New member from across the pond...

[Bobby M]

Hi fellas!

The name is Robert but my ol'friends in LA calls me Bobby so I guess that would be more proper...

I live just south of Gothenburg/Sweden in a house with my wife, 2 dogs and 3 cats. I'm soon finished building my garage which just happened to turn into a workshop instead. I'm gonna furnish the interior with a lathe, a mill, a surface grinder and probably a AC/DC TIG.

Used to be a musician, studied at Musicians Institute in good ol'holly for 2 years but after I got burned out on the business I turned coat and transformed into a licensed welder instead.
Life turned a bit boring without a proper hobby so I took the hunting course which we Swedes got to have in our back pockets to legally be able to own and use hunting firearms.

Took me about a year or two before I got myself my first custom rifle which just happened to be a Tikka 590, I had the riflesmith remove the old barrel and screw on a new and much fatter thing that he chambered in 308 Win, the sniperstock that carries the heavy barreled action I built myself.

After another year passed by I just had to try rebarreling and truing an action on my own so I hooked up with a friend in norhern Sweden who had done this several times. He supervised me through the whole session when I trued a Remmy 700 and chambered the new barrel in 260 Rem.

Proud to say, the Remmy shoots the balls of a smaller bird at 100 yards using Norma 130 GT. gun)

Very few people own a 260 Rem in Sweden so I figured that I might get some help with reloading data and such from you guys since the caliber is far more common in the states.

Anywho... Nice to be aboard!


/Bobby

 

[Chas1]

Welcome, glad to have you here. lots of good folks and lots of good info. Enjoy.

 

[winmag]

Glad to see you found L/R/H!
Try doing a ''search'' here on L/R/H, with the search button ,top right, two from the right if I remember correctly, for 260 load info. Also check out Nosler.com.
Always nice to see how shooters in other parts of the world go about things. Im anxious to read some of your posts. Congrats on the Rem action job, and good luck with your Garage/Shop.

 

[Oliveralan]

Welcome to LRH!

I dont own a .260, but have read good things about RL17 in it, i also use it in my .308 and shoot 208gr A-maxs at around 2800fps. depending on barrel length, 2750-29XX is possible with a 140gr bullet (other than the 142 SMK). Can't help much with the starting load, i just remember the guy used around 44grs. Start at 39 or 40 i suppose.

 

[Bobby M]

Thanks a bunch, it definitley seems like a friendly forum!

I did the search thing right after I wrote my first post here but I didn't read more than a couple of pages since it got a bit late but I'll continue my search later tonight.

Came to think about it, this is my eight forum that I registered to. I My wife looks a little bugged about it... I wonder why?

Have read a lot about RL17 but my barrel likes a bit slower powders like RL18/Norma 204/Rhino 18 (which is the same thing) behind Norma 130grs GT bullet. I've also tried out Vihtavuori N160 for this bullet and the ES was very very low, I do have to change the bullet jump a bit since the precision was altered with this powder.

As for the 140grs bullets I've tried out pretty much the same powders add one, Vihtavuori N165 which made the Hornady SST travel at the speed of 2887f/s without any preassure signs. This load shoot like **** so I'll have to work it a bit more. I'll also try N160 today just to see what velocity I can get with this powder. Later on I'll try out RL22 as well but first things first right?

My buddy Mats has a 260 as well but his barrel has a much tighter inner diameter than mine. His max loads stops about 3-5 grains below mine.

The biggest problem in my country is the prices on the shooting ingredients which is way high compared to what you guys pay for'em over there, double the price at least. Our government isn't directly shooting/hunting friendly so they try out various things to keep things on the minimal for example the "lead tax". This leads in my turn to ask a lot of Q's before loading up my ammo so if someone got some pointers on what kind of bullet jump the SST's likes for instance I'll be more than happy.

Another problem in Sweden is that we almost only can get hold of european gunpowder. One or two stores have hodgon in stock but the hazard fee is way out of proportion so that is out of the question.

The fastest powder I've used in my 308 is Norma 201 for the Speer 125grs TNT bullet (2952f/s) and Vv N140 for the SMK 168 bullet (2624f/s). I've also used N150 behind those SMK's which gave a bit more speed (2788f/s).
This barrel measures 26" and shoot more than well, @100m (109yards) I've had groupings measuring 7mm (0,28") with the SMK's.

I've never thought about using the 208 a-max since I'm not sure that my 1-12" barrel stabilizes them heavy things... 2800f/s sounds scary high, are you sure about those numbers Oliveralan?


Over and out!



/Bobby

 

[tackb]

welcome on board bobby from the uk,

I sympathise with you about over priced shooting stuff , we get much the same problems here in the uk.

I shoot a 260 and a load i've found to work really well is vit N560 under a 140 amax head i cant remember how much i use but i'll check my records and get back to you, i do remember that it was near max (it's running 2850) but showed only early signs of pressure certainly nothing i would worry about in my rifle,the 140 amax is very good on game although i don't know how they would work on game larger than our red deer because that is all i've tried them on. run the figures , you will be very impressed ?

I also have a 308 and my goto load is 168 amax over 46 grains of varget , if i cant do what i want with this then the 308 is not suitable and my 300 rum needs to come out to play!

the 208 amax will stabilise in a 1 in 10 but i'm not sure about the 1 in 12 , this really impressed me i mean think about it , a 208 grain bullet at 2650 out of a 308 now thats impressive!

good luck and happy hunting.....

 

[Bobby M]

Nice to hear from ya "neighbour".

The 500-series has been something of a dilemma, cleaning the rifle thoroughly has proven time consuming since it fouls the barrel a whole lot more than other double based powders. I'm not sure if it is the graphite that produces the fouling or what but it does for sure, been loading a bunch of different bullets in my 308 and I simply got tired of the long cleaning process.

It sure gives velocity though but in my opinion I'd go for a much cleaner double based powder such as Norma MRP/RL 22/Rhino 22 but I'll try anything to make it happen. Many thanks for any loading data, vihtavuori lists a starting load at 39,6grs and a max load at 44,1grs behind the 139grs Scenar. Vihtavuoris data has been more than mild before so i bet that you can push the bullet a little harder by adding a grain or two.

There can't be to big of a difference between a-max and SST or can there?

I'm pretty sure that a 1-12" barrel stabilizes up to 180grs but porly beyond, since I haven't tried myself I'll let it slide...

The red deer you hunt, I'll guess that they are about the same size as the ones we have here. We also have white tails and another type of larger deer in the country but not on my hunting grounds sorry to say. Our hunting season doesn't start until august 16th so that gives me alot of time to work up a really good load. Moose hunting starts in october so that is even further away.

Happy hunting!

 

[tackb]

I tried the 129 sst in my 260 and it just plain wouldn't shoot that well? and the 140 amax shoots a dream ? also i found the amax tended to kill a bit better , don't know why?

I found no extra cleaning problems with the 500 powders?

what ever the books say about stabilising bullets i would always give a borderline bullet a try , every gun/barrel is different?

i will get you that info when i get home tonight , the obvious applies though, the loads are safe in my gun but maybe not in yours ? so work up to the max!

 

[Bobby M]

I agree, it's never a fact until one tried.

 

[tackb]

try 47 grains of N560 under a 140 amax i went to 47.4 but it shot best at 47 dead.

 

[Bobby M]

I'll try it as soon as I get the ingredients and the time for it.

Thanks alot!