otis:

sorry it' s taken me so long to respond but i' m busy and don' t get to spend as much time reading the forum as i used to i like the 260 rem for several reasons.
1. it' s a light rifle with a very compact size. i can carry it around all day and it doesn' t bother me. if you' ve ever carried a 10 pound rifle around all day you' ll appreciate a 7-7.5 lbs package with scope!
2. the 260 is a great cartridge! no recoil, very accurate caliber in my mountain rifle (1/2 inch groups at 100yards), enough energy at 500 yards to kill a deer, short action is great too!
3. the 6.5 bullets have awesome sectional density and ballistic coefficients.

aside from getting a custom rifle i think the mountain rifle or the model 7 are hard to beat. you might consider velocity loss from a 20 inch barrel on a model 7 (i think that' s what they have) though. light weight, compact size, accurate (mine is), a dandy to carry around all day and the 260 rem is the perfect cartridge to complement a setup like this. i have a vx-ii 3-9x40 leupold on my scope and this is just about as perfect a set up as i could ask for from a deer hunting rifle. i would also like to add that i won' t hesitate to take this set up out for spring bear this spring. my friend used a 260 to shoot a nice bear last fall. bigger cartridges have their place of course and there are better choices for hunting moose but if shots are kept within reasonable distances (i' d say out to 200 yards) i wouldn' t think twice about shooting a moose with the 260. load up some barnes x bullets and you got yourself one dead moose!

i' m not saying everyone should sell their 7 rem mags and 300 win mags and go buy 260 rems and go moose hunting with them but the 260 will do the job on a moose too.
i' m buying a 300 ultra mag sendero sf this summer specifically for moose but my 260 will be my backup rifle btw there are many people that use a 260 AI for shooting 1000 yard matches. load some 139gr lapua scener bullets (.615 BC!) up and you got yourself one awesome long range gun that you can shoot all day long and it won' t kill your shoulder or your barrel.

cheers