The 260 Rem is DEAD !!

Jmr40,


I'm confused by your statement of the creedmoor being able to handle heavier bullets or that it is somehow superior. The Creedmoor is a great little round but it is simply the 6.5 dejour.

260, x55, and creedmoor are all ballistic brothers. The rifles differ much more than the rounds.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Same weight bullets, about the same velocities (.260 supposedly gets about a 50fps base "nod"), from nearly identical case capacities. The .260 can be at a disadvantage with VLD's, I can't seat mine out within the AICS mag's length and single load.

Ammo for the .260 has always been an issue- and now that Lapua is making Creedmoor brass (with small primers for more consistent ignition) it assures the longevity of the round.
However, you can't get the Creedmoor brass from anything else in a pinch, like you can necking down .308 to .260.

Dead? Nope...And FWIW, the popularity of the 6.5 Creed is largely due to the price/quality of the Hornady ammo and geared to non-handloaders. The 6mm. Creedmoor long ago eclipsed it in PRS Competition. Like you said, "6.5 du jour".
 
simply the 6.5 dejour
Click to expand...
There it is. Somebody said it. Now the marketing gurus will have to find something else to tout as a miracle cartridge. Oh well.

I agree totally, though. Back in the 1970s, we thought the 264 Win Mag was super special. Then the 1980s hit, and the 6.5-06 caught on and was touted as being so much better than the 264 that only a fool would question it. Fast forward another 10-15 years and then Remington introduced the 260. Nothing better, according to the gun writers. But soon the 6.5-284 was the gun rag writers' sweetheart, so accurate and flat shooting that no one would dare gainsay it. But wait! The 6.5 Creedmore soon appeared, and the world has not been the same since!:rolleyes:

The latest 6.5 is just another flavor of the 6.5X57 or 256 Newton, both of which have been around for over a century. If I dress it up and put lipstick on it, is it still a pig?
 
i own four .260,s, a rem-7600,a rem xp100R, a rem sps 700 and a browning low wall. along with six 6.5x55,s, five swedish army rifles and a CZ 550 american. i load for all of them and have no desire to own a 6.5 CM. the big plus for me is being able to use .243-7mm08-308 brass necked up or down. eastbank.
 
Just saying.
Any cartridge labeled Remington on its cartridge base is capable of being discontinued overnight.

BTW: Resizing 308 brass down to a 260 is indeed difficult. That's a 4 caliber drop in swagging.

260 brass {I think} would be a easier made from annealed 243 Winchester.
 
I'm confused by your statement of the creedmoor being able to handle heavier bullets or that it is somehow superior. The Creedmoor is a great little round but it is simply the 6.5 dejour.

260, x55, and creedmoor are all ballistic brothers. The rifles differ much more than the rounds.
Click to expand...

You are not confused. :) Lots of folks hunting and competing with the .260Rem. But America, and sadly, even gun folks, live and die on marketing, regardless of facts.

Was Michael Jackson the best singer ever? Not by a long shot, but he was packaged better than anyone since Elvis. :)
 
I consider myself a "joe average" rifle guy. I wasn't particularly knowledgable about the intricacies of ballistics and calibers. I did know how to drive a Google, though. Still, I always went to friends who were more experienced as a first step. So, when I started looking for an antelope stopper, I asked my friend who did practical shooting. That was 2010. He recommended a 260 Remington. I don't shoot long distance ,but it has performed flawlessly once I found a type of ammo it likes. And the rub was finding ammo, since I didn't reload. 260 remington was not / is not nearly as popular as 243 Win or the like, but there was a decent variety.
I've started working on reloading so I can duplicate the ammo that it likes, should that go away. I also can load heavier bullets, if I want to use my 260R for chasing cow elk.

If I were filling the same niche today, I would probably gravitate to 6.5 Creedmore as it seems to have a wider variety of commercial ammo nowadays and I would find heavier bullets available with no reloading required.

260 isn't dead, certainly not for me, but I think that the market will continue to gravitate towards 6.5 Creedmore for people who are looking for a modern 6.5.
 
Last edited:
Cabela's isn't the place to use as an availability scale. Wally World is.
Lots of .260 Rem at Midway. Hornady, Federal, No$ler, Barnes and a bunch of obscure manufactures loading it. No shortage of brass either.
"...capable of being discontinued overnight..." That applies to every manufacturer.
 
^Yep.

.260Rem: 24 loads available on Midway.
6.5CM: 28 loads available on Midway.

.243Win: 62 loads available on Midway.
.308Win: 152 loads available on Midway.
 
T. O'Heir said:
Cabela's isn't the place to use as an availability scale. Wally World is.
Lots of .260 Rem at Midway. Hornady, Federal, No$ler, Barnes and a bunch of obscure manufactures loading it. No shortage of brass either.
"...capable of being discontinued overnight..." That applies to every manufacturer.
Click to expand...

Well that was instructive. Went to Midway and looked at some 260 ammo. I'd always read that if you wanted heavier than a 120 bullet you had to handload. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I'll still stick with handloads!
 
MarkCO said:
You are not confused. :) Lots of folks hunting and competing with the .260Rem. But America, and sadly, even gun folks, live and die on marketing, regardless of facts.

Was Michael Jackson the best singer ever? Not by a long shot, but he was packaged better than anyone since Elvis. :)
Click to expand...

Marketing, pretty much nails it!
 
BTW: Resizing 308 brass down to a 260 is indeed difficult. That's a 4 caliber drop in swagging.
Click to expand...
Although I prefer to use lapua factory brass--the only issues I've had when necking down 308 to 264 in 260 rem is swagging the primer pockets if crimped and keeping an eye out for the occasional mil-spec FC case that does indeed have a thicker wall. The brass may flow up--easy to trim. I have seated and shot brass simply necked down, though some annealing helps to prevent the brass from getting brittle. The creedmoor offers a slight advantage in getting longer pointy things seated longer--but in my AR's built in CM and 260 I've never noticed any real difference between the two performance-wise. 260 rem is a dern fine cartridge which I don't see dying off--nor anything else that is based on a 308 case. : )
 
Last edited:
The .260 is interesting, and you can shoot it economically if - as was said - you're willing to invest in reloading for it over the long term.

That said, I'm still not seeing what the .260 does that the .308 can't do better, whether for hunting or for Match/competitive shooting. :confused:
 
That said, I'm still not seeing what the .260 does that the .308 can't do better, whether for hunting or for Match/competitive shooting.
Click to expand...

Higher BC bullets...faster flight time, less drop and drift. Depending on bullet weight and range the .308 can pack more energy (hunting consideration only), and would have longer throat/barrel life than the .260- but otherwise, the 6.5 rules. Neck that case down a bit more, the common .243. Much more of a barrel burner (same case, smaller bore), and very capable LR chambering particularly in favorable conditions.

I consider the 7mm. and 6.5 iterations of this case to be the best "compromises"-but all of them are ballistically superior to their .30 parent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top