AI Factory 260 Rem 24” Barrel - Need Help Finding a Starting Point

[jab00]

I need some help finding a starting point for my new 24” 260 Remington factory AI barrel. If you read my “background info” below, I had some trouble with the barrel this weekend so I want to see if a hand load will resolve it.

My Available Components:

• 123 Scenars and 130 ELDMs (I’d like to try 10 of each in the barrel)
• Lapua brass (1xF and a box of 0xF)
• Reloader 15 and 17
• Federal 210M primers
• Redding Type S die set

A Little Background:

I took the barrel out this past weekend and shot 20 rounds each of 130 Prime, 136 Berger, and 140 Berger and I could never get consistent tight groups with any of them. I got a few decent .5” groups at 100 yards but most were all in the .7“- 1.74” range.

I asked a buddy (who is a solid F-class shooter) to put a few rounds through the barrel and he was seeing the same thing. He’d get a few decent groups followed by some wild spreads (we were waiting 10-15 mins between groups)

I found an older thread (that I didn’t want to necro-post) about guys having trouble finding a factory load that works consistently in the factory barrel, so I figured that I’d try hand loads to see if I can tighten it up.

 

[Steel head]

I wouldn’t bother with R15 but R17 is decent
Start at about 39.5-40 grains R17 in lapua brass.
That should be plenty safe.
Top end should be 43ish.
Don’t get greedy with speed using R17, it can get spooky really fast In warm conditions but if your load is reasonable it’s a decent powder.

 

[jab00]

I wouldn’t bother with R15 but R17 is decent
Start at about 39.5-40 grains R17 in lapua brass.
That should be plenty safe.
Top end should be 43ish.
Don’t get greedy with speed using R17, it can get spooky really fast In warm conditions but if your load is reasonable it’s a decent powder.

Thanks - I’ll load up 10 of each (123s and 130s) with 39.5 of RL17 at 2.800” COL and see what happens in terms of group size. I definitely don’t want to hot rod the loads since my range maxes out at 300 yards and I’m just shooting steel out to that distance (so I just need a middle of the road load that’ll hold a decent group out to that short distance)

 

[Steel head]

Thanks - I’ll load up 10 of each (123s and 130s) with 39.5 of RL17 at 2.800” COL and see what happens in terms of group size. I definitely don’t want to hot rod the loads since my range maxes out at 300 yards and I’m just shooting steel out to that distance (so I just need a middle of the road load that’ll hold a decent group out to that short distance)

You may want to search out some topics on the reloading area’s here.
there are better ways to do load development.
Powder charge isn’t how you should search for accuracy.

 

[jab00]

You may want to search out some topics on the reloading area’s here.
there are better ways to do load development.
Powder charge isn’t how you should search for accuracy.

Absolutely agree - this idea of doing a quick "middle of the road' hand load test was just the first idea that I had in terms of figuring out what this barrel likes since my first tests of different factory loads was so erratic. Ideally, I'd like to backtrack after that a do a real load development plan on one or the other.

If you've got time, I'll post a few pics of my groups from the various factory rounds and would welcome any feedback if you think it looks like one of the factory rounds has more potential than another. My plan was to shoot factory while I try and figure out the hand loads but didn't want to buy a case of one round or the other until I knew what shot best

 

[brianf]

I ve had 2 “AI” barrels that did t shoot loaded burger bullets.
My second barrel was a 260.
tried a bunch of factory and custom Ammo Cooper creek to be exact.
The best shooting by far was copper creek SMK followed by lapua 139’s.
berger in factory and copper creek was 3/4” at best at 100.
SMK .3-4+\-
Scenar was .4-6

 

[jab00]

Here’s a few pics of each load that I tried:

130 Prime:


136 Berger:


140 Berger:

 

[Jordanwickham]

For banging steel out to 300 yards I don't see what is wrong with the Prime 130. I mean you had 2 good groups which tells me that possibly the other two groups had issues with NPA and breathing.
I would caution against just loading up a bunch at 39 grains, a static depth and trying to base any future proceedings based off of that. There are quite a few factors in handloading that end up in precision. Everything from brass prep to seating depth and powder charge will affect precision. All I'm saying is loading up 10 at 39 grains and 2.8" could throw a terrible group which would give you the impression that it's not worth pursuing.
I don't know if your intent is to bang steel at 300 yards. If it is you don't really need fine tuned ammo. Anything sub MOA with a fairly jacked ES will steadily bang steel at 300. Now if you want to at some point stretch that out you'll want better ammo.
Also don't know how new the barrel is but if it's brand new you may want to get a hundred rounds on it before deciding to handload if you didn't intend to handload for it in the first place.

 

[jab00]

For banging steel out to 300 yards I don't see what is wrong with the Prime 130. I mean you had 2 good groups which tells me that possibly the other two groups had issues with NPA and breathing.
I would caution against just loading up a bunch at 39 grains, a static depth and trying to base any future proceedings based off of that. There are quite a few factors in handloading that end up in precision. Everything from brass prep to seating depth and powder charge will affect precision. All I'm saying is loading up 10 at 39 grains and 2.8" could throw a terrible group which would give you the impression that it's not worth pursuing.
I don't know if your intent is to bang steel at 300 yards. If it is you don't really need fine tuned ammo. Anything sub MOA with a fairly jacked ES will steadily bang steel at 300. Now if you want to at some point stretch that out you'll want better ammo.
Also don't know how new the barrel is but if it's brand new you may want to get a hundred rounds on it before deciding to handload if you didn't intend to handload for it in the first place.

All great points that make good sense. Ideally, what I’m looking for is a 260 round that I can bang steel with at 300 yards (staying MOA or better) and still print good groups occasionally at 100 yards.

I’m currently going through a real "love-hate" relationship with reloading, with a horrible tendency of dicking around with a load trying to get it "perfect", getting frustrated, and then going back to factory ammo for awhile. Long term, I'd love to be able to get a "general purpose" .260 hand load figured out with the components that I've got on hand.

Before doing that, it sounds like I should shoot the rest of the "sampler pack" of factory ammo that I bought (four boxes each of the 130s, 136s, and 140s) and see how they do over a couple of range sessions. As you mentioned, I got a few decent groups out of the 130s, so I'll see how that averages out over the the groups that I fire