D9Firearms

We’ve had several of our DPMS LR-260 customers working on load data for the 260 and we just received an update from a DPMS LR-260H owner, Ronnie. We featured the photo of his rifle several weeks ago and he just got out to test it. These are the kind of test results that you would expect from a $5000 GA Precision, Remington M-40, or FN SPR but from a semi-auto. However, this is not the first time we’ve posted results like this for the DPMS and consistently receive feedback of .5″ grouping for the .308.
Since the load data and factory ammo is relatively limited in scope this is exciting to watch the development and get the feedback from our clients. Below Ronnie has provided some excellent load data. Our plans here at D9 are to use this data and provide custom loaded 260 ammunition and have it available by summer. (We are a federally licensed manufacturer of ammunition.)

Ronnie’s rifle shown above. DPMS LR-260H, w/JP adjustable and speed hammer, Hogue OD rubberized grip, tactical carrier release, Warne QD extra high 30mm rings, and Burris 2-12×50 30mm illuminated XTR in OD.

Darrel,

I finally got tooled up and loaded some rounds for the LR-260H. I tried getting the better dies and reloading supplies to get the best out of this thing. I figured I would break it in over a series of range trips and not rush things. So I picked a load out of the Sierra catalog that wouldn’t over work the brass and just do the first 10 rounds cleaning between every shot. 39.0 gr Reloader 15, CCI LR primers, Norma 260 brass, and 123 gr SMK’s. I used Forster Benchrest dies and loaded to an OAL of 2.785″.

I started out at 100 yds since it was already bore sighted and after the first round, it was really close to being dead on. I took about 45 minutes to fire the first 5 rounds cleaning between each shot, and I couldn’t help but notice that all the holes were just about touching even though I wasn’t concerned about getting a good group during break in. But….I couldn’t help it. Impatience got the best of me and I loaded three rounds into the magazine and fired a group. The attached picture tells the rest of the story. This is the tightest group I’ve ever fired by far, and it’s from a semi-auto! Holy $#!t! Its not even the bench gun.

0.395″-0.264″= 0.131″ group

I finished off the final two rounds by going back to cleaning between shots thinking I didn’t want to rush the break in procedure. Can’t wait to do some load testing, or maybe I’m already done.

Ronnie

 

Ronnie thanks for your feedback and look forward to hearing more. We will be providing more reloading information for the 260 as it comes available. Additionally we are in the process of testing the DPMS LR-243H and have some complimentary data. We thought the same as Ronnie Holy S&*% performance out of the box.

 

Don’s LR-260 shown above on author’s recently tiled entry way.

Prior to Christmas we sold a LR-260 24” SS with a fluted & threaded barrel, a Miculek compensator, JP Adjustable w/speed hammer, Panther tactical grip, Harris bipod, and a Burris 4-14 optic to a long time client and friend Don who lives up in Iowa.  Don just provided us with some additional load data he has been working with.

Darrel

I have shot the gun a bit and it shoots very well.  I plan to shoot it a lot more when the weather warms a bit.  It’s been cold for quit a while.  I have tried a couple of loads though that show some promise!

Speer hollow point TNT bullets seem to fly very well,  1\2 to 3\4 inch 100yd groups are common:

90g HP TNT 

I then increased to 50g’s of powder after fire forming.  I full length sized only about 3\4’s down the neck, I don’t have a neck size die yet, to maintain as much neck, shoulder and base size and consistency as possible.  3 shot Figure 8’s are common.  1\2 inch 5 shot groups.

I’d also tried Hornady 95g V-Max with:

5\8″  3 shot groups are easy to come by, and 3\4 inch 5 shot groups are common.  I seem to get at least one flier on 5 shot groups.  I think this is the cold and me!  I’m sure this can be improved with a little tweaking.

I plan on trying Hodgdons Benchmark and H414 powders as soon as it warms up and I have the time.  I’ll let you know.

Happy shooting!

Thanks for visiting out site and look forward to hearing more information like this. 

The DPMS LR-260 is becoming a highly sought after rifle. DPMS has three versions of this rifle:

Ø LR-260 24” SS bull barrel which is identical to its big brother the LR-308 and is an awesome bench gun designed for the ultimate long range bench shooter.

(Rifle shown above is:DPMS LR-260 24″ SS fluted & threaded bull barrel with a Miculek, JP adjustable speed hammer, Panther Tactical grip, Burris 4×16x50 scope, tactical carrier release, Harris Bipod,, Bulldog double rifle aluminum case.)

Ø LR-260H 20” heavy barrel w/flash hider and is designed as the hunter model which is rifle designed for the getting out in the weeds making free hand shots and good for a deer stand or laying out in the field shooting off of a rest.

(Rifle shown above is:DPMS LR-260H with JP adjustable & speed hammer, OD green Hogue rubberized grip, Burris 3×12x50 (30mm) XTR OD green scope, tactical carrier release, Harris Bipod, D9Firearms sight-in target, Bulldog double rifle aluminum case.)

Ø LR-260L 18” heavy barrel w/integrated Miculek compensator, JP adjustable trigger (speed hammer not included), A27 grip, carbon fiber hand guard, and skeleton A2 skeleton stock, which is perfect for free hand, moving targets, and carrying in the field.

(Rifle shown above is a DPMS LR-260L with tactical carrier release, Bushnell 6×24, Harris bipod.)

All three are excellent rifles the problem is there is not much proven load data available for hand loaders and factory ammunition is fairly expensive. Fortunately D9 keeps good company with shooters who are very devout and hell bent on accuracy.

Recently two of our shooters purchased the DPMS LR-260 who were working on finding that sweet load that would consistently deliver the sub MOA results we’ve come to expect from DPMS rifles. They stated that they were getting about 1.5” off the bench using a couple of different loads. Another friend of D9, Earl, also purchased a LR-260 (As a side note this is the infamous Earl from Reno. Earl also has some neat shirts listed on Café Press that tout his personal hand gun favorites and even did one for us here at D9Firearms. So buy one of each.)

http://www.cafepress.com/glock_dude

www.cafepress.com/d9firearms

www.cafepress.com/fightingzombies

I decided to link Earl in with Jason & SafeAction to trade load data to get the load that will deliver the consistent sub MOA shooting. Below are excerpts from the emails that were traded back and forth. It was really neat to read what each one had tried and the process each went through trying to develop the load.

Results by Jason in Utah:

I’ve tried about 6 different loads. The only consistent thing so far is that I can get about 3 shots touching (or within .5) and two fly completely out of the group…and it’s never the same shots in the same sequence. You’d normally expect shots 3 & 4 to fly out, but it’s completely random. Honestly, I’ve not gotten super serious about it yet because I’m using resized NATO .308 brass, which is generally a little erratic in performance, but I thought I could expect better groups than I’m getting. The .243 I bought from Darrel at the same time did much better with the same brass.

Surprisingly, the 123g HPBTMK and Varget have performed the best. The heavier bullets, which should do best, have been terrible. I tried 140g HPBTMK’s and AMax bullets with 4831SC, H1000 and RL19 and there was no obvious difference in the performance of those powders - about 2-3 MOA.

I’m going back out in tomorrow to try some new things. I’ve resized some .243 Lapua Brass and prepped things a little better, so maybe that’ll be the ticket. I also put a better scope on it: I was using a VXI 4-12, now it’s got a VXIII 4.5-14. I’ve got the same scope on my 308 police rifle and it shoots .5 MOA all day, so the scope should not be a limiting factor at this point.

Earl I’ll try your 35g RL15/140g HPBTMK load and see how it works in my rifle.

Results by Earl P (Glockdude):

I have the 24” bull barreled DPMS 260 and I did my load development with Alliant RL-15 Powder and Sierra 140 Grain MatchKings. I started at 35 Grains and worked my way up in .3 grain increments to 37.7 Grains. I had sub half moa groups (4 shots) on three of the loads. The most noticeable was the 35.0 grains, which proved a .15” three shot and .25” four shot (I did it on another target so I wouldn’t screw up my group).

I still have to load 15 of each of the half MOA group loads to ensure that I have the best load selected and not a fluke group, so these results are not final.

For my reloading process, I used RCBS .260 Remington dies and Hornandy lube (comes in a little tub) to resize Winchester .308 brass to .260 – I like Winchester brass better than Remington and it is much easier & cheaper to find in .308 . The case length was actually less than the 2.025” trim length (closer to 2.013). I used Federal Gold Medal 210 Match primers. The OAL cartridge length was 2.785” as per the Sierra loading manual.

I hand weighed each powder charge to ensure consistency. I also reamed the flash hole of the primer pocket and used a chamfer & deburring tool on the case mouth (this was the tool I couldn’t remember the name of Darrel).

I didn’t have any major pressure signs or failure to extract and it functioned flawlessly in the 25 degree temperature with a stiff headwind (made shooting less than comfortable).

My scope is a $100 Whitetail Classic by Simmons, which goes 6.5-20 power (not a bad cheap scope for target shooting). I also used a Lead-Sled by Caldwell and a bubble level by B-Square that attaches to a Weaver or Picatinny rail.

I think after I figure out the RL15 load, I will try to find a faster load with Hogden H4831SC. The loads according to the manual are under 2600 fps, which is slower than I really want to be for long range ballistics. I will keep toying around and see what works the best in my rifle.

More results by Jason:

GREAT NEWS! I think I’ve found the “sweet spot”…or at least the sweet powder/bullet combination.

Earl, I tried your load recommendation (35g RL 15 and 140g HPBTMK) and all of the groups I shot were .8 MOA. All groups are at 100 yards, the dots are 3″ with a two inch inner circle and .75″ square. I think once I tweak the powder a little I should have a .5 MOA rifle - and that is really exciting! Pretty much everything I’ve tried with RL15 has done well, which re-enforces the conversation I had with Darrell when I bought the rifle; RL15 is possibly the best .308 case powder in existence!

I also tried some other bullets with 4064, RL19 and they all performed poorly. They are the groups at the bottom of the email. Thanks again everyone! I’m going back out tomorrow and will send more pics and range data.

Below: .89 MOA, 140g HPBTMK, 34.5g RL15

Below: .80 MOA, 140g HPBTMK, 35g RL15

Below: .83 MOA, 140g HPBTMK, 35.5g RL15

Below: .89 MOA, 120g Nosler Ballistic Tip, 45g RL15

Below: “Minute of Acre” loads with RL19

Results by SafeAction:

Hi folks,

it’s great to have the opportunity to share experience and loading data.

This morning I stole a few hours and went to the shooting range. It’s an outdoors range with IPSC bays and a 300yd rifle facility. www.tdsa.net

Once in a while a grackle or a crow lands on the 200 yd post. When I see them through my scope I remember that these guys are listed as pest-birds. Then I squeeze the trigger and – pop – another one goes to bird-heaven.

I have a DPMS 260L with a JP trigger. During the last few weeks I’ve been feeding the rifle 140gr SMK loads with slow to very slow burning powders:

IMR 7828, R22, R19, WXR. None of these results have turned out to be significant in the accuracy arena.

I’m aware that the 260L does not come with a match grade bull barrel so I have to give the gun some slack. (Although my Steyr rifle doesn’t have a match barrel either and it shoots stunning 0.63 MOA with the ammo Darrel provided.)

There is no doubt that R15 rocks.

Here is what I got today with Sierra 120gr MK (best result so far, hands down):

From the bench rest-

OAL 2.785

SMK 120gr

New Remington case

Federal Gold Medal 210 Match primers

R19: 47gr

Best group 0.82 MOA

Average: 1.35 moa

When loading for my Sako 6PPC I am into the super mumbo jumbo case preparation. I admit that I skipped that for all 260 loads.

The best powders in my 308 experience are Viht N140 and Hodgdon 380. I guess these powders along with N540 and H414 might also score in the 260 rem.

By the way, due to the shape the Norma 6.5mm Golden Target 130gr bullets don’t feed in the semi auto.

-Bernhard

Cedar Hill, Texas

PS: pic - In the field with low recoil guns such as the 260rem I prefer squatting to kneeling or sitting.

If you are interested in a DPMS LR-260 please contact us here at D9Firearms. Within the next few months when more load data becomes available D9Firearms will load for the .260.

Thanks and be safe. All load data provided above falls within manufacturer’s guidelines. Regardless verify any load data prior to loading and shooting it out of your rifle.

I just received a couple of rifles from DPMS the other day with the full intent of selling them. Unfortunately the first box I opened contained the new LR-260L. And since this was the first one I have received I took it out to give it the once over and that’s about the time I knew this one was going to be a keeper and would be going to the range for some personal testing. (The next issue will be dealing with moving it over to my personal storage without my wife asking too many questions.)

The rifle has a totally different look and feel from what I am used to getting in the AR-10 platform. It’s reasonably lightweight and has a stream lined, lean, sleek, look and feel to it. Even coming factory standard with the carbon fiber hand guard and G27 grip just added to it’s coolness. (Cool isn’t everything but since I trust DPMS, I know it will deliver.)

Several things caught my attention as I was simulating suppressing a jihadist prairie dog attack. First, the upper receiver is an A3 style, has a lightweight round carbon fiber hand guard, a heavy non-contoured barrel with a mini gas-block and capped off with a customized Miculek Compensator which is the same diameter as the barrel. (The compensator gives it an edge to add that slightly menacing look.)

The lower receiver adds to the coolness with the skeletonized stock which also reduces the overall weight. It comes outfitted with a G27 tactical grip and JP Adjustable trigger installed. (The only thing I would change here would be to add the speed hammer to give it an ultimate fire control system.)

Since I don’t have any loads or ammo I decided to see what was out there. The 260 was a wildcat cartridge up until about 1997 when Remington decided to make it a factory round. It’s based on the 308 case necked down to the .264 or 6.5mm. The barrel has a 1×7.5” twist rate so I will probably start with a heavier bullet in the 120 – 140grn either Hornaday V-max or Sierra Matchking HPBT. I found some information on the ballistics and it has about the same trajectory as the 300Win.

.260Rem case with 140grn Sierra Matchking HPBT

Once I found that it based on the 308 case I new this has to be a shooter. The bullet weights range from the 90grn – 140grn making it a good large varmint and deer round with just a little more horsepower than the 243Win. I’ll probably start with Alliant R15 powder since it works exceptionally well on the 308Win hand loads. As a side note I just ordered some Vita Vourhi powders and plan to test some loads with this. But the R15 is still a go to powder for the 308.

.308Win. case shown with 168grn Sierra Matchking HPBT shown above and below.

Below I have shown the .308Win with 168grn SMK HPBt with the .260Rem with 140grn SMK HPBT. Notice the two cases are almost identical except for the neck. Also observe the bullets themselves. The 168grn is shorter and larger body whereas the 140grn is much longer and narrower. This will be an interesting load to work on. I suspect it will be a flat shooting, accurate, and take care of most midwest game.

The .308Win is on the left and the 168grn is in the back. The .260Rem is on the right and 140grn in the front. (above and below)

I plan to have some results on the accuracy (which I don’t question about the gun) on the loads and how the rifle handles in general in the next few weeks. But so far the only negative thing I have found is the ammo prices, which if we develop a good load, hope to provide in the coming months. The only other issue I found negative was I only got one of these, but I have a couple more on order.

If you are interested in a .260Rem please contact D9Firearms. We expect to have some available before Thanksgiving and more by Christmas. Thanks

D9Firearms has been contacted by several of our wholesalers to inform us that ammunition prices across the board are going up a minimum of 15% and as much as 25% on certain calibers. Over the last 2 years maybe less we have seen prices of ammunition double. We have been methodically buying various calibers of ammunition, brass, powder, primers, and bullets to stock up on. Naturally the common rounds 9mm, .223/5.56, & 308 will be the most effected, but laws of supply and demand will force the others up as well.

We have been stocking up green label Remington 223/5.56 ammunition, along with Winchester, PMC, and Mag-Tech. We have also been stocking up on Alliant Reloader and variants, Hogdon, and Vit Vouri powders along with Winchester brass for the 308, 223, 9mm, 45ACP, 40SW, 260, & 243.

We plan to start reloading for the 243Win, 6.8mm Remington SPC, and 260 Remington. We plan to have testing complete by the end of September and post the results. Currently we plan to perform the following tests:

243 Winchester:

Remington 700 VLS

DPMS LR-243

Tikka T3 Lite

260 Remington:

DPMS LR-260

6.8mm Remington SPC:

DPMS

308 Winchester:

We are currently gearing up for another 308 Winchester Production run using 168grn Sierra Matchking HPBT bullets.

We are also agreed to perform a test for a ammunition importer down in Florida. They just received a shipment of 7 million rounds of 308 Military Surplus from Lithuania. We plan to shoot some out of a Tikka Varmint and DPMS LR-308 and will be posting the results in the next week or two.

Please contact us if you are interested in purchasing ammunition.