I know nothing about the .260, but, given the accolades above, I'd be interested in trying one out. Having said that, I've lost count of the number of 7mm-08 rifles I've owned, all of which were fabulously accurate and soft in recoil, so that's probably the way I'd go.
8 or 7.5" twist .243 win if you really want to stick with the .308 case family. Light recoil, and tons of high BC 6mm bullets out there now that also perform well on game. Keeps you from getting another new cartridge, and will be MUCH easier to find factory ammo in a pinch than .260.
My 6.5-284 barrel will be swapped out for a 6mm creedmoor barrel when it's shot out. I won't hesitate to use it on big game here in CO.
Originally Posted by Crazy Dane
I would call McGowen Precision Barrels and get a prefit. See if they will sell you a barrel nut for it. Try southern precision rifles (bugholes.com) and see if he makes barrel nuts for M77. You can swap barrels and headspace it yourself with a barrel nut.
I am a lover of the 243 and have shot out many barrels with it.
Pros
Low recoil - easy to shoot out of a light gun. Have the muzzle threaded for a brake/can when you order the barrel for even less recoil.
Brass is everywhere, at the mom and pop hardware store in the middle of nowhere
varmints to whitetails - wide variety of bullets and you can shoot heavy bullets if you get a twist faster than 9
smashes deer - 300 yards is a chip shot with a 243 and is way more forgiving of shitty wind calls than 308
on a hunt if you lose your ammo on a flight/ forget it at home you can buy loaded 243 ammo most places.
Cons
brass must be trimmed pretty frequently if you are going to reload a bunch due to shoulder angle. Trimming is the worst part of handloading IMHO
barrel life, i was not kind to my last 243 barrel and it died at 800. 1k give or take is the norm for barrel life
The 6mm Creedmoor does the same as the 243 without all the trimming. Brass is out there online but you won't find it like the ubiquitous 243.
Odd that the 6.5 creedmoor didn't feed from mag when other standard bolt face (308) cartridges did.
Have you tried a vigorous cleaning with good powder/carbon/copper solvents and some JB bore paste? How many thousands of rounds do you have through it?
Is this "Passion of the Gun?" Because that is going to be more money than a lot of new rifles. And waaaay more hassle..
But completely understandable to this sentimental fool.
So any "normal" short action "deer" cartridge will work.
For deer, out of those choices, I would go 7mm-08. Only because **I** think it has a more stable future than than the .260, more ass than the .243, and easier to live with than the .257. No deer can tell the difference between the 7mm-08 and .260. The .257 is for romantic rifle loonys (not a derogatory term). The .260 is fading as a factory round (look at SG Ammo). The .243 and 6.5 have ammo available everywhere. You say you are going to load, so this portion may be irrelevant. I said the same thing when I built a .416 wildcat that I now mentally kick myself in the ass for building on a regular basis.
True. And the .260/6.5 don't do anything a 6.5x55 won't, except fit into short actions. But starting new in 2024, I can't see going with a .260 that peaked in popularity almost 20 years ago and has been going way down in popularity since then, unless you are a rifle looney. Given the hindsight of the last 15 years, that article is kinda the equivalent of shilling for Betamax vs VHS.
If we are straying from the caliber list in the OP, I would also choose to keep it a .308. Original barrel or a new one, it would stay a .308. A good recoil pad and a starting load for the 110/130 TTSX or 130 Accubond will be light recoiling and handily kill deer.
If you have unexplored rifle loony tenancies, some time on 24hr Campfire forums will either help you make up your mind or give you analysis paralysis. Good luck!
I have a Winchester Featherweight in 6.5x55, so I'm a bit biased toward the 260Rem, but since you're looking for lighter recoil and already have other 308s, why not go with the 243Win for a bigger difference from the 308 collection?
Chris
Let me start off by clarifying a few things, I would like to respond to each of you but just to keep it short er...
Thanks for the suggestions.
I will not keep it a .308, I have 4 more of them in my safe, this is not counting my dad's M99 that I'm working on.
I will not wild cat it, this is just not the project to do that. I will do one someday.
I will load my own ammo so sourcing factory isn't a requirement. I will start out buying 500 pieces of brass, this will last a long time shooting a couple of deer a year. I already have .243 brass that is why it is in consideration. .243 and .260 can be formed from the buckets of .308 I have.
I have compared all of the technical drawings of the cartridges I am looking at. The .257 has a few thousands of taper at the shoulder vs. the .308 family. If one was to go Ackley Improved, it would remove the taper and would match the others. I left that part out initially because fireforming brass is not for this project. I just wanted to hear what others had to say about Bob. I may have to have one in the future.
I know I can buy a new rifle for less but I don't want a new rifle, I want my old little deer killer back.
The barrel, it never was stellar. 1.5 inch groups was the best I could get out of it with factory ammo, I didn't start reloading till way later. Most of the time it pushed 2 inches which was fine at the time. We were hunting mid-state South Carolina and a long shot was 150 yards, this was before the timber companies clear cut everything. I can trace the barrel going to crap to one single shot, let me tell you a quick story.
After every heavy rain we would find a huge set of tracks going down a very short section of road. Several people hunted this deer but could never make contact. 1996 opening week of rifle found us with a tropical storm, may have even been a hurricane, coming through. My dad and I was watching the weather that morning. Realizing the rain was going to push on out, I told my dad I was going to go kill the "road walker". I left the house with a stand on my back, I was drenched before I got to the tree, poncho be damned. I sat another 45 minutes in the tropical rain questioning my sanity, then the rain let up. I had just said to myself the rains gone where is he when a huge deer stepped out in the road 50 yards away. Knowing he was coming my way, I got ready. I still can hear his hooves squishing in the mud as he came closer. I squeezed the trigger when he got broadside at 10 yards, he made 2 hops and was down. He was an old broken 10 point that had not even bothered to rub its velvet off that year. Field dressed weight was 270.
This is where my problems started. I raised the bolt but it would not come to the rear. I gathered my things and delt with the deer. When I got back to the house I tried to make the spent round eject even going as far as tapping the bolt handle with a block of wood. I ended up taking it to a local gunsmith ( he looked like he knew what he was doing) and dropped it off. He called me the next day saying he got it out. I went to get it and he showed me the brass that he got out, he used a rod to drive it out. His theory was there was water in the chamber when I fired. you could see embossing on the brass, the worst of it on the case neck. He suggested we test fire it there and when I did that round stuck like glue too. He said he would knock that one out and polish the chamber for me, come back next week. To this day it still has faint marks on the case mouth. This happed about the time i started reloading and i chased every bullet and powder trying to find accuracy in this gun. A new barrel is the only way.
You have my attention. Do you have any recommendations on who to call? I love my M77 tang safety.
Wait, you're telling me that the biggest obstacles of doing this myself is getting the old barrel removed and acquiring a Ruger American barrel nut? Boy I'm slow on the uptake this morning.
Tools needed that don't already have would be nut wrench and head space gauges.
If I had an action wrench I could remove the barrel myself also is it needed to install barrel nut?
This could lead into my shopping for more tang safety M77s
Last edited by Crazy Dane; 01-03-2024 at 10:38 AM. Reason: I'm slow.
What part do you want to call someone for? I think most barrel makers will set the barrel up for a nut if asked, they are just running the threads farther forward, they already do it for savage barrels and its been not too unusual to set Remingtons up with a nut also. Id see if anyone local to you can pull the factory barrel, no other work. Id take the stripped receiver and barrel in so its quick and simple for them. The guy thats done one of mine is a local friend, he has the tools. If I make it easy hes cheap.
Your old barrel can be a basic guide for the new barrel if the barrel guy doesnt have the specs on getting chambering close. Send the nut and your old barrel and they should be able to get a new barrel close so it can be put on by you. Either careful measurements on your part or having the old barrel lets them know how far from the front of the bolt to the back of the barrel to chamber it (how much shell sticking out), and how much thread room you will need for the nut.
This the the nut I have, I need another. I may shorten it from the front a little, not sure yet. Other makers do them as well, its the same thread as the Ruger American and Tika, so same barrel nut, and take-off Ruger American barrels should be basically drop in with a headspace gauge or cartridge.
https://patriotvalleyarms.com/barrel...can-sako-m595/
I have a few factory M77 barrels Im going to lengthen the threads on for the nut, Ive been paying around $100 for them, some a little more, some a little less. The M-77 MkII barrels are the same thread pitch. No 1 single shots have the same threads but have an extractor cut, if you had one and wanted to use it a gunsmith could cut it forward to lengthen the threads and eliminate the extractor cut and rechamber.
Im thinking of setting a barrel up for its headspace then using a small set screw in the receiver to a dimple in the barrel threads to index it so iron sights can be used and its simple to get back on straight if I change anything.
In theory, if I can locate a 223 bolt I can swap to that size shell head in the same gun. The mag box would have to be changed a well but they arent that difficult to find. A 6x45 would be fun.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Have a look at who the author of that article is before you disparage his opinions: http://demigodllc.com/about.php
In general, I avoid wildcat calibers because they are relatively untested, and I'm not interested in that side of rifle shooting.
Lapua will be making .260 brass for the foreseeable future, so who cares if it's not the "popular" new hotness? IMO, .260 Rem remains the best ballistic choice for 6.5mm short action, standard boltface rifles. If you're willing to give up some case capacity for widely available and cheap factory ammo, there's nothing wrong with 6.5 CM.
6.5 PRC is another excellent choice, if you want to jump up to a short action magnum.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
So, I've spent my morning down this rabbit hole and understanding has occurred. I edited the above post when I realized what you were saying. It looks like I have everything to do this tool wise except the go/no-go gauges and barrel nut wrench. I have found a couple of options for a barrel nut and corresponding wrench.
I don't think I could find a takeoff barrel in .260 so this leaves new which I don't mind. Looking through barrel makers, there are several that will do a prefit Ruger American, how close do you think one would be or would I still need to get them to match the old barrel?
Reply With Quote