Hunting with 260 Rem

[pearson1662]

My son has left me with a Ruger Hawkeye Compact with a laminated stock in 260 Rem. It's a handy little rifle and despite the fact that I'm 6'3", I like shooting it. What I'm wondering is what bullet would be effective on deer and how fast would they need to be pushed. So far all I've shot is a saeco 264 with straight ww at ~1200'/sec with five shot groups of an inch and a half at 100 yards, all day long. I cull them pretty ruthlessly and seat them with very low runout to get those groups but I'm pretty proud of them. But what do I need to reliably take deer up to 100 yards?

[lathesmith]

pearson, this might seem like blasphemy or sacrilege, but a 120-140 grain spire point driven to 2700+ fps is deadly effective in this class of cartridge to well over 250 yards on white-tail deer size game. This would be a quick, easy load to get you going, as this cartridge is easily capable of this much velocity and more.
As for cast, it would be hard to go wrong with anything heavier than 130+ grains, I'd say the heavier the better, as long as your rifle shoots accurately I'd drive it as fast as possible. This is a fantastic caliber for white tails as the slugs are generally heavy for the caliber, and for a quick kill on deer the closer you can get to 2000 fps the better.
Good hunting,
lathesmith

[bruce drake]

As a fellow 6.5 fanatic, I will echo lathesmith's observations. I enjoy using Sierra's 120gr Gameking bullets in my 260 Rem as well as my 6.5 Creedmoor and I am confidant that they do a great number on deer-sized deer. I have the Ideal Mold 266469 which drops a 140gr RN Loverin design that works wonders as well when it goes out at 2000fps. I fill every lube groove on that bullet with Lars' BAC Lube to ensure that the bullet stays lubed the entire way down the barrel at that speed.

Bruce

[TCLouis]

For bullets I am partial to 129 grain Hornady's , but then I started with the 129 grain RNs over Milsurp 4831 back in 67 and still have a few of those left.

For Boolits I think Waksupi is the most experienced on game gathering with cast 6.5. Maybe someone else out there plugging deer with boolits that I do not know about also.

Maybe someone else out there.

Cast pretty dang hard the 340 grain 45 caliber Lee and the 140 grain 6.5 grain Saeco (?) Redding (?) hold the record for me on penetration in wet phone books.

Both went through the stack and about 3-4 inches into the clay of my berm!

[Lloyd Smale]

no experience with the 260 but i shoot the 120 ballistic tip in my 264mag and its accounted for at least 20 deer through the last few years and that bullet hasnt let me down yet and would probably work great in your gun.

[pipehand]

Pearson, I'm a 260 Rem fan as well, but I have to confess I don't load cast for mine. I have a Rem 40X that I use for a LR target rifle using 142 grain MatchKings, and a Savage Model 10 rebarreled with a Pac-Nor Super Match that I have used to take 3 deer with 2 shots, using Hornady 129 grain Interloc flat based bullets. One day I'll get to trying cast in them, but probably not for deer.

[6.5 mike]

120 gr Noslers have shot the best for me in a 6.5 14" tcu bbl, 6.5 JDJ 14", & my 260. Have tried others but keep coming back to these. Ain't broke, don't fix it.

[oscarflytyer]

Speer HotCor 120 gn ~2500-2650 fps - Shoot 'em - pick 'em up. Shot from my Win 70 FW 6.5x55. Starting to work up for the same HotCor bullet in 140 gn. Prob go about ~2500 fps. Would expect it to smack 'em down as well or better than the 120.

I have shot the 120 at everything from German Reh (Roe) deer (about 50-60lbs), Southern whitetail to 150 lb and an 80 lb wild hog. Only two that ever went over 10 yards were a low heart shot Reh (25 yds) and a whitetail doe that went maybe 30 yds. She took a 120 gn perfectly broadside - b/n ribs on onside, thru both lungs and b/n 2 ribs on the off side. All soft tissue. .264 in and about .308 out.

I like the Speer HotCor so well that I bought 400 of the 140s when they came out with the new DeepCurl. And you don't have to push them fast to get great terminal performance. Highly recommend them!

[BD]

I use the 140 grain Speer Hotcores in my 22" cut down swede @ +/- 2500 fps. They are very effective on whitetails out to 300 yards. IMHO they are nearly ideal for this role. The 120 grain Nosler BTs also shoot extremely well. I have not had much luck with cast, but my rifle is a swede with the 1 in 7+ twist
BD

[oscarflytyer]

I use the 140 grain Speer Hotcores in my 22" cut down swede @ +/- 2500 fps. They are very effective on whitetails out to 300 yards. IMHO they are nearly ideal for this role. The 120 grain Nosler BTs also shoot extremely well. I have not had much luck with cast, but my rifle is a swede with the 1 in 7+ twist
BD

+1 on the Speer HotCors. Why I bought 400 of the 140s before they were gone. My Winchester 70 always shot the 120s great, but now also loading for a sportered Swede(don't ask/don't say it - I KNOW I was an idiot!). So I went ahead and went with the 140s. Plus they should work great on a hog if I cross with one. The 120 worked perfect on an 80 lb hog years ago.

[richhodg66]

I bought my oldest son a Remington Model 7 youth rifle in .260 about nine years ago. It never has been a tack driver, but acceptably accurate (I need to work with it more) when he outgrew the stock, I found a factory take off synthetic one cheap and he was back in business.

He killed several deer with it using a few different jacketed bullets. Seems to me like the 129 grain Hornady worked best in it, but all of them worked well as far as terminal performance goes. To me, the .260 Remington is the perfect deer cartridge (at least for jacketed bullets). It doesn't kick appreciably more than a .243, but give more margin for error downrange in my opinion. I'm going to have to get a rifle in it for myself one day.

[lathesmith]

It doesn't kick appreciably more than a .243, but give more margin for error downrange in my opinion.

Right on Rich! I've never been a fan of the 243 for deer, personally it's just a little too light IMHO. Sure it'll work with near-perfect shot placement, but just when you think you have it lined up, you're squeezing the trigger, and...the deer takes a step. I've had a few deer run off under these circumstances, and lost a few with 243's, but not with the 260/6.5's. The 260's punch well above their weight, it seems, and make a great caliber not only for the recoil sensitive but for everyone.