243 vs 260 vs 270 for longrange small/medium game hunting in south africa

[pietskiet]

thanx guys! Wat velocitys can i get whith max loads in the 260. Whith 120 and 140gr bullets?

[GeauxTide]

2900 with a 120 and 2750 in 140 in a 24" barrel

[GONIF]

FYI http://demigodllc.com/articles/6.5-s...6.5-creedmoor/

[5RWill]

Like i said 6.5 is the way to go. You can shoot anything from varmints to moose. Light recoil, great penetration and bc. If you wanna get into long range shooting slap a tactical scope on it and go ahead. Has the velocity comparable to a .300WM at 1000yds cause of the retained velocity. 35% less wind drift than a .308. You really can't go wrong.

[pietskiet]

custom .260. Built on a highly accurised vz24 action,laminated stock,custom trigger,semi bull 24 inch fluited barrel,haris bi-pod,supresos and a 6.5-20 leupold whith varmint hunters reticule. How does that sound?

[5RWill]

Sounds like a keeper to me.

[lt dan]

piet, i have struggled with the same question the last two years.

i have a 300magnum a 308 and a .22. i live in the N-west and we do a lot of medium game hunting wart-hog and a lot of varmint hunting.

at the moment i do this with the 308 seeing that my 300H&H is still being built. however my hunting buddies shoot with a variety of calibres amongst them are 223, 222, 22-250. 25-06, 270,303,308,250-3000 7x57 and even 300wm.

from all of these i finally decided on the 243win. the 270 and the 25-06 are close seconds. i have no experience with a 260 and have never seen one, or their ammo over here. being Africa like we know it i would stick to calibres that is common and as a guide i would suggest sticking to calibres that are locally produced (PMP calibres). every now and then there are rumours that the Americans see the political leaders in s-africa as borderline terrorist sympathisers and the net result is stricter regulating of guns and ammo related exports to us, and to be honest and don't blame them. hence the fact that you see so many European and former east-block ammo and reloading equipment in our local gun shops. add to this our local gun laws i would strongly suggest to keep to the "every day calibres".


taking into consideration that you don't have a flat shooting 30 calibre for plains game, and you want to do both plains game and varmint hunting i think you may rate the 270 and the 25-06 above the 243.

finally i would suggest to do the dedicated hunters course. that would allow you under the new laws to own limitless calibres including shotguns. you can then own a semi-auto shotgun and one extra handgun. as well as the fact that you can keep more ammo and powder. since i have done this course people have offered me their rifles rather than have it destroyed or handing it in at the police.


if you haven't tried it already go to wikipedia and search all the calibres you are interested in and compare them, it makes for some interesting reading.


good luck with your choice. (keep the 243win in mind)

[pietskiet]

thanx 4 the advice. I do reload so factory ammo doesnt bother me(dont use it anymore). The 260 wont be a problem over here as dies are avalibel and i wont strugel finding 6.5mm bullets and 243/308 cases. I like the 243 but want some extra bullet weight. I dont wat a 30cal flatshooter. The 375 wil take care of the longrange big game. Have you seen wat a 375 can do whith 235/250gr bullets? Not to even mention our local 200gr gs custom. I want less recoil than wat the 270 dishes out.. For smal/medium/big bushveld game i am more than happy whith my 303.. 180gr game kings@2550fps and 215gr rhinos at 2250fps is all i need.for the bushveld. Infact i wil take eland whith my 303 but a 375 would be better. Wat i dont like about the 243 is its wind sensitivety. That why i was thinking about the 260 whith 120,130 or 140gr bullets, the 270 would be a my choice if i didnt have a 303. I realy love my old but modern 303 and dont want to get rid of it.. The 375 stroked whith 250gr bullets and 2.5-8 scope,303 whith 215gr bullets and 1.5-6 scope(it has a 3-9 at the moment) and the 260 whith 120 or 140 or 130gr bullets(wil 1st test then 4 trajectory,recoil and accuracy) and a 6.5-20 scope is all i wil eva need for all game in all conditions in my opinion?

[lt dan]

piet, it sounds as if your minds made up. in that case go for the 260 otherwise you will always be thinking what if....?

there is plenty to be done with the recoil of a 270 but if you shoot 303 with 215grn and 375 with 250 grn then 270 recoil will be nothing.

i must admit that i only checked out the 260 stats after i posted my reply and i didn't realise that although it is not a common caliber it is easy to load for it due to the availability of the 308 cases and bullets. so go for it, it does sound like a caliber for the connoisseur.

see how light bullets you can get for varmint hunting. i subscribe to the school of thought that a good varminter should shoot at at least 3100f/s.
that way you dont need to compensate for trajectory from 50m to 350m. this comes in handy especially at night when judging distance becomes a problem especially when you hunt jackal and cats who tends to show only an eye(in the beam of the spotlight) and that being your only piont of aim. i am not a big fan of fast shooting rifles as this does to much meat damage, but seeing that you want your new rifle to be a varminter amongst other things, one of its attributes should be speed, if need be. this should be easy to do with a lighter bullet.

[Old Grump]

apples and bananas

243 and 260 based on 308, might as well go with the 308, to big step down to 260.

270 based on 30-06, to big, step down to 25-06. I don't really get why you are asking for a recommendation between such disparate power levels. 270 is adequate but over powered for your small to medium game needs and you already have a 303 so you aren't varying much.

From what I understand you are having a 375 built for you so I would just drop the 303 and go with both 243 and 270 and all 3 of your bases are covered. For a 2 gun system I would simplify it with the 260 and the 375. just 2 cents fro a dinosaur who likes things simple.

(Okay, okay, I have to many guns too but I said I like things simple, I didn't say I was smart.)

[pietskiet]

how wil the 260's 120gr bullets trajectory compare to the 243's whith 100gr bullets? And how wil its 140 grainer compare to that of the 270's 140 grainer? Both whith a 100yard zero(i am plaining on useing the varmint hunters recticule)

[DG45]

Here are hyperlinks to some ammo ballistic tables. All these stats probably were obtained using 24" barrels; so unless your gun has a 24" barrel, take all these numbers with a grain of salt. (Thats an old American expression that in this case means "don't bet the ranch on achieving the same results.")

http://www.shootingtimes.com/ballist...inchester.html

http://www.shootingtimes.com/ballist...remington.html

http://www.shootingtimes.com/ballist...inchester.html

[pietskiet]

thanx 4 all the advice. Wat would you guys take 4 longrange proghorn and whitetail? 260 or 270?

[ranger dave]

take the 260 rem you will love it also just a note make sure your rifle is marked for calber and matches your ammo . it makes coustoms a lot easer

[Bush Pirate]

+1 for 260. Can you get around the 3 gun limit by getting an T/C Encore, and just change the barrel?

[lt dan]

no over here in s-africa the barrels are licenced, so three barrels three licences =3 guns. stupid,but a fact.

[pietskiet]

tell me wat are your guys opinion on the 260 whith 123gr sierra machkings on small and medium size game?(proghorn and whitetail) i wont try and brake big bones whith them and they wil be used at 150-350m. I like there weight,bc and accuracy. I want 2900fps from them. Secondly if i want to increase capacity by a grain or two hom much free bore should the barrel have extra so i can seat the bullets out a littel further. I wil be using 95-140gr bullets

[GeauxTide]

Wouldn't recommend match bullets for game. A 100 NBT for light stuff and a 125 Nosler or 129 Hornady for the rest. In setting up my 6.5-06, I sent a case with a 140gr bullet seated to the barrel mfr. for throating. With a 260, exercise care with magazine length.

[300magman]

I would think the 270 would be a bit of an overlap for your 303 in some ways, and it seems pretty heavy for varnmints...I would take one of the 243, 260, or similar sized recommendations already posted here.

As for being a handloader in an area with large and/or possibly dangerous game, I would be very tempted to up that standard 375 H&H you have coming for a 375RUM (IF you can handle the extra recoil)
That way you can hit those big ugly critters harder when you really need to, or load it down to milder velocities for times when the full RUM power isn't necessary.....That is assuming brass wouldn't be too hard to come buy for the RUM, obviously its not as easy to find as the almost universally available 375 H&H.

[Maromero]

6.5 x 55 is my recomendation. Basically the same (not the same) as a 260 Rem.

[Rangefinder]

It's a pretty basic question, and it seems to be pretty cluttered with a whole lot of figures, proven opinion, and hoop-la.... Simply put, for springbuck, ALL OF THE THREE MENTIONED will do the job effectively. My opinion rests more on the .243 over others. It's not far away from the remington 6mm I fire---the rifle I use for 1000-meter targets using 90gr sierra fmj/bt loads, to coyote plinking with 55gr. noslers, to dropping elk with 105gr. speers. It's an incredibly versitile chambering that can be adapted for just about anything with fur. For springbuck, a .243 75gr balistic tip with a middle-road load will flatten it out to about 300 yds like a laser dragging a tow-truck.

[mpd61]

Rangefinder!
I got a headache reading that last post!

"lasers and tow trucks"?
I'm glad you shoot elk with 105 grain .243 bullets. Can't see how thats superior to latest 140 and 160 grain 6.5 bullets with higher BC's.
6.5x55 Swedish or it's re-invented version, the .260 Remington, are arguably superior at the bigger plains game

[jiminthecorner]

Surely there must be guys that still use the old 7x57? Its killed an awful lot of african beasts including elephant! Just my 2 cents. JITC

[Rangefinder]

MPD>>> Take an asprine for the headache--it will pass. If you like the .260 remington, more power to ya--it's a user's-choice world out there. But the topic really isn't about "bigger plains game". What I use on elk (very successfully, I'm going to add) isn't the issue. Springbuck isn't much bigger than my dog. Aside from being the one of the three in question that I am most familiar with, the .243 has probably killed more antelope (comparable animal) than any other here in the western US--proven effectiveness. Don't go twisting that around to think I'm saying the rest are somehow "less" effective now.

[tube_ee]

Because I'm guessing that 7x57 Mauser brass will be easier to come by in a country with European, rather than American, hunting traditions.

Lots of military Mausers have been converted, and if you can't find one, the conversion is just a barrel and a gunsmith away.

Let's not make recommendations based on ammo availability in America. The OPs situation is likely to be very different. Also, I don't know if the OPs country restricts military calibers, but many do. If they do, having a cartridge that uses military brass but is not a military caliber may be a significant advantage.

The .243 is based off the .308, and the .270 from the .30-06, of course. I'd think, based only on my limited knowledge of armies and what they used, that of those two, the .243 (or any other .308-based cartridge) might be easier to feed. I'm pretty sure the SA Army used the 7.62x51 for a long time. The .30-06, not so much.

But I'm not sure the .243 is enough gun. I've never been to Africa, so I might well be wrong about that.

--Shannon