260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

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260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by 260 Striker »

Background info in other string about my 260 Remington cast bullets. I did end up seating the match bullets with the top of the front driving band even with the case mouth for an OAL of 2.750". Knew from 10 trial shots that load was shooting about 1 1/2" low at chicken distance so added 8 clicks up before match. Shot cast bullets as UAS-INT reentry. Had no spotter on chickens and pigs. Held normal body/leg hold on chickens and could tell by the way they were falling must not be too far off center. Hit all 10 and when they were reset had about a 1 1/2" group in middle of chickens. So far so good. Did not move sights for pigs and held belly line in notch behind front leg. All ten went down and when reset hits were perfect elevation just behind front leg. I'm really felling confident now!!!. Since these are 140 grain bullets and I normally shoot 129 jacketed on turkeys I didn't really know what to try for turkeys. Normally come up 8 and hold body/leg so what the heck will try that. Brian Evans came to spot for me so won't be guessing at least. First shot, hit the turkey about 1" above B/L so held up on next four about 3" into body. Good center hits. Added three clicks up for bank two and went back to normal B/L hold and had five well centered hits on bank two. 30 for 30 and I'm really getting confident. Load is working great. Now my real dilemma. Switched to new 140 grain jacketed bullet and changed my hold for UAS-INT entry (got a 40) but didn't really know what to expect for rams with a cast bullet. Left scope set for turkeys and just held top of back for rams. Hit number one ram low in belly. Brought scope of four more clicks and kept top of ram hold. Went over number two ram. Now four clicks shouldn't have moved that much so guess it was me. Held center body on number three ram and hit right where I was aiming. Told myself this is shooting to point of aim now so kept same hold and went low on number four. Went back to center hold on number five and hit dead center. Bank two went about the same way and I end up with 6 rams total so ended up with a 36. I would like to find the right setting for rams that would allow me to put horizontal cross hair on rams back and let bullet drop into center ram. That is the way I hold using jacketed bullets so would at least like to keep same sight picture using cast. Overall I was very pleased with the new cast bullet and load. I'm happy any day I can hit 10 turkeys and load seemed to be grouping well at 150 meters. Maybe the load is opening up at 200 and I might need to add more powder to stabilize the bullets. Only using 18.0 grains of SR4759 so might have to bump that up to 19.0 or even 20.0 and see if that helps tighten groups at 200. Temperature was in low to mid 80s and sunny and I could see a puff of lube smoke on every shot. Thought I was shooting black powder on number one chicken!!!!!! Getting a second set of dies so I can dedicate them to my cast bullet settings to help keep loading more consistent too. Looking forward to more testing (done at matches!). I would highly recommend the RCBS 6.5-140-SILH mould to any 6.5 shooters if they wanted to try cast bullets.
Lynn Shultz
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by high standard 40 »

Great recap on your 260 cast bullet entry. You have a good starting point with your load. Based on the load data I have here I agree that you can and should increase the charge level some. I will also again suggest seating the bullet out even more. You can't think about seating depth for cast bullets the same way you do about jacketed. If the nose is sized to slide into the rifling, seat the bullet out as far as you can and have the loaded round still chamber. The closer that front drive band is to the rifling, the better. The only reason not to try this is if you are feeding up from a magazine which could limit overall length, or if the bullet nose does not slide into the rifling. This simple step shrunk my groups much less than half of what they were before. It may help you as well. It's worth a try.
Congrats on a good first attempt with cast in your 260. :-bd
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by 260 Striker »

HS, I will seat them out to touch the taper left by the .257 H&I. I should still have enough leverage to eject a live round if needed. I am pleased with my first attempt and may also try 19.0 grains of powder next time. I'm just glad to find a mould that will work in my 260. Very pleasant shooting round with cast.
Lynn Shultz
IHMSA #15692 since 1980
Past Match Director Logan Handgun Association
Current VP Logan Handgun Association
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by JSH »

I had about the same results on a practice day with 6.5 TCU. I had to fiddle around with the load and get some speed up. Seems like it started acting up past 150. All is well now and it is in the back of the safe. I get bored with a gun and have to move on to the next cast project.
One thing I will comment on is your scope setting. I know a lot of people used too, and still do, is not fool with elevation in their scopes. Maybe just me and my eyes. I change for each and every target unless it is shooting flat enough for one to the next. I tried for several years to change my POA. I found changing light conditions to effect me. If the scope won't track it will screw you sooner or later even if you don't change elevation settings.
There is lots of opinions on this subject I know.
Stay after it as you are soooooo close.
My 30-30 TC and cast bullets shot a 40 in UASHS and won the shoot off a few years back. Yes they can shoot that good.
Good luck to ya.
Jeff
Forgot to mention on seating depth. Most of my CB guns finish seating on closing. I don't crimp bottle neck cartridges very often. Down side is, if you have a fail to fire you may pull the bullet and dump powder in your action. I still keep a brass rod in my box, just to ward of the gremlins.
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by 260 Striker »

Jeff, Good to hear you are getting your 6.5 TCU settled in. I think that would be a great cartridge. I tried to use point of aim with my scoped 260 and found I was wandering around on the pigs and more on the turkeys. Even shooting at chickens has been better since I now use B/L on chickens and my 260 is still flat enough to put the cross hairs in the notch behind the front leg of the pigs. Really tightened up the hits on pigs. POA on the turkeys really messed me up on elevation and B/L on turkeys cured that too. Just got lucky first time I used the Norma 139s on rams and realized by holding on top edge of backs of rams would drop the Normas into dead center rams. My windage moves from side to side on rams but they are wide enough that I don't have to worry about windage. I'm going to seat the bullets out to touch the rifling but don't want to take a chance on pulling a bullet if I have to eject a live round. I don't crimp but just reduce the flair enough to allow the cartridges to chamber. What HS said about leaving a little flair to help center the case in the chamber is a good ideal. Looking forward to next match with cast. Hope the extra grain of powder doesn't mess up C, P and T but might tighten up my hits on rams. Hadn't shot my 10" 30-30 TC for several years but shot an entry using 150 grain NOE spire point bullets and 16.0 grains of SR4759. No sight settings again. Shot a 33 (P-AAA) so wasn't too unhappy with it. Hit all 10 rams but lost two even with dead center hits. Me and my wimp loads again!!!!!!! CBs are fun!!!!!
Lynn Shultz
IHMSA #15692 since 1980
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Current VP Logan Handgun Association
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by JSH »

I swore I would never cast for anything smaller than a .308 bore. Well skipped the .25 and .24 and went to .224. That is like threading a needle lol.
I have an louvrin type mold that is what I use in my swede 6.5x55 with a dose of unique. It is a very soft load but has shot well all the way to 200 and will take over rams. Follow through is key with the soft loads IMHO. In that rifle I don't even take the bell off the cases mouth as the chamber is over sized for the bore. Found that out by accident.
Cast is a sickness unto its own. I have it bad.
I was told early on that I would never hang with jacketed folks. That was all it took. Tell me it won't work and I will spend countless hours working it out so as to prove some one wrong. Well I did it. Took a bit of time but have several guns that digest CB's into little bitty groups on demand.
I have extrapolated some data for days gone by to modern cartridges with good to excellent results. On the same note some of my loads with cast are start load with a jacketed bullet and shoot exceptionally well.
Say with your 260 and it's favorite powder with a jacketed bullet. Go to said powder and use a start load or -10% and I think you will be suprised. And maybe even happy.
Jeff
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by 260 Striker »

Shot my second match (reentry) with my 260 Striker and the RCBS 6.5 SILH bullet (linotype) using 18.0 grains of SR4759. Very mild load. I use LBT blue lube (soft) and can see lube trail when shooting. Using sight settings from first match shot a 39 this month but hit second ram dead center and he just stood there. Didn't shoot shootoff targets in first match so thought I would give it a go this month. We have five small turkeys at 160 yards and five small rams at 200 meters. Got three on each bank which matched my count using jacketed bullets. I may just shoot my normal UAS-INT round next month with cast. I wasn't sure my 260 would like cast since two other moulds I tried didn't work out well but this RCBS mould is perfect. I did seat the bullets out a little more but still have a way to go to touch the rifling. Can't complain with the accuracy now but may experiment with seating depth to see if that makes a difference.
Lynn Shultz
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by JSH »

Glad to hear your progress.
Ringing a ram, imagine that, lol.
I have seen a lot of targets rang with a lot of calibers when using Linotype. IMHO it is just to hard and brittle and it shatters rather than putting all it's energy on the target. Yes I know it cast perfect bullets fairly easy.
I would change up on alloys myself.
One other thing on these long skinny bullets. When seating gas checks and sizing, run by feel. If one seats or checks hard be careful that it doesn't bend the blasted thing. Yes they will bend. Friend of mine seats and sizes through a custom push through die he made because of bending with his alloy.
Jeff
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by 260 Striker »

JSH, Know what you mean about bending. I use a gas check seater so can get a good feel when seating the checks. I'm sizing to .265 and my as cast bullets are not much larger than that so I'm basically just smoothing out the driving bands and lubing. I take the bullets and size the noses to .257 to just smooth out the parting lines. Doesn't take much pressure on the sizer handle to do all this so I think I am safe and not bending any bullets. They were shooting some very small groups on our shoot off targets at 160 and 200 meters so they must be flying straight!!! I may cast some out of WW and water drop them to harden them up a little. My load is pretty wimpy but very accurate so I don't think I would be driving WW bullets too fast. The LBT soft blue lube is great and I have seen zero leading so far using linotype. I see lube trails when I shoot so I know I have plenty of lube on the bullets. Fun to shoot cast and know they are as accurate as jacketed bullets. That just means I have no excuse for missing targets. Now ringing rams is another issue!!!!
Lynn Shultz
IHMSA #15692 since 1980
Past Match Director Logan Handgun Association
Current VP Logan Handgun Association
NRA Member
United States Air Force Veteran
Retired USAF Civil Servant (47 years)
937-407-4885
JSH
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Re: 260 Remington with CB, 1st match results

Post by JSH »

WW can be driven just as fast as Lino. Size is king. I am sizing .266 myself.
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