6.5PRC, 6.8 Western, 7SAUM

ObiJohn said:

I think the 7 PRC requires a medium or long action, right? Unlike the 6.5 PRC or 6.8 Western.

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What is a medium action? As far as I know (and I may be corrected if I am not up to date and wrong, won't be the first time and certainly won't be the last. ) there are only two actual length actions, short, as in 308 length, or long as in 30-06 and magnum actions.

Teri Anne said:

What is a medium action? As far as I know (and I may be corrected if I am not up to date and wrong, won't be the first time and certainly won't be the last. ) there are only two actual length actions, short, as in 308 length, or long as in 30-06 and magnum actions.

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Info from Defiance's site, a medium action has a 3.200" box

MostlyUselessLurker said:

Info from Defiance's site, a medium action has a 3.200" box

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OK, now we are talking about the length of the magazine, not the action. As far as I know there is a short action, which seems to be everyone's favorite these days for one reason or another. New cartridges are designed to be short and fat. Reasoning seems to be to cut the weight of the rifle and the time it takes to cycle the action for a second shot. Well, the weight savings are in ounces, not pounds and the cycle time difference is in microseconds for an experienced shooter. All in all the quest for short fat cartridges, to me, and maybe me only, seems to be a waste of time.

Teri Anne said:

OK, now we are talking about the length of the magazine, not the action. As far as I know there is a short action, which seems to be everyone's favorite these days for one reason or another. New cartridges are designed to be short and fat. Reasoning seems to be to cut the weight of the rifle and the time it takes to cycle the action for a second shot. Well, the weight savings are in ounces, not pounds and the cycle time difference is in microseconds for an experienced shooter. All in all the quest for short fat cartridges, to me, and maybe me only, seems to be a waste of time.

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It's a medium length action, longer than a Remington short action and shorter than a Remington long action.

Teri Anne said:

OK, now we are talking about the length of the magazine, not the action. As far as I know there is a short action, which seems to be everyone's favorite these days for one reason or another. New cartridges are designed to be short and fat. Reasoning seems to be to cut the weight of the rifle and the time it takes to cycle the action for a second shot. Well, the weight savings are in ounces, not pounds and the cycle time difference is in microseconds for an experienced shooter. All in all the quest for short fat cartridges, to me, and maybe me only, seems to be a waste of time.

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It is my understanding that a short action will feed up to about 2.980" COAL. A medium action will feed 3.200" COAL. Long action will handle up to 4.00" COAL depending on what magazines are run for each.

Again we are talking magazine length since short and long actions are pretty much standard. What rifle has an action that is classed, "Medium?"

Here is as good an explanation that I could find.

Teri Anne said:

Again we are talking magazine length since short and long actions are pretty much standard. What rifle has an action that is classed, "Medium?"

Here is as good an explanation that I could find.

Long Action vs. Short Action - Telling the Difference - RIFLE BASIX

We'll breakdown the important information that will allow you to understand the difference between long and short actions, which rifles, or calibers fall into each category, and the benefits one offers over the other.

riflebasix.com

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Again, it's an action length, Defiance calls it intermediate length. I've got a 7 SAUM built on one.

From Defiance:
Actions available in Short (Rem. Short Action), XM (Defiance proprietary intermediate length), Medium (Previously called XM Plus), and Long (Rem. Long Action) lengths to accommodate most popular cartridges

Lone Peak makes them too:

Teri Anne said:

Again we are talking magazine length since short and long actions are pretty much standard. What rifle has an action that is classed, "Medium?"

Here is as good an explanation that I could find.

Long Action vs. Short Action - Telling the Difference - RIFLE BASIX

We'll breakdown the important information that will allow you to understand the difference between long and short actions, which rifles, or calibers fall into each category, and the benefits one offers over the other.

riflebasix.com

Click to expand...

It's a custom action. It's longer than a short action and shorter than a long action. A short action bottom metal has different action screw spacing than a medium. Same for a medium having shorter action screw spacing than a long. I believe you have said before that you only use off the shelf factory rifles. If this is the case, you won't be buying one that I'm aware of.

7 SAUM. Reach out to Paul at NorthAmericanAmmunitionCompany. He can set you up with ammo.

As per this post, there used to be short, long/standard, and magnum actions. Then there were magnum cartridges that fit in a standard action which were lighter, cheaper, and more common - 338 WM, 300 WM, 7 RM. With time, true magnum actions became less common and more expensive due to economy of scale etc. Then there were short action cartridges that fit in a short action, but to use the longest, most aerodynamic bullets needed an action longer than a short action - hence the medium action or building short action cartridges in a long actions so you don't have to single feed - 6.5-284, 7 SAUM, 6.5 PRC.

Then Hornady said - screw the arbitrary standards action lengths that rifle makes have developed. Let's take some inspiration from what handloaders have been doing and standardize it. We can get some performance advantages if we build cartridges longer than typical for a short action - 2.955 vs 2.82 and a magnum action 3.7 vs 3.6". I can't remember the details of the long/standard action of the top of my head - 3.34 I think.

In many cases the actions themselves were long enough to accommodate the cartridges but the magazines needed to be lengthened. Simply asking if it is a short, medium, long, or magnum action is no longer enough. You should also clarify what COL it will accommodate to ensure the cartridge you want to build around will work in the action and magazine/magazine box you are purchasing.

Confusing, isn't it?

I have a 6.5 PRC currently and I'm planning to build a 7 SAUM this time around. The 6.8 Western is a super close comparable (definitely some cool factor). I hunt deer and elk here in Montana and those rounds just offer a little more oomph to reach out for that harder elk shot when you need it. I do like the light recoil of the 6.5 PRC (a lot) but I had a couple potential shots on elk this year that I definitely would have preferred the 7 SAUM/6.8 W for instead of the 6.5 PRC. It gives you just a little bit more range and energy. They all shoot pretty flat which is good. If I didn't also hunt elk I'd rebarrel my 6.5 PRC with another. And I wouldn't get another but my PRC is getting close to the end of life. It is an awesome cartridge.

Whatever lets you practice and get confident in your shot gets my vote. Have fun and good luck!

I went with 6.5 prc and I'm happy with it, but I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. I enjoy the light recoil for watching shots even when shooting from odd positions, and it has plenty of power to take anything. No problems with elk, deer, or antelope so far for me. In fact I might be building a 22 creed or 6 creed in the near future.