260 Remington Build

Does anyone recommend a custom builder for a 260 Remington in the DFW area? Looking for KMW style rifle. TIA.

I've never used them but check out Alamo precision, their located in Hurst. I saw some of their guns on texas bowhunter.

I have a Tikka rifle with a 6.5mm barrel ready for a 6.5 CM or 260 Rem build, if interested.

Chad had a Tikka 260 in SS put together for me. 20 inch Brux barrel. OOOO Baby that thing will shoot. I've been stacking up the pigs and coyotes with it, and had a good deer season.

PM me about that Tikka I may be interested.

Here's a 260 that Jamie Dodson of Wolf Precision aka bat tactical built for me. Surgeon action with ion bonded bolt body, krieger bbl, McMillan a5 with badger bottom metal. He's not local to dfw but builds a fine rifle.

Alamo Precision is building me a 260AI. I would highly suggest you check them out for your build!

Wow this Alamo precision has really become the thf koolaid lately

Like I said I've never used them but they seem to have a good product at reasonable prices.

Thanks guys for the advice.

I went with Derrick at Horizon Firearms, he has went above and beyond what I have expected for customer service.
I should have my rifle back in 2-3 weeks and he has spent hours on the phone with me getting everything set up and answering countless questions.

Another thing with the 260 Rem- If you plan to shoot the high BC bullets, like a Berger VLD, you will want to chamber the 260 Rem with a zero throat reamer, or a reamer with a very sort throat. The main issue with the 260 Rem and these high BC bullets is you have to seat them out long to shoot well, and many box magazine's are too short for this. After many rounds when the throat wears, you begin chasing the lands, and seat the bullet out further. The Berger Hybrid's will help with this, but will still need a short throat at or near mag length. Just something to think about. When building a rifle, I plan first for what bullet I plan to shoot, then make the caliber and chamber how I want it for that bullet.

^^With what Chad stated^^

If you're dead set on a .260 Rem, there's nothing wrong with that. Keep in mind the 6.5 Creedmoor will make the exact same external ballistics, but do it with a shorter overall length, and with .6-1.0gr. less of the H-4530 each chambering uses. And since it starts out shorter than the .260 it will allow you to chase lands for a longer round count on the barrel than the .260

Just FYI

I am glad you said it not me. Last time I mentioned the 6.5 in a post someone got all bent out of shape.

The 260 Rem is a great round, but it does have it's draw backs with mag length. I'm a huge 260 Rem fan since I shot it in competitions for years, but the 6.5 CM solves a few of the issues you have to work out with the 260 Rem, like seating depth and mag length issues. Now, I'm drinking the 6.5x47 Lapua kool-aid, and I don't think I will ever convert to anything else. It will out shoot both the 260 Rem and 6.5 CM.

So what. I get people bent out of shape every day. Dab of beer and whiskey before bed, and I sleep fine...

Share what you know, Derrick. There are lots of people that appreciate it.

I have been debating the 260/6.5CM/6.5X47 for the last few months, the thread title was just to get the options out there for the DFW area. Since we have opened up the topic, why is the 6.5x47 superior than the 260 and 6.5 CM?

Wouldnt go as far as superior. It is extremely consistent. Chad has reported ES in the single digits. And many guys have reported 10 loadings on 6.5 x 47 Lapua brass.

When I ran 260 Rem I had ES around 18 fps. The 6.5 Creedmoor I am running now has an ES at 13 fps on virgin brass. I hope that will shrink some once I get this brass second loaded.

140 gr bullet in all three cases.

6.5 x 47 Lapua 2730 fps (Chad's numbers)

6.5 Creedmoor 2800 fps

260 Remington 2800 fps

I switched to the Creedmoor after shooting the barrel out of the 260 because the case geometry of the Creedmoor tends to yield a lower ES, and the case is shorter allowing more room in the magazine to keep the bullet even with the lands as throat erosion occurs.

Why the 6.5x47 Lapua? One simple answer- consistency and accuracy. I shot a 260 Rem with the 130 and 140 VLD's for 3600 rounds of barrel life (one barrel set back) shooting it in tactical competitions. It is a great round. The negatives are the seating depth and magazine length issues with the high BC VLD type bullets I spoke of earlier. The 6.5 CM solves this issue with a slightly shorter round. It also improves the efficiency and accuracy with the optimum 30 degree shoulder angle. So, the CM is a very good case design to feed and function out of a 308 length action/magazine. I have done many load testings with the 6.5 CM and loaded lots of match grade ammo for shooters to compete with. With both rounds shooting the best loads, the extreme spreads were always in the mid to upper teens to low 20's. The ES numbers would be in the 30's and 40's with the not-so-good shooting loads.

Take the next step to the 6.5x47 Lapua. This case was purposefully designed for optimum consistency and accuracy. It also has the optimum 30 degree shoulder angle for consistency and increased accuracy. The case is a shorter case for a smaller and more compact powder column for better burn characteristics. It also uses the small rifle primer. The case head is the same size as the 260 and CM, but uses the small primer. This makes the case head area very strong and keeps the primer pocket from expanding, like seen with a large primer pocket of the 260 and CM. I know shooters with 12-15 reloads on their brass.

Velocity wise, the 260 is the fastest since it has the biggest case volume. With a 140 grain bullet, it will run about 2800-2830 fps. The CM will push the same bullet about 2760 to 2800 fps. The 6.5x47 will push the 140's (at normal pressures) to 2750 ish. I am running a 140 VLD at 2742 fps now.

Last, and mainly would be the consistency of the x47 round. When I did load testing at 300 yards, almost every single group I shot was sub 1" at 300 yards. How do you determine which load is best with it shooting this good? You look at the chrono numbers. ALL the speeds were in the low teens and most were in the single digit numbers on 5 shots groups. I had several that were 6, 7, and 9 ES! So, I went with the 6 ES load. What does this mean? At distances beyond 600 yards, you do not get ANY vertical spread on the target, simply due to velocity variation on the load. This makes for a more consistent round and getting that hit where the 260 or CM may be off slightly up and down. To this day, I have never seen another round give such consistent velocity numbers as the x47 across all the loads tested.

Would most shooters be able to tell the difference between the 260, 6.5CM or 6.5x47, prob not. If you plan to shoot the rifle at common distances less than 500 yards, all 3 would be a great round. But the x47 will out shine the other 2 when it comes to longer range. I don't need to chase the last bit of extra velocity. I want a round that is the most consistent so I know where the bullet will go BEFORE you pull the trigger. The 260 gave me that, but the 6.5x47 gives me that with even more certainty.

I eat it up with a spoon. I have so much to learn about so much. You guys shorten the learning curve every day.

A couple of minor footnotes to add consider ammo and brass availability.

260 and 6.5x47 brass are in stock almost continually from at least Lapua. In 260, it is easy enough to make brass out of 308, 7-08, or 243, which at least one can always be found.

6.5 CM is proprietary and will have limited brass and ammo options as long as it remains proprietary.

Translation - a manufacturer has to pay a license fee to Hornady to manufacture 6.5 CM brass and/or ammo, which is why it is not being widely manufactured by other companies and probably will not be in the foreseeable future. They may not crack down on a small manufacturer like Chad, but they will on someone like Federal, Winchester, or Remington. Apparently, they have worked out something with Norma, but Norma ammo is not exactly widespread either.

The 260 is not proprietary and thus is more widely loaded commercially.

I've found 260 ammo on the shelf in small town mom and pop gun and taxidermy shops such as Llano. I've never seen 6.5 CM on the shelf anywhere other than a good gun store or Cabela's and it is hit or miss there.

Chad,

I picked up a 260 made by Montana Rifle Company last year, and the mag box is 3.125", which opens up some options for seating long and stuffing it pretty full.

Isn't bbl life substantially shorter on the x47 than either 260/6.5 c? I've heard of bbls going south after as low as 1500 rounds.

Jeffbird, the 6.5 CM brass can be made from 250 Savage, since the CM round is just a necked up 250 AI. I assume that it could also be made from 300 Savage brass and 22-250 brass. And I've been told you can make it from 308 brass, though I was not aware of that.

Regardless, I think that you are right that 260 ammo and brass should be slightly more available, though neither would be easy to find in most places.

Barrel life will be a little longer on the 6.5x47 than the 260 and 6.5 CM. The x47 is running a little less powder than the other 2. Most 260 shooters get about 2000 to 2500 rounds under normal conditions. I got 2600 on mine, but I shot it for about 150 rounds more or so when I noticed the barrel going out. I have seen several match shooters run the 130 VLD's in a 260 Rem at 2950+ fps and get 1100 rounds on a barrel. If you run the 140's at normal speeds, 2500 rounds is doable. I expect to get 3000+ out of my x47 with the 140's at ~2740 fps. I bought 2 kegs of H4350, which will yield about 2700 rounds, or about 1 barrel worth of powder. The 30 degree shoulder angle, compared to the 20 degree shoulder of the 260, changes where the concentration of flame hits the case neck and rifling and has less wear on the throat. Plus, the 6.5 CM and x47 have a slightly longer case necks than the 260, which also helps reduce throat wear.

I agree 100%. If ya want a 6.5 go 6.5X47 Lapua!

Both my x47 barrels went 4k. I shot the 123's at 2900 fps, the 130's at 2820, and the 140's at 2650.
I will say that I limped them along in denial longer than I should have. But no, barrel life wasn't an issue for me.

Which powders should I be stocking up on in the mean time? RL 17? H4350?

In the 260 I use IMR4064 behind the 100 gr Nosler BT and R17 under the Nosler 120 gr BT. If I didn't already have the R17, I'd probably go with H4350.

603 how temp stable is the rl17? I've heard of hit or miss reports.

A huge margin of guys that compete with .260 or 6.5 Creedmoor run H-4350 exclusively.

I believe Dave3575 runs Varget in his 6.5 x 47

If H4350 is not available, H414 is substantially similar.

Dee, I don't know how stable or unstable R17 is. I had read that it would give more MV than 4350, and I had a very short rifle barrel, so I went with the R17. It worked fine and gave excellent accuracy in the rather picky rifle I had at the time. Since then I switched to the 100 gr bullet and 4064, so haven't done a lot more shooting with the R17. Based on what I've read on this forum, if I had the choice to make again, I would go with the 4350. That isn't because of any lack of happiness with R17, but because so many good shooters are so happy with 4350.

Just a dab...

There has seemed to be a few guys lately that have been a little sensitive...

It depends on which bullet weight you plan to shoot. For the 140 grainers, it's hard to beat H4350. I want to try IMR's new 4451 Enduron powder. R17 is a good powder for speed since it's a double base powder, but it will be temp sensitive.

If you plan to shoot the 120 grain or less, the same powders above will also work. But I would lean more toward a slightly faster burning powder, in the Varget burn rates.

Just look at the 260 Rem load data, and find a powder in the same burn rate area of those powders and it will work fine.

Thanks for all the help.