Thread: Breaking in the 260rem and load development

Ok, some background detail. This rifle has been languishing in the safe for a number of years. It started life as a .308 action with an HS Precision stock and bottom metal that I bought off TM, very cheaply I might add. Back when I had atrocious work/life balance, I toyed with the idea of a short action, light weight hunting rifle. Lord knows why but anyway, off to Truflite it went for a barrel chambered in .260 and they also bedded the action for me. Had a nice older Bushnell Elite 4200 3-9x40, so fitted that on a set of Talleys. Then apart from the initial five rounds it has sat in my safe ever since.
It has become a prime example and lesson on why, whenever you go down the road of building a custom rifle, you should be very clear on what you are trying to achieve and how it is to be used. Outcome is paramount.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice bit of kit but it’s not what I expected or hoped for. It’s not light, 8 1/2 pounds, the stock feels fat in my hands and it seems a bit nose heavy. It also won’t chamber rounds out of the mag so a bit of adjustment required there. For all that, it handles nice, recoil is minimal and holds steady off hand. So nothing that can’t be sorted. I’m going to persist with it as I still very much like to have a 6.5 in the closet and some of my prejudices arise from having handled a Rem. Mountain Rifle all these years which is a completely different animal in fit and feel.



For reloading I’ve collected the following:

Powder - AR2213sc
Cases - 100 x Lapua(new)
Projectiles - Hornady 129gn SST, Hornady 140gn ELD-M, Sierra 130gn GMK, and Nosler 130gn Accubonds.

As there is clear improvement, and before I go tearing everything down, have cleaned barrel again so next step is to fire the next five rounds off a bipod and bag, not the Stinger and see what shows up. Then we’ll go from there. It may just not like the Corelokts.