Long action vs short action? What's the difference?

[Dredly]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the Long and Short action typically refer to how far back the bolt will travel, this allowing or eliminating certain rounds from being fired.

For example my dad has a 760 pump which has a much shorter action then my Savage M77, both are in .30-06, both will shoot .30-06 ammo however due to the shorter action on my dad's 760 he cannot shoot some longer rounds as the gun doesn't allow enough clearance for the round to exit the magazine and enter the breach.

I think the standard is "long action", however I've come across of lot of kid guns and female guns that are "short action" as its less distance the bolt has to travel

[Tomcat088]

Originally Posted by Qtrborecrazy

Tomcat
Let me get this right, if I own a 270wsm (short action) I can shoot that 270wsm in a 270 win long action? Reading your second post thats what it sounds like. If I`m reading it wrong so sorry.

Qtrborecrazy

Lol, apparently I didn't quite make it clear when I mentioned caliber/cartridge. You could not shoot your 270 WSM in a barrel that was chambered for the normal .270 winchester. The cartridge would not fit in the barrel because of the different chamber dimensions. What I'm speaking of, is when you're building a rifle, from say a donor action. You can build a .270 WSM on a long action from say a .270. To be honest, I'm not sure what the bolt face dimensions are on the .270 WSM, but I'm pretty sure you have to have a different bolt face, but the action would work. Then you would just need a barrel that is chambered for the .270 WSM to put on that long action, so that you could shoot .270 WSM from it.

Take for example my rifle that I'm currently building and almost finished up on (hopefully the stock is correct this time). The original rifle was a 7mm magnum, Remington 700; meaning it was a long action with a magnum bolt face. I am building a .300 WSM, which also requires a magnum bolt face, but is a short action caliber. The barrel that I bought from Krieger is chambered for .300 WSM and has a .30 caliber hole in the barrel. Normally on a .300 WSM, you could only load bullets to a certain length before they wouldn't fit in the magazine, because the .300 WSM is usually built on a short action. I built my .300 WSM on a long action so that I would have as much length as I needed to seat the bullets into the lands of the barrel, which is usually longer than the magazine length of a short action. This means that I can shoot very long bullets without any problems, and it will feed more reliably as well because of the shallower feed angle. The longer bullets like the 208 grain Amax, 190 and 210 grain Berger VLD bullets like to be seated into the lands, that's how they shoot best. By using the long action, I can do this without any problems or complications. Does that make a little more sense now?

[Qtrborecrazy]

Tomcat
Now I understand, you were talking about building a rig. The way your second post sounded was that you could fire any let say 270 in either rifle. The only gun I know of that you can shot long or shorts is a 22. I know the difference, I just didn`t want some new person to the shooting sports getting it wrong. How are you going to shortin the well to handle the shorter round? Keep us posted on your project. I have a Weatherby Vangaurd Sub MOA in 270wsm. IT shoots as good as I can, some days real good and other days it fails or I mean I fail. Worth every penny I paid.

Qtrborecrazy

[Tomcat088]

I figured that you did understand the difference just from other posts that I've seen you made. Glad that I could clarify and make the point a little better understood. I actually don't have to shorten the magazine to feed them. I might take just a little off of the front of the feed lips so it can start out of the magazine just a bit earlier, but it should actually feed with the original feed lips. The action, barrel, trigger, everything is all done currently, I just haven't had time to post pics of it. There were stock problems, so that's getting resolved and I'm in the process of doing that, and then she'll be good to go. I'll just lap the scope rings, set it on, and good to go.

[Qtrborecrazy]

Tomcat
Thanks for the info, sounds like a great rig. Building it for any special purpose like hunting, match or just plain ole day out at the range?

Qtrborecrazy

[knight0334]

Originally Posted by Qtrborecrazy

Tomcat
Let me get this right, if I own a 270wsm (short action) I can shoot that 270wsm in a 270 win long action? Reading your second post thats what it sounds like. If I`m reading it wrong so sorry.

Qtrborecrazy

Here is the skinny on action lengths..


Short action cartridges(WSM, WSSM, 308 length, etc) can cycle in a long action gun. But you cant shoot them in it unless the gun is chambered for it.

=========

Long actions are for the typical 25-06, 270, 280, 30-06, 35 whelen length cartridges - or lessor length.

Short action guns can cycle 17rem, 223, 243, 260, 308, etc length cartridges - or lessor length.

Magnum actions can cycle longer cartridges like the Weatherby mags, full length magnums, H&H magnums -or lessor length cartridges.

[Tomcat088]

Originally Posted by Qtrborecrazy

Tomcat
Thanks for the info, sounds like a great rig. Building it for any special purpose like hunting, match or just plain ole day out at the range?

Qtrborecrazy

Well, I have a few rifles that are stock rifles that have been slightly modified, that can go to 1K. My father has some pretty expensive rifles that were made for that, but they're not mine, they're his, I just get to shoot them. I decided that I wanted to build my own custom rifle, that was the way I wanted it. So that's where this came from. I've never shot any matches, although eventually I may one day see what I can do. I mostly hunt, but I just wanted to build a rifle that I could take out to 1K consistently, hunt with, or just mess around with.

[Qtrborecrazy]

Tomcat
Have fun hitting the 10 ring. My next rifle is going to be a 300wsm. I love to hunt so I got my eye on a Remington model seven camo.

Qtrborecrazy