Medium Actions for hunting
- Thread starter XLR Industries
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
This sounds like a great thing. But are the magazine manufacturers going to start making longer mags to take advantage of this benefit? (Assuming you use an external mag.)As long-range shooters become more popular every year, we are seeing higher BC bullets progress for every caliber. With this progression, we have seen calibers become very limited due to magazines' internal length. Action manufacturers see this issue becoming more prevalent and have started producing Medium length actions. Medium action magazines allow you to seat bullets out to 3.255" vs short actions only allow for 2.890". This is super beneficial for most of the Saum, WSM, and 6.5 PRC cartridges! Defiance and Lone peak were the pioneers with these actions but companies like Zermatt and Stiller are jumping on the bandwagon because they see the huge potential of these actions! What are your thoughts on the medium actions and will this allow bullet manufacturers to go even longer with bullets?
See the full article below!
Medium Length Actions
Discover how Medium Length Actions have enhanced COAL and BC, revolutionizing precision shooting and ballistics. Find out what action, caliber, or chassis might work best for you!xlrindustries.com
Railguner
Active Member
Short and Long only....unless he has something in the works I don't know about.
The question is...does he go Defiance XM or...Hopefully Zermatt/Lone Peak/Stiller
SSgt G Cody
Well-Known Member
A LA is only 3-4 oz. heavier than a SA usually, so why not go LA for everything except the extremely short cartridges? Just be sure action and receiver are strong and rigid.
For me its: 308 size chamberings...short action, anything longer gets the long action. No problems worrying about fitment for receiver or bottom metal. Plenty of options.
.300 Dakota
Well-Known Member
Me and a buddy were both faced with this dilemma in the past 2 or 3 months. He's building a 7mm SAUM, and me a 6.5mm SAUM. He opted for the Defiance XM length you're referring to with BDL bottom metal, while I opted for a full long action in the ARC Nucleus. So you had 2 informed shooters looking at the same picture and deciding on 2 completely different paths. Here's why:As long-range shooters become more popular every year, we are seeing higher BC bullets progress for every caliber. With this progression, we have seen calibers become very limited due to magazines' internal length. Action manufacturers see this issue becoming more prevalent and have started producing Medium length actions. Medium action magazines allow you to seat bullets out to 3.255" vs short actions only allow for 2.890". This is super beneficial for most of the Saum, WSM, and 6.5 PRC cartridges! Defiance and Lone peak were the pioneers with these actions but companies like Zermatt and Stiller are jumping on the bandwagon because they see the huge potential of these actions! What are your thoughts on the medium actions and will this allow bullet manufacturers to go even longer with bullets?
See the full article below!
Medium Length Actions
Discover how Medium Length Actions have enhanced COAL and BC, revolutionizing precision shooting and ballistics. Find out what action, caliber, or chassis might work best for you!
He is building a 1 and done, be-all, end-all hunting rifle for super long beanfield shots in the Mississippi Delta, and a planned Western elk hunt in the near future. That's going to be his 1 gun for everything. He's going to make loads with bullets from about 160 grains up to 180 (not the 195s). He's installed a 9 twist Bartlein carbon fiber barrel @26". He is being very meticulous about every aspect of the project, including his trigger and Manners stock. He wants everything ultra precise to exactly what he's trying to do.
My rifle is going to be used strictly for whitetail and mule deer between South Carolina and Nebraska and anywhere in between. I'm mainly going to run bullets in the 120 - 140gr range. I am having my chamber throated for 130gr Game Changers and 140gr VLDs (about the same overall length). The 140 grain Ballistic Tip will be about the longest ogive bullet I plan to shoot, BUT I won't rule out the possibility of trying a 156gr Oryx since I can't get any of my beloved 160gr Woodleighs. I will try some of the newer copper bullets, as well, which are longer than normal for weight. My dummy rounds were 3.090" OAL (both of them). Too long for a short action. Not nearly long enough to justify the 3.715" Accurate Mag DBM I'm running, but I like tinkering and changing things. May have to shim the magazines. This system will allow me to switch barrels to a long action magnum cartridge when I get the itch. Here's the thing: I've had a SAUM before. A Model 7 Magnum to be exact. I had it jam due to sharp shoulder angle the one time I had to have a fast follow up shot. My buddy was warned about this using the Defiance push-feed action. He talked about it with his smith and decided they could probably modify the feed rails enough to fix the problem, but it's ultimately why he didn't go with a Sherman 40-degree offering. I chose to overcome this by employing a CRF action. I had to go either short or long. Having shot the 7 and about 4 different .300 SAUMs I remember the frustration with stuffing longer bullets deep in the case and ending up with standard .280 Remington velocity at best. WSMs are even worse in a short action because they're longer to start with. Now if I was going to strictly hunt in fairly close cover, I could get a short action and run 120gr Hornady CXs or Barnes TTSX, or a similar Hammer bullet and whallop deer out to 3 or 400 yards without worrying about bullet drop necessitating a longer bullet. So it is, in fact, possible to run a short mag in a short action without issue.
I do think this latter scenario is an overwhelming minority. Why limit your tools when you can add more capability for the same money just as easily.
Incidently, I chose to run a 26" fluted stainless Bartlein 1:8 in a McMillan Game Warden stock. My stock weighs 27 ounces, and the Accurate Mag bottom metal is REALLY light. The gun will be decidedly top heavy with the 3B contour. Then I'm adding a Quiet radial brake by Gentry, which is fairly light, but will add an ounce or so to the end. I don't mind a top heavy rifle, because I tend to shoot it a little better off hand.
So we each chose 2 different action lengths, but neither us chose short. Pretty soon, the only short actions will be designed around .473" or smaller bolt faces, most likely.
Chris Montana
Member
I'm a fan of the long action. Where I hunt it's cold, wet, dark and I like to be able to get my fingers into the action to unload, reload, clear jams, put a different load in the first position... and the short action is too short. What are we talking about, a few ounces? I'll endure it. I'll take a 30/06 over a .308 any day.
.300 Dakota
Well-Known Member
I ran a .308 Match chamber in a long action and loved it. There is something mythical about the idea that you're saving maybe 3 or 4 hundredths of a second in extra time it takes to work a long action vs a short, and the 2 or 3 ounces of weight savings. I LOVE my short actions, and have more of them than long, and I'm not saying I'll never use a short action for a dedicated hunting rifle ever again, because that's simply not true. But for the cartridge family in question (short magnums and kin), if I have any say so over the throat length that's cut, I'll require a medium or long action. The long offers more possibilities; especially if I think I might want to change cartridges with a barrel swap.
I have some 7x61 S&H brass I want to use one day, so I can see my 6.5 SAUM barrel being changed out at some point. The S&H is much shorter than a long action cartridge, but significantly longer than a SAUM. I will be glad I have the long action if I make that move.
