Benefits of a Long Action for a Short Action chambering

[hardlyworking]

As always thank you guys.

I am never disappointed asking questions here. I think I've got the action choice squared away at this point for a hunting rifle.

Is there a barrel profile and length that will give a balance of weight and velocity I should be looking at? I will be hand loading so I could make use of a longer barrel, but I might not want to for "handiness", the longest barrel I currently own is a 22" shotgun which bagged my first pheasant last weekend. I'm am completely new to hiking with guns.

[MongooseV8]

Barrel length depends a lot on how far you will be hunting and what you intend to shoot at. But most hunters do great with a 22"-24" barrel since most shots are taken at short distances of like 50-150 yards.

Example, this year I shot a 270lb boar with a 16.5" 243 @200+ yards. Velocity suffers greatly in a short barrel in a cartridge like the 243 but perfect shot placement matters more than anything. My step dad hit a sow with a 300wsm but had to hit it a couple times due to bad hits.

So unless you plan to hunt elk or moose at 400+ yards I wouldn't worry too much about getting the longest barrel to squeeze out another 50fps. I prefer shorter barrels since they are a little lighter and much easier to manage in terrain such as we have here in ca. The velocity loss isn't really a concern if you know your equipment and shooting skill limits.

Varmint hunting is another story, those rigs are really long and heavy lol.

[LynnJr]

HardlyWorking
I am old and hate walking so I gave up on beating the brush and chemise years ago in favor of hunting oaks and the coastline. I have never hunted with a barrel shorter than 22 and I have used barrels up to 36 inches.
A happy all around length to my way of thinking is 26 inches.
Here are the pictures showing a shellholder action without any ports at all and a Remington 600 short action chambered in 6mm-06.
I am not a very good photographer but you can see that with the bolt all the way back a loaded round will not eject.
The gun is used for long-range Varmints so the extra bit of time to pull the bolt on a live round doesn't matter. It pulls fired rounds just as well as any rifle.
The last photo shows a BAT L action in 300WSM which is normally used in a short action. By going with the long action I can use a flatbased bullet with the pressure ring way out in front of the neck shoulder junction and use the cases full potential. You can see that the port is long enough to handle a 337/378 Weatherby but it still ejects the diminutive 300WSM without issue.