Why the Savage short action makes sense

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Newtosavage

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I want to like Remington 700's. I really do. BUT...

When you limit the magazine length to 2.80" and the distance to the lands is more like 2.95" - how can you expect handloaders to be happy?

Aside from their simplicity and inherent accuracy, the thing that keeps me coming back to Savage rifles is the intelligent design of offering a full 3.00" magazine in their short actions. That allows me to seat my 7mm-08 and .308 hand loads right to the lands if I want, and still feed from the factory magazine.

I'm wondering what other "short action" rifles do this besides the Savage?
 
If you properly chamber and throat a barrel it shouldn't make a difference.

My Savage .223 bolt has such a long throat I'm lucky they provide a long magazine. It's kinda of iffy though with the bullets sticking that far out of a 223 case.
 
I’ve noticed that Montana Rifle Company offers some traditionally long-action chamberings in their short actions (e.g 7x57). Tikka is known for only using one action length. I would think most Euro manufacturers would have longer short actions since their basic rounds are the 6.5x55 or 7x57.
 
There are magazines 700s and other that get coal to near 3" atleast.

Mrc lists 3.125 as their short action mag length.
Mausers came in an intermediate action length.
Arisakas have a 3.1" mag box
....i cant remember anymore right now
 
ford8nr said:
If you properly chamber and throat a barrel it shouldn't make a difference.

My Savage .223 bolt has such a long throat I'm lucky they provide a long magazine. It's kinda of iffy though with the bullets sticking that far out of a 223 case.
Click to expand...
some folks would argue a long throat is "proper" or at least - what they desire.
 
Newtosavage said:
I want to like Remington 700's. I really do. BUT...

When you limit the magazine length to 2.80" and the distance to the lands is more like 2.95" - how can you expect handloaders to be happy?

Aside from their simplicity and inherent accuracy, the thing that keeps me coming back to Savage rifles is the intelligent design of offering a full 3.00" magazine in their short actions. That allows me to seat my 7mm-08 and .308 hand loads right to the lands if I want, and still feed from the factory magazine.

I'm wondering what other "short action" rifles do this besides the Savage?
Click to expand...
I think it is perfect for 6mm Rem. What about a 7.5 Swiss?
 
Good point - and some custom makers like Defiance Machine make intermediate length actions too - if you want the lightest and stiffest 7x57, 6.5x55, 6.5-.284, etc. with really long bullets.
 
For quite a while, I wondered if I could squeeze a short-throated 7x57 into my short action Savage model 10. I still haven't given up on the idea. :D
 
Newtosavage said:
I want to like Remington 700's. I really do. BUT...

When you limit the magazine length to 2.80" and the distance to the lands is more like 2.95" - how can you expect handloaders to be happy?

Aside from their simplicity and inherent accuracy, the thing that keeps me coming back to Savage rifles is the intelligent design of offering a full 3.00" magazine in their short actions. That allows me to seat my 7mm-08 and .308 hand loads right to the lands if I want, and still feed from the factory magazine.

I'm wondering what other "short action" rifles do this besides the Savage?
Click to expand...

Are you talking all Savages or just the 10/110, 11/111 and 16/116 models? Cuz the Axis models are all long action receivers.
 
You can, and it would work fine especially if you stuck with shorter mid weight hunting type bullets.
Get a slower twist barrel and youll never need to worry what a 162+vld will do:p
 
I've not bothered to measure mag lengths, but based entirely on the distance between the front and rear receiver bridges a 700 short action has the least space of any other short action I've encountered. A Savage, long or short action, the most. All other manufacturers are somewhere in between. Interestingly, a Remington 7 has a shorter action than a SA 700. But the ring spacing is longer due to the receiver bridge being cut down. Not sure about mag length, but wouldn't be surprised if it weren't longer. That may be why Remington offered their short action magnums in the 7 instead of 700. Just a guess, I don't know.

The longer mag box is at least partly why the Army chose to build their 308 sniper rifles on long action 700 actions.
 
jmr40, the first time I handled a SA 700, I was like wow - how am I supposed to fit a .308 round in there? LOL I had no idea they were that short.
 
jmr40 said:
I've not bothered to measure mag lengths, but based entirely on the distance between the front and rear receiver bridges a 700 short action has the least space of any other short action I've encountered. A Savage, long or short action, the most. All other manufacturers are somewhere in between. Interestingly, a Remington 7 has a shorter action than a SA 700. But the ring spacing is longer due to the receiver bridge being cut down. Not sure about mag length, but wouldn't be surprised if it weren't longer. That may be why Remington offered their short action magnums in the 7 instead of 700. Just a guess, I don't know.

The longer mag box is at least partly why the Army chose to build their 308 sniper rifles on long action 700 actions.
Click to expand...
The model 7s mag length is actually a tad shorter than the standard 700 short actions, they also cannot easily be modified for a longer coal like the 700s can. At least from the measurements i took of my buddies old model 7.
I want to build a family of CM/250 size cartridges on the model 7 at some point.
 
Newtosavage said:
some folks would argue a long throat is "proper" or at least - what they desire.
Click to expand...
What Savage/Barrel? My 12 FV isnt crazy long, particularly with 52 and 53 grain SMK. I have to seat shorter than Sierras recommended 2.250 with the 69 grain SMK, i can go longer than recommended 2.260. How long is "long"?

New gun with no erosion yet.....

Russellc
 
My 11 in .243 was a 2.9some odd and still .1+ off the lands with 95 berger vlds.
The only other savages ive had were long action and both throats were well beyond box length.

Ohihunters axis has a short throat as well. Might just be how savage chambers .223s.
 
Strange. For both my 7mm-08 and .308 barrels, the 3.00" box is very useful as they are 2.94-2.98 to the lands.
 
Maybe you can tell me, what is the max cartridge length that will fit in the newer Savage short action dbm's? I believe these are centerfeed actions
 
Newtosavage said:
Strange. For both my 7mm-08 and .308 barrels, the 3.00" box is very useful as they are 2.94-2.98 to the lands.
Click to expand...
the 95s had to be seated to something like 3.08 to touch the land, and I like to stay at least .05 off the magazine for the off chance of an overly long bullet or something else weird.
this was 8 years ago and they shot like crap at mag length so I dumped all the data i had. My memory may also be off on some of the particulars.
 
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