Difference between 260 Rem and 6.5-08?

[Burras]

Is there any difference between the two above?

[Travelor]

Only the name.

The factory called the 6.5-08 a 260 Remington when they started making it.

[Burras]

So a Redding bushing die in 260 Rem will work for a chamber reamed in 6.5-08?

[milanuk]

It should work just fine. In point of fact, it worked fine for me several years ago when I ran a NRA Match Rifle in 6.5-08 for a short while. You may find your 6.5-08 has a tighter neck chamber than a SAAMI .260 Rem, but nothing you can't take care of with appropriate sized bushings.

[30378]

Yes the dies will work just fine.:D

[Burras]

Thank you for all the answers.

Now i wonder how the long, high BC bullets (139 scenars, 130 Norma, 130 Bergers) will work with a cartridge OAL working in a Rem 700 mag. Will they eat up much of the powder space, giving me weak performance?

[Asa Yam]

Is there any difference between the two above?
Yes, there is a diference - odds are you may not notice it, it's that small. However, this difference can be a major safety issue. What's the problem, you ask? The length of the neck of the two cartridges is different.

Original 6.5-08 brass was made from .308 casings (among others), and max OAL was shorter than the 2.035" that Remington standardized the .260 with. Use .260 brass in a 6.5-08 chamber (i.e., one intended for a shorter necked case), and you could end up wedging brass between bullet and bore. Fire this combination, and you get high chamber pressure. At best, maybe a blown primer. I don't want to be there if things get worse.

Smartest thing to do is to make a chamber cast or otherwise measure the max OAL of the casing. (Sinclair makes a nifty tool which can help with this - see http://www.sinclairintl.com/product/11241/Case-Gauges-Headspace-Tools.) Once you have the maximum case length measurement, write it down. Then NEVER let your brass get longer than this number.

And yes, .260 Remington dies will resize 6.5-08 cases Just pay attention to the overall length of the brass, or you can run into the situation described above.