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Hunting & Fishing .260 for varmint hunting?

nhassey48

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 17, 2010
217
0
35
Arizona
I was thinking about a varmint gun that I can still take out to the range and target shoot. I have heard about the .260 being very accurate out to 1k. I was wondering if any of you have heard of this round being a varmint round. I would be loading for it.
 
Re: .260 for varmint hunting?

I had a takeoff barrel from a 700 varmint rifle that I screwed onto an action(no truing, no lapping) and that thing was amazingly accurate with the 120gr bullets.

Recoil was nothing to mild and it was overall a joy to trigger one downrange.
 
Re: .260 for varmint hunting?

My boss has a Savage model 10 varmint that he put together in 260 and it is scary accurate with N160 powder and 130 Berger hunting VLD's. His kid has been ripping the groundhogs a new one with that combo this year.
 
Re: .260 for varmint hunting?

At very least...

From the Hodgdon load data site:

95 GR. HDY V-MAX Hodgdon H4350 .264" 2.780" 24" barrel

47.0gr. 3135fps 51,200PSI
49.7gr. 3284fps 58,100PSI

Some other loads, Benchmark for instance, top a published 3390fps at published max.

My barrel is 28". I found the minimum load, 47.0gr to be quite fast enough and relatively accurate, and the bullets held together to 200yd at the max load of 49.7 (actually, I pushed it to 50.0gr). Never clocked that one but I imagine it was getting close to 3500fps.

("Hang on, old Dobbin, we're comin' to the pass...")

I keep tellin' folks "That .260; it's not just for breakfast, anymore..."; but do they listen...?

Did you know that if you get that 95 V-Max up to 3400fps, it arrives at 1Kyd doing 1196fps (800ft ASL, 25Deg C.)? My advice, tune down the twist to about 1:10" and use a 28" or longer barrel. Just like Palama.

Greg