I am still toying with building a Swift. I was thinking one option would be to guy a beat up old Remington and using the action, getting it trued, sleeved etc. But there doesn't seem to be many beat up old short actions, but I see a lot of long actions. Any pros and cons of using long action vs. short?

A long aaction allows you to seat longer bullets.
I have a 257 Roberts AI on a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight made before they offered a short action.
I prefer it to the short action because I can seat bullets that are made for the caliber, not the short stubby bullets.

-Spencer

The longer magazine is not really an advantage with the Swift, since its LOA, even with heavy bullets, can easily be accomodated in a short 700. On the other hand, the long magazine is no real disadvantage, either, assuming that the inch or so difference in the overall length of the finished rifle is not an issue for you.

I'm sure that some people will argue that the short 700 is "stiffer" than the long action. If you're going to sleeve it, anyway, I don't see this as an issue. A long action Swift will be a few ounces heavier and a tad longer, but if it's a bench/varmint gun, I can't see this makes much difference.

I always wind up feeding the swift and .22-250 single shot anyway.....it's not really an issue IMO

Will there be any feeding problems though using a long action? According to my manuals the case length is longer than a 308 but shorter than a 30'06, so I wonder what action length most manufacturers use when they build one factory? I am assuming it barely fits in a short. If I am not mistaken, a 308 bolt face would work. I am thinking of buying a new ADL in 243 or 308 then scrapping everything but the action. I have seen ADL's for $325 on sale. That has got to be cheaper than an action alone for some reason.