Hunting rifle recommendations in .260 Rem

H

hounddawg

New member
Long story short I am thinking of purchasing a rifle suited more for hunting than target use. I want it in .260 Remington because of my experience using that cartridge for long range target use.

So far I have been looking at Remington, Savage, Tikka, Ruger and a few others over at Gunbroker. I am looking for something light, weatherproof, and minute of hog accuracy at 300 yards that costs less than $1000. It would be nice if it could pull off three shots rapid fire with little or no no barrel climb.

Pretty sure all those brands I mentioned would work just looking for reasons to choose one brand over the other so all opinions are welcome
 
I might be inclined to lean towards the Tikka. It's Sako's equivalent to the Weatherby Vanguard in my opinion. The 260 is a fine caliber for hog hunting. Many 260 target shooters refused to get caught up in the 6.5 Creedmoor hoopla and still use the 260.

I have a Tikka T3x in 22-250 and love it. I have a Bergarra B14 HMR in 6.5 Creedmoor and it's o.k. but I'll take my .308 Weatherby Threat Response Rifle over it any day. It's just my .02 cents but I think the 260 falls sort of in between the two in an odd but good way if you're primary use is going to be hog hunting.
 
I like the Tikka the best of those options.

Unless you already own a 260 and are set up with brass, dies and other loading equipment there is no reason to choose it over 6.5 CM. The 260 has never been popular and is fading into obscurity fast. The 6.5 CM does the same thing, does it a little better, there are more rifle options, and is going to be around in the future.
 
What features do you want in a hunting rifle besides being a .260 Rem? Remington, Ruger, Savage, and Tikka are your best bet for a .260 rifle. If you would go 6.5 Creedmoor you would open yourself up to a lot more rifle choices.
 
Commercial hunting rifles are all pretty much the same. However, given Remington's financial woes, you may want to take 'em out of the running.
"...three shots rapid fire with little or no barrel climb..." A muzzle brake will do that. It'll also increase the blast and noise for you(and everybody near you.) though. However, rapid fire with a bolt action hunting rifle isn't exactly rapid. Nor will muzzle jump matter much. Hunting rifles are not built for speed. And "light weight" won't help.
Like jmr40 says, the .260 is in kind of limited availability. Midway shows that Remington doesn't currently make it. Not exactly surprising. Rest of the makers sell it by the 50 or 100 round bag at approximately a buck each. Midway has Hornady brass on Clearance sale at $31.48 per 50. Starline on sale at $30.50 per 50.
I'm not convinced the .260 is that great ballistically for 300 yards. (Target shooting is different than hunting.) A 140 grain bullet sighted in at 200 will drop 3.3" at 250 and 8.3" at 300. A 130 isn't much better. Plenty of energy though. Just the bullet drop.
 
I am very invested in the .260 Rem, I agree popularity wise the 6.5CM wins hands down but in ballistics catagory the .260 and the 6.5 CM are basically identical cartridges. The 6.5 CM is a tad more efficient due to the shoulder angle and uses a grain or two of powder which for the hunting rifle would be insignificant. However in max velocity wise terms they might as well be the same cartridge

I also have dies, brass, and a buttload of Hornady 100 gn Interlocks etc for the 6.0 CM. That could be another possibility. I tried the 6.0 calibers as target rifle cartridges but the short barrel life turned me off however for a hunting rifle it might just be the ticket

No rush on the decision. I have not hunted in almost 40 years but by 2021 I may be back living in the Appalachians again.

edit @TO - I was referring to the pencil barrel heating up and causing the POI to rise
 
A semiautomatic in 6.5 CM can probably be had in the $1k price range give or take a bit. It sounds more like what you are wanting performance wise. A decent brake will give you 3 rapid shots with little if any barrel climb. 140 grain ELD-X should work like the hammer of Thor if put in the kill zone. Also it would not be boat anchor heavy.

If it is a bolt action and no other than I would advise one to look into the Ruger American series. Most come with a threaded barrel so add a brake. You still have plenty left over for glass, rings, and a base.

A Savage Axis with the adjustable trigger would be next in line. The price is low, but it will take some customizing. Like a better stock, and having the barrel threaded for a brake. Though it would come in under the budget, and have plenty of money left for a scope, base, and rings.

I went 6.5 CM for a few reasons. One is easier to find brass, and loaded ammo if needed. If I were on the road to a hunting trip, and found out I left the ammo at home. I can stop at just about any Wal-Mart for a box of hunting ammo that is not going to cost me half a pay check to purchase.
 
Having shot the 260 before, i'm sure your well aware of the costs involved.
Any of the rifles you mentioned should work fine for your purposes.
While i like/own/shoot Savage and Ruger, i think i would lean towards the Tikka.
They have been proving at least as accurate as any of the rifles you mentioned. Possibly more so.
The main item that would sell me on the Tikka is the action.
One of the smoothes actions you'll find.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I needed to stop and think about it a bit. I needed to stop thinking target rifle and start thinking hunting rifle. I decided on a Tkka T3x Lite chambered in .243 Win for a variety of reasons. Good ballistics, low recoil, and 500 Hornady interlock bullets on the shelf. Not being a target rifle the low barrel life is not a concern. I won't need match cases or match dies either. A set of $30 Lee Pacesetters and 100 Starline or Hornady cases is all I will ever need for my lifetime.

oh and .260 loaded ammo might not be common the cartridge is still used quite a bit in long range target. There is even a 260AI if you want a bit more room for powder. 260 brass is made by Hornady, Norma, Nosler, Lapua, Peterson, Alpha, and Starline. You can neck up .243 Win or neck down .308 in a pinch but why bother.
 
Reloading I think I'd go with the 260, 308 case's are everywhere nd you'll never run out of case's. I've red the 6.5 CM can be made from the 308 case too but I'm not so sure. I doubt there's a nickle's worth of difference in the two. Choosing a gun is really easy these days, just pick one you like and go for it. Sounds to me like they all shoot well!
 
Hounddawg,
Good for you! I think you'll be happy with the Tikka!

With the 243, if your shooting 100 gr and up bullets, do yourself a favor, and pick up some RL26...
 
cases

The .260 Rem in basically a .308 Win case necked down to 6.5mm...

The parent case for the 6.5 C-M is NOT the .308 Win...

And, there are many differences between them...

T.
 
I bought a rem 700 sps in 260 with 24" barrel and 1x8 twist in a syn stock for 450.00 OTD, I had a detached maginze syn rem NOS stock and put the 260 in it, it works fine and gives sub moa with loads it likes,140gr bullets at 2700 fps-120gr bullets 2800 fps. I have killed two deer with it and both were double lung shots at close to 150 yards and they died very quickly. I did lightly bed the action.
 
Well, I've got light and accurate (but not weatherproof) in my Remington Model 7 with the 18.5" barrel. Can't get much more compact and easy to carry than that in a bolt-action rifle.
 
The parent case for the 6.5 C-M is NOT the .308 Win...
Click to expand...

Ok, then what IS the parent case??

Looking at the case drawings, I see the same head size, the CM case being shorter with a different shoulder angle and a bit less body taper.

My understanding is that the CM was created to be slightly more efficient in AR rifles. The shorter, slightly fatter case allowed it to hold the same amount of powder when long bullets needed to be seated deeper to fit in AR length magazines. If this is incorrect, please, enlighten me.

Personally, I see no point to the 6.5CM unless you are running an AR class rifle. I'm sure it does fine in a bolt gun, but everything does.
 
Here are 11 pages of bolt action rifles in .260 Remington. I like the Remington model 7 myself and that would be my first choice. But maybe thats because I have one of the older model 7s in 7-08 and it has been an excellent slayer of deer.

I would pick the .260 over the 6.5CM just because I am tired of reading about the 6.5cm. And like 44amp stated its a design to boost the AR rifle use.

https://www.gunbroker.com/Bolt-Action-Rifles/search?Keywords=.260 remington&Sort=13
 
^^^ Agree on the Model 7; I have one in 7-08 the 260s cousin. Short, light, accurate, it wears a compact 6X scope to keep the weight down.
 
The parent case for the 6.5 C-M is NOT the .308 Win...
Click to expand...
Correct, it's the 250/300 Savage case. After looking at the difference (including the Superformance balllyhoo), I went with the 260 in a Savage 11 Weather Warrior. At the time, Savage would chamber any of their offerings for an up charge if they didn't chamber in a particular model. Mine has the Accustock and Accutrigger and it's a 1/2" shooter. I put a Boyd's stock on it and it still shoots. If I didn't have a Grendel, the Creed would be attractive in an Auto.
 
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