best twist for light grain 6.5 bullets

1-in-9 is marginal for the 125gr, might shoot fine but you are depressing your BC in doing so.
I'd just go with a 1-8 twist, gives you maximum flexibility and you'll never push a 260 fast enough to cause issues for the lighter bullets.
 
You have a bit of a quandary. I have a 6.5-06 that I picked up from Eagleye over a decade ago. It has a 1-9.25 twist rate and actually stabilizes 140 grain boat tails very well. It absolutely loves the Barnes monolithic bullets in 120 grain. It also works very well with the Hornady 95 grain Vmax and 120 SST.

The 260 is a high pressure cartridge and you should be able to generate some pretty high velocities that will stabilize everything from 95 grain to 140 grain with a 1-9 twist rate. The thing is to decide which bullet length you are going set your throat length for.

Most people can't get their heads around building a rifle for a specific bullet. Then again most people don't have more than a half dozen firearms for whatever reason.

The people that will really understand what you are trying to accomplish are the bench rest and F class shooters.

If you want a 260 Remington that will shoot every bullet weight like a laser there is an off the shelf rifle that will cost about the same new as your build will cost. Maybe less if you have to buy a reamer. That is a Tikka T3 in either blue or stainless. Just make sure the scope is parallax adjustable and you will have an excellent combo.

If you are just building this for fun then fly at it. If you are experimenting, do some due diligence and you will find hundreds of others have already done this.

Whatever, the point is to have fun and learn.
 
I have a Win 70 FWT with a 1-8 twist I believe that shoots 129-156 bullets just fine but the Hornady 160gr shows signs of yawing with poor accuracy.The T3 won't shoot the 160's either.Never tried or needed lighter bullets as mine is used as a BG gun......Harold
 
For full disclosure I shoot the 95gr Hornady Vmax out of my T3 chambered in 6.5x55 and it shoots them like lasers. I have had similar results as mbogo did with 160gr bullets. The Swedes used 1-7.5 twists in their early Mausers as did the Norwegians with their Krags. They had it right for their purposes.

The T3s are incredible rifles. I have only heard of one that wouldn't shoot and upon inspection it was the cheap scope's fault.
 
You've asked about the 85-125gr bullets, there may be a problem with the 85gr in a fast twist barrel. The swede rifle has a 7.8 twist rate and I find they do not shoot the 85gr well. 90gr and heavier shoot OK in the swede. Remington used a 9.25 or 9.125 twist rate for the 260 this twist gives the most versatility and will be good up to the 140gr (not the 140VLD. shorter length OK).
Building a rifle in 6.5 with a slow twist rate would be a hard sell if you later decided to sell.
Enjoy
 
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