Short action rounds in a long action

[JamesT750]

Okay so I'm getting close to starting my first custom bolt gun and I had a bit of a crazy idea(i think I might be crazy at least). The gun I want to build is a 6.5cm in an MPA chassis with a bighorn TL3 action and a WTO switchlug.
Now with the ability to eventually switch barrels and calibers quickly, I had the idea of using a long action which would open up the possibility of eventually getting a 300wm barrel or any long action caliber barrel made. Now my main question is if a short action round would reliably feed in a long action? Maybe even single feeding a .233?
If it does "work" how much modification would need to be be done to the mags? Feed lips? Spacer block?

I did ask the gunsmith I'm going to use and he said would not recommend it because of possible feeding issues but I want to ask here as a second opinion.

Thanks in advance guys

 

[WildRose]

It is the diameter of the round that will determine if it feeds properly or not rather than the length.

Lot's of guys building customs for a traditional short action on LA receivers just so they can seat bullets way out and with longer and longer bullets coming out this will become more rather than less common.

If anything you'll have to change out spring followers to ensure proper feeding since they two are designed to work off of diameter rather than length.

The only likely feeding issue you'll have would be short stroking the bolt and thus failing to get the next round started properly.

 

[dok7mm]

Okay so I'm getting close to starting my first custom bolt gun and I had a bit of a crazy idea(i think I might be crazy at least). The gun I want to build is a 6.5cm in an MPA chassis with a bighorn TL3 action and a WTO switchlug.
Now with the ability to eventually switch barrels and calibers quickly, I had the idea of using a long action which would open up the possibility of eventually getting a 300wm barrel or any long action caliber barrel made. Now my main question is if a short action round would reliably feed in a long action? Maybe even single feeding a .233?
If it does "work" how much modification would need to be be done to the mags? Feed lips? Spacer block?

I did ask the gunsmith I'm going to use and he said would not recommend it because of possible feeding issues but I want to ask here as a second opinion.

Thanks in advance guys

Should work just fine, but as WildRose said, sometimes you have to tweak components a bit to get things to feed correctly. I have several 6.5-284s, all are built on long actions. If Clayton is building it, he will make sure everything works smoothly.

Good idea on the SwitchLug, but remember you are limited to one boltface on choice of calibers, unless you buy another bolt. He is presently adding two barrels to my 6.5 Sherman.

 

[JamesT750]

Good idea on the SwitchLug, but remember you are limited to one boltface on choice of calibers, unless you buy another bolt. He is presently adding two barrels to my 6.5 Sherman.

Thanks for the info. I'm not using WTO build the gun but rather MPA, MPA was just a little better priced for the same gun.
What really got me thinking about this is that the Bighorn TL3 has changeable bolt heads.

 

[JDD]

I

Thanks for the info. I'm not using WTO build the gun but rather MPA, MPA was just a little better priced for the same gun.
What really got me thinking about this is that the Bighorn TL3 has changeable bolt heads.

I did a 260 on a 3006 action ran a bunch of rounds through it , just getting ready run a 6,5 280 ai to clean up the throat and giver her a little more life

 

[JamesT750]

I

I did a 260 on a 3006 action ran a bunch of rounds through it , just getting ready run a 6,5 280 ai to clean up the throat and giver her a little more life

So pretty much from what I have gathered for here and a little more research I shouldn't have any problem at all out side of some minor feed lip modifications

 

[WildRose]

Probably a spring follower as well.

 

[Greyfox]

It won't be a problem. For heavy recoiling rounds you just want to make sure that the shorter rounds don't bang into the front of the magazine. Order a feed lip adjuster tool from MPA since you may have to tune the magazine. You might want to take a look at the Accurate Mag site. They make excellent magazines, some which have a front filler that avoids the issue mentioned. Also, the tech support over there are very good at advising what magazine works best for a given cartridge.

https://037408e.netsolstores.com/magazines.aspx
.

 

[JDD]

So pretty much from what I have gathered for here and a little more research I shouldn't have any problem at all out side of some minor feed lip modifications

If you say in the same case family you should have no problems. Get a spare magazine box or better. Yet a single stack dm set up

 

[JamesT750]

If you say in the same case family you should have no problems. Get a spare magazine box or better. Yet a single stack dm set up

What to you mean by "dm" setup?

 

[Rich Coyle]

Short in a long? Isn't that way Savage made short cartridge rifles for years?

 

[WildRose]

What to you mean by "dm" setup?

Detachable box magazine.

 

[JDD]

What to you mean by "dm" setup?

detachable magazine. pacific cool and grinding PTG is a good source, so is HS precision

 

[JamesT750]

detachable magazine. pacific cool and grinding PTG is a good source, so is HS precision

Oh I got ya.