Is the .260 Remington the Perfect Deer Hunting Cartridge?

The .260 Remington is the Rodney Dangerfield of cartridges: it simply gets no respect. Ask anyone to name the 10 best cartridges for deer hunting and you'd probably hear things like the .243, 6mm, 257 Roberts, 250 Savage, .25-06, .270, 7mm Mauser, 7mm-08, 7mm Remington Magnum, 30-30, .308, 30-06, 300 Winchester Magnum and scores of other common cartridges. And then all the short magnums came along and muddied up the top 10 deer hunting cartridge field even further. All the while the .260 Remington has been overlooked.

While I am personally a .270 Winchester fan, the fact is that for 95% of all deer hunting even the .270 is overkill. While the .270 and 30-06 seem to have been the most popular cartridges going for some time, they just are not needed for deer hunting. When the first .243 Winchester made it appearance in our deer hunting camp a few decades ago, the older guys in the group were admittedly apprehensive about the little gun causing wounded deer. They imagined blood trailing late into the night and crippled deer running everywhere. What really happened is that guy with the .243 cleanly rolled deer after deer from the field to the freezer.

The reason that the .243 is so great for deer is simple. The .243 provides ample power for taking deer, yet kicks lightly allowing it to be shot accurately even by a novice or youngster. The .260 Remington simply does the same thing with a little more power and an unnoticeable increase in recoil. The larger bullet of the .260 Remington will tend to drive deeper than the lighter .243 bullet. The .260 Remington bullets have a high ballistic coefficient as well. This means that while the muzzle velocity and energy might not be eye popping, it will carry this velocity and energy better to the target.
For more proof of the usefulness of the .260 Remington check out some high power rifle matches where the round is actually quite popular.

The .260 Remington is an effective round that is offered in short action bolt action rifles and ammunition is not too hard to find. The fact that its ammunition is not carried at every corner store in deer country is one mark I have to give against the .260 Remington for being an ideal deer cartridge. But the efficient little cartridge that is gentle on the shoulder, lethal at the muzzle, and quite accurate may well be one of the finest choices for an all around best deer cartridge.