Never had one, but have always wanted a little .260, would be great for Washington blacktails
I’ve been working on getting one of my .260’s ready for hunting season with a weight reduction program and working up a load for hunting bullets.
My lightest .260 was just over 17LBS and needed to go on a diet to get under the 16LB weight limit but unfortunately even after switching some parts around it was still over weight so I decided to chop the barrel down to 20”. This barrel had just under 1000 rounds and I was just starting to chase the lands so I decided to set the barrel back 2” and remove 2” from the muzzle and use the best 20” out of the center.
For the hunting bullets after some testing on my own and talking to some friends I settled on the 6.5mm 130GR Swift Scirocco II. These bullets are extremely accurate have a high BC number and retain 98% of their weight after they expand.
I’m shooting the Scirocco at 2908FPS AVG out of my 20” 260 and my friends are getting 2989FPS AVG out of their 24” tubes plus the accuracy was phenomenal at distance. We were hammering a 5” circle on a MGM IPSC Precision Rifle Target at 400 yards enough that it got boring and we started putting hits in the eye box, we only took these bullets out to 650 yards but hits in a kill zone were still pretty easy even with a 12 to 18 MPH quartering tail wind. Shooters APP shows that I still have 1212 FT-LBS of energy with the 130GR Scirocco at 650 yards and I can tell you that we severely dished my ¼” AR 500 target after a day of shooting it.
All and all I’m pleased with the short .260 and it came in at 16LBS with the bipod and muffler.
