260 vs 6.5 creedmoor

[woods89]

This may be an unanswerable question!

I have a Remington M7 in 260 that is getting rebarreled this spring. My plan is to go with a slightly heavier taper 22'' 1-8 twist 260 Remington. However, my smith brought up the option today of going 6.5 Creedmoor, which he is quite a fan of. So now I have a dilemma!

I like the 260 Remington. I have dies and Lapua brass already, so that would be a definite plus. I don't need a 1000 yd rifle, this is going to hopefully be a 300-400 yd hunting rifle and a 500-600 yd shooting for fun rifle.

My worries lie mostly with the fact that 260 brass and ammo seem to be holding or declining while the Creedmoor takes the market by storm. Also it looks like the Creedmoor is a slightly more efficient design, and allows long bullets to be loaded out further while still fitting in the mag.

Am I hanging on to an outdated cartridge if I stay 260? Do you think brass will continue to be readily available? Is the efficiency of the Creed worth it? Given readily available components I think I would rather stay with the 260 but I can be convinced!

 

[hodgeman]

What bullet weight and profile are you wanting to shoot? If you want to shoot those really long ELD/VLD type bullets you're going to run out of room in mag box... the reason for the 6.5 to start with. For a more "standard" sort of bullet, the .260/6.5 will perform the same.

For a 3-400 yard hunting rifle, not sure there's a nickel's worth of difference between the two. I really like the 6.5...apparently a lot of other folks do as well.

 

[FURMAN]

Not worth switching since you’re already set up.


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[woods89]

I'm thinking of trying some 140 gr Bergers. I imagine I might have some length issues there. I've also had good luck with Nosler so maybe 140 gr Partitions or Accubonds. With the current 1-9 twist barrel I've been limited to 125-130 grain bullets, and I'm wanting to move up to 140s.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Or, you could AI the 260.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I'm thinking of trying some 140 gr Bergers. I imagine I might have some length issues there. I've also had good luck with Nosler so maybe 140 gr Partitions or Accubonds. With the current 1-9 twist barrel I've been limited to 125-130 grain bullets, and I'm wanting to move up to 140s.

Personally, I'd stick with the Nosler bullets.

 

[luke moffat]

Not worth switching since you’re already set up.


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Agree here!

 

[brandent111]

This may be an unanswerable question!

I have a Remington M7 in 260 that is getting rebarreled this spring. My plan is to go with a slightly heavier taper 22'' 1-8 twist 260 Remington. However, my smith brought up the option today of going 6.5 Creedmoor, which he is quite a fan of. So now I have a dilemma!

I like the 260 Remington. I have dies and Lapua brass already, so that would be a definite plus. I don't need a 1000 yd rifle, this is going to hopefully be a 300-400 yd hunting rifle and a 500-600 yd shooting for fun rifle.

My worries lie mostly with the fact that 260 brass and ammo seem to be holding or declining while the Creedmoor takes the market by storm. Also it looks like the Creedmoor is a slightly more efficient design, and allows long bullets to be loaded out further while still fitting in the mag.

Am I hanging on to an outdated cartridge if I stay 260? Do you think brass will continue to be readily available? Is the efficiency of the Creed worth it? Given readily available components I think I would rather stay with the 260 but I can be convinced!

PM sent

 

[Idaho Lefty]

Personally, I'd stick with the Nosler bullets.

YUP,.. Nosler Accu's, have a pretty high, BC and GROUP accuracy, they are usually NOT, "fussy" on seat depth, either ! They are MY, "all around", Hunting Bullet, in my .270 WSM and I've given, this "matter", a LOT of, thought" ! Personally I'd BUY enough Brass to, "shoot out", your Bbl. ! I figure 10 shots, per casing, IF NOT, loaded, too "Hot" ( cracking and loose Primers ! ) Anneal them, at, 5th shot X 100 = 1,000 shots thru Bbl, so buy 200/250 rds of Brass, to "Burn out", your existing Bbl ! IMHO the Berger's are fine Bullets, for Targets and IF, you ONLY shoot, at "broadside" animals, BEHIND, the Shoulder ! In "real World" Hunting that, isn't always,.. possible ! The .260 Rem is a "good" round and could be made off of the .308 Win, IF, necessary ! Just buy enough Brass, NOW and,.. DON'T,.. "worry", tho ! Good Luck !!

 

[Mr Drysdale]

I and my grandsons own and shoot the 260 (five total). Three are M7’s. Plenty of factory ammo still available but I have saved all my brass for 18 years. Can’t argue the difference since I have no experience with the CM. Definitely group better with 120 grain bullets. We hunt Whitetails and this is a great round for them. Longest kill shot was 315 yards with factory 120 grain Accu-Tips (no longer offered). The other two rifles are a Savage 116 and Browning A-Bolt. Good Luck on your decision and rebarrel.

 

[luke moffat]

YUP,.. Nosler Accu's, have a pretty high, BC and GROUP accuracy, they are usually NOT, "fussy" on seat depth, either ! They are MY, "all around", Hunting Bullet, in my .270 WSM and I've given, this "matter", a LOT of, thought" ! Personally I'd BUY enough Brass to, "shoot out", your Bbl. ! I figure 10 shots, per casing, IF NOT, loaded, too "Hot" ( cracking and loose Primers ! ) Anneal them, at, 5th shot X 100 = 1,000 shots thru Bbl, so buy 200/250 rds of Brass, to "Burn out", your existing Bbl ! IMHO the Berger's are fine Bullets, for Targets and IF, you ONLY shoot, at "broadside" animals, BEHIND, the Shoulder ! In "real World" Hunting that, isn't always,.. possible ! The .260 Rem is a "good" round and could be made off of the .308 Win, IF, necessary ! Just buy enough Brass, NOW and,.. DON'T,.. "worry", tho ! Good Luck !!

Lot of truth there.

Both the 260 and 6.5 creedmoor (147 at 2850 fps) can hit harder past 375 yards than a 270 WSM (140 accubond at 3150 fps) anyways so you can't lose there. Being as you are already setup for the 260, so long as you are mag box limited for some longer skinny bullets then I would just roll with what you got already.

 

[JP100]

If you've already got the .260 gear just stick with it. You will ALWAYS be able to get .308 brass cheap and make up .260 easy.
6.5 creedmore is just the flavor of the month, no need to change your set up. in 10 years time you'll still able to get .308 brass cheap, 6.5 creedmore probably will be replaced by some new hyped up 6.5(they allready working on that!)

Why not go 6.5x55 haha its not going out of fashion

 

[luke moffat]

If you've already got the .260 gear just stick with it. You will ALWAYS be able to get .308 brass cheap and make up .260 easy.
6.5 creedmore is just the flavor of the month, no need to change your set up. in 10 years time you'll still able to get .308 brass cheap, 6.5 creedmore probably will be replaced by some new hyped up 6.5(they allready working on that!)

Why not go 6.5x55 haha its not going out of fashion

Very true!! Creedmoor has only been around for 10 years or so now....certainly has a lot of catching up to do to the 260 that has been around twice that. I suspect it is catching up very fast though. I suspect neither will be hard to get components for 10 years from now either.

 

[KurtR]

I know its funny people think the creedmoor just came out last year. If some one wants factory ammo the creedmoor is light years ahead of the .260 at this point with a 40 year head start.

But to the question I would stick .260 if you have all the stuff

 

[JP100]

Very true!! Creedmoor has only been around for 10 years or so now....certainly has a lot of catching up to do to the 260 that has been around twice that. I suspect it is catching up very fast though. I suspect neither will be hard to get components for 10 years from now either.

Yep may be true in North America. Youd be lucky to ammo for the 6.5 creedmore here, never seen a 6.5 creedmore in a shop here yet. we are about 5 years behind US normally

 

[deadwolf]

.260 terminator!


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[BrushyHillGuide]

I shoot both, I really like both. When I got around to building a full custom I chose the Creedmoor specifically because I wanted to use a magazine fed rifle that could pull double duty as a hunting rifle and light competition rifle. For a pure hunting rifle, the .260 is a better choice because it has a little more case capacity. I’m probably going to move to Ackley Improved when I rebarrel again. With Berger getting ready to release the 155gr Elite Hunter, I’d be building a .260 AI with a Wyatt’s box and a Kiff reamer designed around those 155s. I might even consider building it on a long action but would probably stick with the short action because I’m a fanboy and it does keep the weight down some. You can still shoot factory .260 ammo in a pinch but you can pick up the extra speed with AI handloads. My .260 is as easy to load for as either of my 6.5 Creedmoors.

I do find better choices for factory ammo for the Creedmoor than the .260 but I mainly reload my own. Sometimes I get lazy, though, or in a hurry and there’s some really fantastic factory ammo out there - Prime, Copper Creek, etc. I haven’t found nearly as much .260 ammo that MY rifle likes.

I don’t find buying a new set of dies a real consideration but if you already have all the .260 dies, that’s just another reason to go with that caliber.

If you've already got the .260 gear just stick with it. You will ALWAYS be able to get .308 brass cheap and make up .260 easy.
6.5 creedmore is just the flavor of the month, no need to change your set up. in 10 years time you'll still able to get .308 brass cheap, 6.5 creedmore probably will be replaced by some new hyped up 6.5(they allready working on that!)

Why not go 6.5x55 haha its not going out of fashion

Gotta agree to disagree. “Flavor of the month?” LOL! That’s funny. Just like the .260 was the flop of the decade - Remington’s biggest and most ridiculous failure. Hornady is a marketing machine and Remington (in its current state) could care less about calibers - they’re not supporting ANY caliber; just churning out sub-par rifles for Walmart and box stores to sell cheap. When they began to offer rifles in 6.5 Creedmoor it should have been obvious that the Creedmoor has the legs to survive this battle. I don’t think either cartridge is going away but if I had to put money one, it’d be the Creedmoor. I’m going to be curious what happens to the venerable .243 now that the 6 Creedmoor is taking the shooting world by storm. It’s very interesting to watch Hornady work. Lol.


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