6.5 PRC action length

[Kspence49]

I want to build a 6.5 prc and am having trouble settling on an action length. I’m wanting to shoot the 156 Bergers and I see a lot of people recommending the medium actions, but I’m not seeing any evidence of a performance difference on a short vs medium action. I’m seeing numbers in the 2950-3050fps range on a short action with powders such as n570 or rl26 with single digit SDs and sub half MOA groups and haven’t seen anyone say that a medium got them any faster. Seems the little bit of powder increase you get is offset by the lower case pressure when you seat the bullet further out. What’s the draw to a medium action other than it just “feeling right”? Is there anyone who is getting appreciably better performance out of their medium vs a short?

 

[B23]

Not that there will be a big difference in them but it'll have some affect on which short action you're comparing them with. I think just about all the newer custom short actions are cut to accept a 3.00 mag box and some even for the 3.1 Baney box so if we compare a 6.5PRC w/156 in a setup like that to a medium action there's going to be next to no difference, but, if you compare a medium to some of the factory short actions that have a much shorter allowable COAL then the velocity difference/s will be greater.

For a non custom action build using a Tikka with 7 PRC, 7 Rem mag or 300 Win magazines would make for a nice budget build with lots of aftermarket support.