.260 Remington

It may sound like sacrilege to hunters and shooters who preach cartridge ballistics like bible verse, but any suitable bullet at a half way decent velocity that punches a hole through the ribs and lungs of game animals promptly results in dead game, regardless of the cartridge.

- John Haviland

That’s because the difference in trajectories is within 3 inches at 350 yards, whether the shot is taken with a .243 Winchester, a .270 Winchester or a .300 magnum. And, 350 yards is a long shot at any big game animal.

What does determine the value of various cartridges is their practicality and usefulness. A sensible cartridge has a light enough recoil to allow extensive shooting with a range of bullet weights at a variety of game and targets, all in a portable, handy rifle.

On those counts the .260 Remington is a practical and useful cartridge. Despite those good traits, the .260 Remington has failed to win the approval of even a minority of shooters and hunters since Remington introduced it as a commercial cartridge in 1997. That’s more than surprising because the .260 is sort of a .243 Winchester, .257 Roberts and a 7mm-08 Remington all rolled into one with its wide range of bullet weights and styles that work well on targets and game from marmots to elk.

Remington had to stand at the rear of a fairly long line to claim credit for creating the .260 by necking down the .308 Winchester case to hold .26-caliber bullets. Noted gun writer Ken Waters started experimenting in the 1950s with the .243 Winchester case necked up to accept .263-inch bullets. Waters called his cartridge the .263 Express and chambered a barrel for the cartridge on a 1903 Springfield action. At first he estimated the muzzle velocity at nearly 2,900 fps with Speer or Nosler 140-grain bullets and 43.0 grains of IMR-4350 powder. But the velocities were a disappointing 2,635 fps when he acquired a chronograph a few years later. Waters also noted pressures were on the high side.