The subject Remington rifle is more than competent; safe, durable, reliable, and accurate. It is supposedly what 95% of the market place wants, a firearm to facilitate a hunt or a day at the range. It will serve when called upon, it will accept being put up without protest and it will come out of use and storage looking none the worse for wear. What it is missing is a personality; the investment of human time and effort into making this firearm like no other.
The Remington Model 700 SPS does not conjure images of Lin-Speed oil stained hands, carded and oiled rust blue or an artisan laying down flawless lines of checkering to signature the completion of a thoughtfully finished firearm. The industry has concluded that this is what young hunters and shooters want, which just happens to fall coincidently in line with a bean counter’s dream. A product of automation, uniformly flawless, a true value in a hunting rifle, yet so unremarkable in presence. I’m not sure what happened to Remington, other than shifting to products to keep pace with the times.
The 260 Remington. In search of inspiration….
Within the public psyche, the 260 Remington is a bit like the tuna; people protest in mass to rescue cute dolphins from tuna nets, but don’t think twice about eating the tuna. Within the same family of cartridges, folks love the .308 Winchester, the 7mm-08 Remington and the 243 Winchester, but often turn their collective noses up at the 260 Remington. I don’t know why, as its ballistics are exceptional. I personally came to like the .260 Remington… after a decade of deriding its presence, but I admit that I still sometimes refer to it as “My 6 1/2” in hopes people will think it is a 6.5x55mm.
| 260 Remington 140 Grain Berger VLD Bullet | |||||||||||
| Yards | 0 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
| Velocity – fps | 2830 | 2684 | 2544 | 2407 | 2275 | 2148 | 2025 | 1906 | 1792 | 1681 | 1578 |
| Energy – ft.-lbs. | 2489 | 2240 | 2011 | 1801 | 1609 | 1434 | 1274 | 1129 | 998 | 879 | 773 |
The .260 Remington’s claim to fame is high sectional density bullets across its useful bullet weight range and the ability to hang onto velocity. At over 1000 yards, a 260 bullet with a modest muzzle velocity would still be well into supersonic speed with the stability that affords. Beyond 500 yards, the 260 Remington combination indicated would significantly outperform a 257 Weatherby 120 grain load with a 3305 fps muzzle velocity. The 260 Remington is the curling stone of firearms.
You might ask, “What’s in it for me if I don’t live on a barren plain or shoot F-Class competitively?”. Then you might consider the .260 Remington as having moderate muzzle velocity with shorter range ballistics well suited to woodland hunting. The round has more than enough power to drop an elk or moose, but it also has light recoil and reasonable levels of report. My personal New England deer rifle is a Remington Model Seven with a 20″ barrel. Yes, I surrendered that long range potential, but 50 yards is the norm in this local setting.
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Bullet |
Type | Weight Grains |
Length” | COL” | *Seated Depth “ |
Grains H2O Capacity |
| Sierra Varminter #1710 | HP | 100 | 0.933 | 2.700 | 0.263 | 49.9 |
| Sierra Pro Hunter #1720 | SPFB | 120 | 1.085 | 2.770 | 0.345 | 48.7 |
| Nosler Partition #16320 | SP | 125 | 1.176 | 2.790 | 0.416 | 47.7 |
| Nosler Competition #26725 | HP | 140 | 1.310 | 2.800 | 0.540 | 46.2 |
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Includes 0.020″ safety margin from lands |
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Pictured left and indicated on the table, are four bullets that have proven their worth in both the 6.5x55mm and 260 Remington. The far left works for varmints and smaller game at a distance, the center two work for deer, hogs and similar, close up and at a distance and the far right demonstrates how far the 260 Remington can reach.
Lately, where ATK has dried up the supply of Alliant powder, both Norma and Vectan have stepped up their efforts to keep product in distribution and retail inventory. Subsequently, both were added to Hodgdon and IMR products for this project with the understanding some development work would be required for handload development. Load data provided by Norma and Vectan appeared to be a bit on the soft side and well out of alignment with QuickLoad prediction results, making an investigation clearly in order. A matrix was constructed of known 260 Remington performance from various sources to set realistic handload expectations.
| Source | BBL “ |
Bullet Weights – Grains – FPS |
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| 90 | 100 | 120 | 125 | 130 | 140 | ||
| SAAMI FPS | 24 | – | – | 2880 | – | – | 2725 |
|
Reloading Manual Listed Top Loads |
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| Nosler | 24 | – | 3365 | 3016 | 3034 | – | 2830 |
| Sierra | 24 | – | 3200 | 3000 | – | – | 2700 |
| Hornady | 24 | – | 3200 | 2900 | – | – | 2700 |
| Speer | 24 | 3367 | – | 2950 | – | – | 2731 |
| Norma | 24 | – | 3182 | 2920 | – | – | 2815 |
| Vectan | 24 | – | 3084- | 2904 | – | – | 2756 |
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Factory Ammunition Listed Performance |
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| Barnes | 24 | – | – | 2950 | – | – | – |
| Black Hills | 24 | – | – | 2850 | – | – | – |
| Cor Bon | 24 | – | – | 2900 | 3000 | – | 2750 |
| Remington | 24 | – | – | 2890 | – | – | 2750 |
| Federal | 24 | – | – | 2950 | – | – | 2750 |
| Nosler | 24 | – | 3215 | 2950 | 2800 | 2725 | |
| Grizzly | 24 | – | – | – | 3000 | – | – |
| Max FPS | 24″ | 3367 | 3365 | 3016 | 3034 | 2800 | 2830 |
Preliminary handloads were sourced from manuals, some represents historical load data, all were cross checked against QuickLoad results and compared to the matrix above. The loads are listed below.
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Warning: Bullet selections are specific, and loads are not valid with substitutions of different bullets of the same weight. Variations in bullet material and length will alter net case capacity, pressure and velocity results. Primer selection is specific and primer types are not interchangeable. These data represents maximum loads in our firearms and test equipment and may easily be excessive in other applications. All loads should be reduced by 5%, and developed following safe handloading practices as represented in established reloading manuals produced by component manufacturers. Presentation of these loads does not constitute a solicitation for their use, nor a recommendation.
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The Vectan chronicles…
Vectan France lists lists 260 Remington data with four of their products. Tu 5000, Tu 7000 and Tu 8000 rifle powder types were on hand. Cross checking with two separate chronographs, I was not able to reconcile Vectan’s charge recommendations to the velocities they referenced even with a 6% over maximum charge and Vetcan’s maximum charges were already well under industry norms for reloading data and factory ammunition. Even with 6% over maximum load published data there were no signs of excessive pressure, cartridge or rifle, but I decided to stop until further research is concluded and I became more familiar with the nature of each Vectan powder type.
| Bullet Grains |
Powder Type |
Min Load |
Min Load fps |
Max Load |
Max Load FPS |
Source |
| 100 | SP11 | 34.7 | 2826 | 40.9 | 3068 | Vectan Data |
| 100 | Tu 5000 | 33.2 | 2831 | 39.4 | 3084 | Vectan Data |
| 100 Actual | Tu 5000 | – | – | 40.0 | 2794 | Chronograph |
| 100 Actual | Tu 5000 | – | – | 42.5 | 2919 | Chronograph |
| 120 | SP11 | 35.5 | 2604 | 41.7 | 2822 | Vectan Data |
| 120 | Tu 5000 | 34.7 | 2675 | 40.9 | 2904 | Vectan Data |
| 120 | Tu 7000 | 36.3 | 2611 | 42.4 | 2822 | Vectan Data |
| 120 Actual | Tu 7000 | – | – | 42.5 | 2592 | Chronograph |
| 120 Actual | Tu 7000 | – | – | 44.5 | 2747 | Chronograph |
| 142 | SP12 | 38.6 | 2558 | 44.8 | 2756 | Vectan Data |
| 142 | Tu 7000 | 37.8 | 2554 | 44.0 | 2756 | Vectan Data |
Industry velocity for a 100 grain 260 Remington loads, reloading data and/or factory ammunition tops at 3365 fps over 300 fps higher than Vectan data or results. Top 120 grain velocity, industry reloading data and/or factory ammunition is 3016 fps, over 100 fps higher than Vectan data, but over 300 fps greater than Vectan actual velocity. Vectan 142 grain published data indicates 2756 fps, over 200 fps slower than factory ammunition and chances are that the Vectan actual performance would be significantly lower still.
Vectan indicates that Tu 5000 is in the same class as Norma URP and Ram Shot Big Game. Tu 7000 is classified as being in the same class as AA4350, H4350, IMR 4350, Norma 204. In cross referencing these powder types, I do not see the same energy levels or burn speed in comparison to Tu 5000 or Tu 7000. On that note, Vectan was listed on the table as information that might be useful to someone else doing development work. Other powder brands and types performed very close to predictions and were true to their published data. We’ll stay after it and post progress.
Remington Model 700 SPS conclusions
The Remington Model 700 SPS is an accurate and reliably functioning rifle. The longer barrel and slightly tighter twist rate do well for the .260 Remington. Accuracy was good and there is a lot of potential for tuning handloads to get exceptional results, but everything shot qualified for multi-hundred yard hunting. Good cartridge, good hunting rifle and competitively priced combination.
Remington’s Model 700 Quicker Twister 260 Remington Part I
Remington’s Model 700 Quicker Twister 260 Remington Part II
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