned that a cartridge whose shoulder angle was such that it caused the powder burning to erode the throat faster and stated the .308 Win. caused more throat erosion than the .30-06 because of this. Well, that contradicts the reality that happened in the mid 1960's when the .308 Win. replaced the .30-06 as "the" round to use for conventional high power rifle matches shot through 600 yards. The .308 was getting about 3000 rounds of good accuracy compared to the 2500 or so produced by the .30-06. At least this is what the best shooters (NRA master classified) reported and they're better qualified to judge accuracy life than those with lower classifications. And it's been my experience too.
Years ago, a friend I used to shoot 1000 yard matches with had a 6.5-06 with a Hart barrel in a custom made solid bottom Weatherby action (made by Roy Weatherby's shop just for him). It lasted about 800 rounds of excellent accuracy before going really bad in less than 20 shots. I was shooting a .264 Win. Mag. at the same time that lasted 640 rounds before going bad in less than 5 shots.
A decade or two ago when the 6.5-.284 was first used in long range matches by a friend of mine as well as his wife and her two daughters, they won lots of matches and set a record or two amongs them. They've worn out a few barrels with this cartridge. They get about 1500 to 2000 rounds of good accuracy before the barrels start going bad. That's better than 1000 to 1200 rounds with the 30 caliber magnums they used to use. And a lot better than the 800 rounds or thereabouts the 7mm Rem. Mag. was getting. They've also been using the 6.5-.308 across the course for 200 to 600 yard matches winning a lot.
Note that these barrel life numbers are based on those that shoot 1/4 MOA or better at 100 yards, 1/2 MOA at 600 and 3/4 MOA at 1000 yards. Barrels that start out with worse accuracy will seem to have a longer life. US service rifles starting out in the 1 to 2 MOA accuracy at 100 yards will have a barrel life of near 10,000 rounds. Remember that the more powder burned for a give bore size, the shorter barrel life will be.
Someone mentioned that a cartridge whose shoulder angle was such that it caused the powder burning to erode the throat faster and stated the .308 Win. caused more throat erosion than the .30-06 because of this. Well, that contradicts the reality that happened in the mid 1960's when the .308 Win. replaced the .30-06 as "the" round to use for conventional high power rifle matches shot through 600 yards. The .308 was getting about 3000 rounds of good accuracy compared to the 2500 or so produced by the .30-06. At least this is what the best shooters (NRA master classified) reported and they're better qualified to judge accuracy life than those with lower classifications. And it's been my experience too.
Last edited:
Sully2
Well-Known Member
How and why did the 280 get interjected here when the thread was the .260 Rem VS the 6.5/06 cartridge??
WildRose
Well-Known Member
geronimo.tn
Well-Known Member
.260AI in a short action rifle of your choice. 
260 Remington: I'll write how I got there, agree or disagree…
Forty years ago Jack O'Connor wrote about all the big game in Africa and North America he either shot himself or witnessed shot with the 7x57 Mauser. Jack wrote the 154 grain bullet was the best all around bullet in the 7mm Mauser and you should recall that bullets of over 40 years ago are far inferior to the superior bullets we have today. In fact, Petzal and Barsness are both gun writers of today advocating standard cartridges over super magnums because of, in part, modern super bullet construction.
Today, the modern 7-08 is the equivalent of the 7x57 and the 260 Remington is the 6.5mm cartridge also necked down from the .308 Winchester. As we know on this forum, the 6.5mm bullets have ballistic advantages over 7mm bullets though both are excellent choices. I decided to have a 260 Remington built with a 24" eight twist barrel in front of a custom action.
I shoot 140 grain bullets; either a 140 grain Berger VLD for deer sized game or an old school, deadly 140 grain Nosler Partition for elk and moose. The 140 grain 6.5mm Nosler Partition has higher sectional density and ballistic coefficients than the 160 grain 7mm and 180 grain .308 bullet which gave me confidence in the elk and moose woods. Let's recall how a bullet (or arrow) kills: tissue destruction AND penetration; and a 140 grain penetration bullet like the Nosler Partition in 6.5mm does the job.
Both the elk and moose I shot were one shot kills. The elk was a DRT (dead right there) high shoulder shot and the moose ran 60 yards, laid down and died after being double lunged with the partition. Jack O'Connor was right, the light recoil permits precision shooting and the excellent ballistics of the 6.5mm 140 grain bullet does a great job penetrating and killing game.
After listening to a Saskatchewan Outfitter complain about my rifle's caliber, I took up the 140 grain Nosler Partitions in the 260 to keep him happy and dropped a heavy, mature whitetail buck right on the feed pile, DRT. The 300 magnum crowd enjoyed poking fun at my "woman's gun", but I reminded them that my whitetail was the only DRT that week and one of the cavemen got "scoped" which bled all day.
Had the 6.5-06 not been a wildcat, I might have considered it but I have zero complaints about the 260. Quality brass is available, my loads go into Nosler brass.
As has been discussed by others on this forum, I consider this rifle to be an easy consistent 500 yard terminator of non-dangerous game when I have time and know the exact range and it is fun to ring the 600 yard 10" gong nearly every time when I do my part correctly.
Forty years ago Jack O'Connor wrote about all the big game in Africa and North America he either shot himself or witnessed shot with the 7x57 Mauser. Jack wrote the 154 grain bullet was the best all around bullet in the 7mm Mauser and you should recall that bullets of over 40 years ago are far inferior to the superior bullets we have today. In fact, Petzal and Barsness are both gun writers of today advocating standard cartridges over super magnums because of, in part, modern super bullet construction.
Today, the modern 7-08 is the equivalent of the 7x57 and the 260 Remington is the 6.5mm cartridge also necked down from the .308 Winchester. As we know on this forum, the 6.5mm bullets have ballistic advantages over 7mm bullets though both are excellent choices. I decided to have a 260 Remington built with a 24" eight twist barrel in front of a custom action.
I shoot 140 grain bullets; either a 140 grain Berger VLD for deer sized game or an old school, deadly 140 grain Nosler Partition for elk and moose. The 140 grain 6.5mm Nosler Partition has higher sectional density and ballistic coefficients than the 160 grain 7mm and 180 grain .308 bullet which gave me confidence in the elk and moose woods. Let's recall how a bullet (or arrow) kills: tissue destruction AND penetration; and a 140 grain penetration bullet like the Nosler Partition in 6.5mm does the job.
Both the elk and moose I shot were one shot kills. The elk was a DRT (dead right there) high shoulder shot and the moose ran 60 yards, laid down and died after being double lunged with the partition. Jack O'Connor was right, the light recoil permits precision shooting and the excellent ballistics of the 6.5mm 140 grain bullet does a great job penetrating and killing game.
After listening to a Saskatchewan Outfitter complain about my rifle's caliber, I took up the 140 grain Nosler Partitions in the 260 to keep him happy and dropped a heavy, mature whitetail buck right on the feed pile, DRT. The 300 magnum crowd enjoyed poking fun at my "woman's gun", but I reminded them that my whitetail was the only DRT that week and one of the cavemen got "scoped" which bled all day.
Had the 6.5-06 not been a wildcat, I might have considered it but I have zero complaints about the 260. Quality brass is available, my loads go into Nosler brass.
As has been discussed by others on this forum, I consider this rifle to be an easy consistent 500 yard terminator of non-dangerous game when I have time and know the exact range and it is fun to ring the 600 yard 10" gong nearly every time when I do my part correctly.
