Thread: Rem 700 SA VS LA

There has been a bit more chatter lately about running SA instead of LA to save weight.

I had a weigh up this arvo.....

These are only Remingtons but are a fair representation of a commonly used action for a custom build.

Both SA & LA with standard action, bolt, BTM metal, follower, spring, mag box & same brand alloy rail.

There is only 7/8", 22.22mm difference in length.

Here are the pics.

Rem 700 Short action.



Rem 700 Long action.



As you can see from the pics with those two actions there is a whole 85 grams in it.

The first time I weighed them I used a diffrent SA & the difference was 95 grams ......

Still not much no matter how you cut it.......

The McMillan stocks I have weighed in the past have been basically the same or the LA was lighter due to more stock material being removed...

Is it really worth the hassle of running a short/compromised round in a SA to save that much weight....

What is all the fuss about ????

hmm food for thaught.

do remember that you're overall length will be longer with the same barrel length obviously with the LA, so essentially you get a longer barrel for nothing on the SA and the weight is further back toward you

Originally Posted by Bill999

hmm food for thaught.

do remember that you're overall length will be longer with the same barrel length obviously with the LA, so essentially you get a longer barrel for nothing on the SA and the weight is further back toward you

Yep absolutely a whole 7/8", 22.22 mm......

Do guys get upset about putting a suppressor on.........weight & length......

Welcome to custom rifles, a world of people getting really worked up about totally academic differences?

Greig, good shit!! very informative.

All depends what you want.................
Short actions for short action cases have shorter tubes so are way better ballanced an feel to hunt with with
long actions are good also for the bigger cases that need them SAUM WSM etc to me waste of space after doing it myself few time no benifits to doing so, even seated right out still have space wasted space to burn in a LA when can feed 3.2" OAL from short with mods instead of having 10mm+ gap to spare

Ballance of a hunting rifle is important, long actions, heavy tubes, light stocks are good combo for muzzle heavy heap of shit that spins on your shoulder when in sling since it wants wants to lie flat, get caught up in the scrum when bush bashing through an after awhile you just want to leave it there. thats at extream end tho, Say a edge stock, rem700 L/A, 26'' an up tube in number 5 an up an you have that combo decribed

Go to a short action, egde stock,700 S/A, 24-25" number 3 an you have a very well ballance hunting rifle that will do the all round well enough to take game out to 1000m an sort out stuff fast an easy in the bush also

Its all a compromise an personal choice at end of day, thers always options or ways around weight.
What has brought all this weigh up on?

So a short vs long action is 90 gram average and around one inch difference in barrel length for same overall finished length
. No.real world difference. A bit like the fact most people have one foot longer than the other (slightly) yet what difference does it make or what difference is.noticed when variables underfoot exceed the influence the difference.has? I.e in shooting and hunting natural.variables make the argument pointless or you go for the simple option of if you have a rifle with a finished length one inch longer than a sa equivalent you just hunt somewhere where the scrub grows one inch higher from the ground.....
The difference is pointless

Then why do short actions exist? And why have short mags become so popular?

The convenience of reloading with a shorter bolt would be more advantage for faster follow up shot. Marketting is a funny thing also...people still buy mcdonalds...

We are always searching for that little bit of improvement I guess. And I'll take a inch shorter rifle any day of the week. The short mags also have more barrel length from the case not being so far down the barrel, so effectively a short mag will have 2" more barrel at the same overall length as a long action.

The Browning A Bolt with short action and 60% bolt lift is not to be sneezed at least in 223.That dude in Nelson's cartridges weigh more than a short action anyway.

I watched a few short action's on our feild shoot choke up more than a few times,prove's your point about marketing Hori.

Hunters would be one of the easiest groups to market to i reckon "what would.you do if you were too slow with a follow up shot to.put that once in a lifetime stag on the ground for keeps and it was lost in the bush?"(or something of similar effect) Is a popular phrase....
Bit like upselling people with lifejackets "how much do you value your families safety?" Etc

To add
I think short actions are an advantage in lower recoiling calibers where disruption from recoil is less making faster reloading for fast follow up more of an advantage for typical shooters (although experienced people can do this with higher recoiling calibres) the advantages are over professed at times and advantage for.real world general.shooting hunting would be extremely hard to qualify/quantify in a way to.convince a realist as myself.

A real advantage would be electric ignition allowing ammo to be stacked in the barrel and fired consecutivley as i saw on one of those modern weapon programes but then we would argue about variation of time in barrel between first and last shots ....

You have the best of both worlds with your rifles there horihunter... A short actioned long action... A.k.a. Tikka T3...

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Originally Posted by The Claw

You have the best of both worlds with your rifles there horihunter... A short actioned long action... A.k.a. Tikka T3...

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Didnt i hear or a 7mm saum on a tikka action recently Claw?