.260 Rem bullet choice for deer

[ducksoup]

I'm adding to my .308 family slam by having a .260 Remington built. I'm using an old 700 ADL as the action and putting a Shilen SS match barrel on it. I'll have the action blueprinted and everything pillar bedded in a McMillan stock. I was wondering which 6.5 bullets are best for deer in this cartridge. I've always had good success with Partitions and those will be high on my list but would the 125's or 140's be best or would it really matter? It looks like there are lots of other good choices in the standard bullets from Hornady, Sierra or Speer but I still don't know which bullet weight would be best. Also, I'm still debating between a 1-8" twist or a 1-9" twist, any thoughts on these? Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions you might have.

[Curly]

If you're going with 140 gr bullets, 1:8 twist would be best.  Lighter bullets, 1:9 twist.

I think if you are using standard type bullets, then 140gr would be best and thus the 1:8 twist would be on order.  I think just about any decent 140 gr bullet would be great deer medicine at the velocities that would be produced from that cartridge.  Nosler ballistic tip or partition, or Hornady Interlock or SST, and Speer Grand Slam would likely all be good choices.  Just try them all and see which bullets shoot best........they should all perform good on deer.

[Curly]

How about a twist rate of 1:8.5 

http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek046.html

Actually, that 8.5 twist barrel may be good for the 260 AI but maybe not for a standard 260 rem.  Maybe the additional 100 fps or so from the AI is enough to stabilize the "heavy" bullets, but you may need the faster twist of the 1:8 for the standard 260Rem......

A google search shows most of the barrels built for shooting 140gr bullets come in 1:8 twist.  Here is a quote from one barrel maker:

We do our 260 barrels with a 1:8 twist which is optimum for the popular 140gr 6.5mm bullets (same sectional density as a 190 gr 30 caliber). Fits 308 bolt face dimensions

http://www.eabco.com/savagebarrels.htm

[Gutpile]

I use the 130 accubond. I've taken 2 deer, a bear, and 2 antelope with it at about 2800 fps. Really an outstanding bullet for the 6.5 family.

[high country]

I would twist it 1:8 and throat it for the mag box. The big bergers and smks are a hoot to shoot at range, and I have taken a couple elk with them....but I would not want to use it for anything other then sniping shots.

[ducksoup]

I ordered the 1-8" twist and I'll worry about bullet weights later. I figure it's better to have a slightly to fast twist than a slightly to slow twist. I don't plan on ever shooting any real light weight bullets.

[hillbilli]

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledge+Base.html

check out this website.. best terminal ballistics research I've ever come across.. broken down by caliber including .260...