.260 Rem rules the roost in High Power Silhouette.

J

JohnKSa

Administrator
Interesting comment made by Jim Scoutten on this week's episode of Shooting USA.

In answer to emails, he polled the competitors and found that the majority of the shooters at the NRA national high power silhouette competion were using .260 Remington.

Funny, I never hear anything but good about this cartridge and yet it seems to languish. One more indicator that popularity is a poor measure of performance.
 
Can you give us some general info about the round (based on what case, weight of the rounds, fpfs, ect)? Sounds like something I need to learn about!
 
The advantage in the 260 is that it is a short (.308 ) case and will cycle in an AR 10 series semi auto. It also has a great selection of 6.5 mm bullets to choose from.
 
Think of 260 Remington as a 308 Win necked down to accept 6.5 mm bullets. 35 grains of Varget, IMR4064 or VV N550 will get about 2,500 fps with a 142 gr Matchking and provides sub-MOA accuracy.
 
Good round. With the right powders, you can get just over 2600-fps with a 140/142, which is a far sight better than the old 168gr SMK .308 load at about 2550. (Better BC, a touch more speed, lower recoil, enjoy your flight!)

Of course, now in over-the-course Highpower match rifles 6mm cartridges are slowly supplanting the 6.5mm. The .30-cal. cartridges seem to be slipping into the minority on the lines around here.
 
Thanks for the info, everyone. Sounds like an interesting (and accurate) round. What makes it more accurate than, say, a 7mm-08?
 
Funny how a cartridge that is functionally identical to the 110+ yr old 6.5x55 Swede is popular suddenly. Seems to me that the northern Europeans had us on this one, as the 6.5x55 has been VERY popular for a long time, for everything from paper to varmints to Moose.
 
What makes it more accurate than, say, a 7mm-08
Click to expand...
It would be ballistic coefficient of a given bullet at a certain fps. The 7-08 is also a great candidate except the majority are starting to lean towards heavy/smaller diameter bullets. VLD, very low drag bullets. The only difference shooting a 7-08 with the same level performance of the 260 Rem will produce a bit more recoil. josh
 
A lot of guys shooting "practical long-range" matches are going to .260. We probably have 10 built up locally here in the last year. I have an AI-AW in it...

-z
 
I was pretty sure it was going to be a winner when it was announced. It was, if you will, the marriage of the European mainstream/traditional high-power accuracy cartridge with the American mainstream/traditional high-power accuracy cartridge.

I've been very disappointed at the response from the shooting community. At least the competition community is coming to realize its value.
 
Back in the early 1990s I was writing and editing for American Rifleman Magazine, and I got to go to several of the silhouette championships.

That was before the .260 was released commercially, but a number of competitors were using 6.5mm wildcats based on either the .308 or the .300 Savage case. As a general rule of thumb they were called 6.5mm Internationals (there were also 6mm and 7mm Internationals). All were very similar.

It's not surprising that the .260 Remington has found a home with the silhouette shooters. It has enough power to take the rams cleanly, but doesn't have punishing recoil.
 
I saw the same episode, John. He also mentioned the 7mm-08 and .308 were popular as well.

In the episode there was mention about issues with rams not falling (500yds) with the .260rem. Just after this claim, they had video of the match winner with a clean hit on a ram and it didn't fall.
 
I didn't slo-mo through that section, but my impression while watching was that the hit in question was pretty low on the animal--thought it hit the back foot. And I doubt that the ammunition he was shooting was factory--it's hard to say what velocity he had loaded it to, but I'm guessing that he had it tweaked for the minimum he thought would consistently knock the ram over. I think he tweaked a bit too much--but I think he still would have gotten away with it if the hit hadn't been so low. ;)
 
Last edited:
I haven't had a problem knocking any of the targets over on the centerfire silhouette range at the NRA Whittington Center, using 139gr Scenars at 2800fps. These go out to 500 meters as usual.

It is reported that this load will knock over a LaRue target at 1000 yards.
 
Seems like the perfect medium military wise. Power of a .30 cal with the recoil and closer to weight of a .223.

Orrrrrr not?

-Max.
 
This is true, but considering they're making the .30 cal AR's close if not the same size as the .223's, wouldn't it be a good idea? I'm going to be honest and say I'm not REAL familiar with either chambering in the assault weapons, but isn't the main draw back of the .308 AR's the recoil, as well as weight of ammo? It's definitly heavier then the .223, but has to be lighter then .308 correct?


Not arguing, just asking :o

-Max.
 
How well does the .260 work in a short action rifle? Is seating the bullet out to get a bit more case capacity and hit the lands while still fitting in a short action magazine as much of a problem that I perceive it to be?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top