making 260 Remington brass from 308 and 243

[dgr416]

I just bought a savage 260 Remington.I figured that I have tons if 308 and pretty good bit of 243 brass .Has anyone else made it that way .Its hard to find 260 brass and its expensive when I do find it . I can get 308 easy.I didn't know if I had to neck it to 7mm08 first or do it in one operation .I was going to try a tapered expander on the 243 brass .I think this is an awesome caliber for kids alot better than the 243 for deer .I hope it will shoot the 155 gr lapula bullets I like best and hopefully I find a good long range bullet too .I think brass is fixing to disappear again so I stocked up big time on 308 and 243 z

 

[RT2506]

My buddy got one of the first Rem 700s to come out in 260. It was before you could even get a hold of any factory ammo and there was not even load data out yet for it. We tried both 308 and 243 cases. The 308s came out a little short in neck length but the 243s come out great. We just ran them straight into the 260 FL die with a quick stroke after lubing them well. We decided to use Remington 243 cases and the start data for the 6.5x55 Swede with H4350 with both 120 and 140 gr Sierra hunting bullets and worked up watching for pressure signs and dialed it in. That thing was accurate and that year doing crop damage control on deer we killed 50 deer with this rifle with both bullets from in our lap out to right at 500 yards. We only had one even take a step after taking one of those bullets.

 

[Shortmagman]

I have found it to be easy to use 243 brass to load for my 260 Rem.. I had 308 Lapua and 243 Lapua and I did not try the 308 because you have to work the brass more to go from .308 to .264 than to go from .243 to .264 even though it can be done.

 

[FNA3G]

Either can be done but the 243>260 is better than 308. The 243 neck length will be good and the 308 is sometimes marginal. The biggest issue with 308 is that the neck will mostly likely need or should be turned down. The other issue is you will see doughnuts forming when going from 308 to 260.

 

[codyadams]

Will you see donuts going from 243 to 260?

 

[Jimbeaux82]

I find it easier to neck 243 up to 260. Just run it thru a 260 resizing die and that's it. I do not see any "donuts" when doing this. Just be sure to put a little Imperial Sizing Wax inside the neck before resizing. Only other issue to consider is if you were to mistakenly chamber this round in a 243 you probably will have a big pressure issue. So to prevent this problem, I save all of the chrome 243 brass that I collect for resizing to 260, so that way if I see a chrome loaded round I know definitely it is a 260 despite the 243 head stamp.

 

[codyadams]

I find it easier to neck 243 up to 260. Just run it thru a 260 resizing die and that's it. I do not see any "donuts" when doing this. Just be sure to put a little Imperial Sizing Wax inside the neck before resizing. Only other issue to consider is if you were to mistakenly chamber this round in a 243 you probably will have a big pressure issue. So to prevent this problem, I save all of the chrome 243 brass that I collect for resizing to 260, so that way if I see a chrome loaded round I know definitely it is a 260 despite the 243 head stamp.

That's a good idea. Luckily I myself won't have to worry about that, as I'm going 260AI and don't own a 243

 

[Bart B]

The original 6.5x308 wildcat was made from 308 Win brass. A few years later, Remington copied the same round renaming it to the 260.

 

[dgr416]

What's the best dies to use for forming .I always use rcbs and hornady .I thought about trying reading .I was going to neck 308 down to 7mm08 then 260 .I have been wanting a 260 forever finally got a good deal on a savage model 11 hunter .I am going to let kids use it on parent child hunts them me use it some .I wanted a ruger but they are way to high and hard to find .

 

[Bart B]

308 cases were first sized with a 7-08 die then a 6.5x308 FL die.

RCBS or Redding full bushing dies are excellent. The only commercial .260 die that's better is a Forster with its neck honed out to .002" smaller than that of a loaded round.