Any feedback on the LR-260L (or similar guns) in .260 Rem?

[SteveM]

The August, 2007 edition of Outdoor Life features an article ("The World's Most Versatile Rifle") on black guns in the hunting field. Specifically, mention is made of the Panther LR-260L chambered for .260 Rem, which is described as "...a light-kicking cartridge in just about any rifle. But in the semi-automatic AR platform, felt recoil all but vanishes, making accurate follow-up shots even easier." Since my ballistics charts are ancient, and I cannot find data on the .260 Rem, has this round proven to be a good real-world cartridge for taking deer? How does it stack up to others in its class? What kind of 100-yd. accuracy has anyone had with the .260? Finally, is there another make (other than Panther) which uses the .260, but is cheaper? (The Panther retails for around $1,500 WITHOUT the pictured Leupold 3-9X variable scope, surely a big additional cost.)

[Redneck Socialist]

1. I'm a big fan of the .260

I've never used the platform you speak of, I have a Remington Model Seven, but the .260 is pretty much the ideal caliber for deer in my opinion.

With my factory rifle, with factory loads I can shoot inch and a half groups at a 100 yards all day long. I'm looking to get a trigger job done on my gun and if I switch to hand loads I'm sure I could shrink that group size some more. My gun seems to like bullets in the 120, 125 grain size better than the 140s, at least in terms of accuracy. I doubt that the deer would notice the difference.

I don't know if there are other AR platforms for that cartridge, but several companies chamber bolt action guns in that caliber. Most of 'em will run you considerably less than the panther.

I gather the .260 has a pretty fair following in the benchrest world which speaks to it's accuracy.

Check out the Remington and Federal websites for ballistic info on the .260. Nosler and Corbon also offer "custom" loads in that caliber as well.

[krispos42]

2. It should be good for deer

It's in the same class as the .25-06 or .25 WSSM. the .25's use a 6.53mm bullet, the .260s use a 6.72mm bullet. And with the same bullet weights the velocities are similar. I think the .25 WSSM has a slight edge in velocity, but it's not much. Less than 100 ft/s.

I don't know if anybody makes a semiauto in .25 WSSM, though. You probably could get, say a Remington 7400 in .270 or .30-06 rebarreled for the .25-06 without a problem, but I don't know if there are any semi-autos out there make for the "short fat" .25 WSSM. The Super-Short Magnums are a fair bit shorter than the .308-based cartridges like the .260 Rem, and a fair bit thicker.