I'm interested in having a .257 Roberts built or a 6mm Remington.Do I need to use a long or short action?

My factory 6mm Rem is on a short action. A model 660 in fact. Since these two cartridges look the same in length I'll bet they both will function in a standard short action.

While both of these cartridges will fit into a short action,if you want to get the most out of them (and assuming you're a handloader) either an intermediate (mauser or ultralight arms, or the new MRC short action) action or a reworked short action would better suit the cartridges. This would allow for a slightly longer COL, which makes quite a bit of differance in these two. - Dan

Either will function in a short action (Rem 722, Rem 700, Sako L579, Ruger 77, etc.), but you will be limited in bullet seating depth in order to still fit in the magazine, especially with heavier bullets in the .257 Roberts. Ordinarily, most bullets for the 6mm Remington (.244) will seat out far enough in a 2.75" (or so) magazine.

The "short" Winchester Model 70 has a bit longer magazine and is a nice match for either cartridge, as are the "short" military Mausers. I once had a .257 built on a German commercial short Mauser and had no trouble seating 117 grain Sierra boattails and Nosler Partitions (about the longest bullets available at that time) out as far as desired and still fit the magazine.

If you want a compact gun, use a short action. If you want maximum performance, you would use a long action, in which case you might as well chamber for a .25-06; so go with the short action and live with the slight compromise of deeper bullet seating.

I was just reading in "Handloader" that the difference in the Roberts in a short and long action doesn't amount to much change in capacity and thus, velocity. I have a short action ADL in 257 Roberts. Still working up loads for it. I also have a 25-06 if I want more velocity.

Bob257

For my purposes, the 6mm Rem requires a long action. In fact, I've just moved my 6mm barrel from a short action 700 to a long action. My standard load (105 A-Max seated to 3.020") won't fit in a short action mag.

This is purely a target rig and the long action allows me to shoot 105's, VLDs, or anything else from the magazine rather than single loading so I don't have to compromise by using shorter bullets at 200, 300 where you need a mag-length round. Simplifies the ammo situation, too. One load.

The 6 Rem is a spectacular cartridge, especially in a 1-8" barrel!

Redial

IMHO, the best "commonly avaliable" bolt action for a 6mm or 257 Roberts is the short Model 70, either push feed or controlled feed.They have a mag box of about 3.10" with the rear block removed.I've had two Remingtons in 257 Roberts and two in 6mm(a 700 and a 722 in both)and the mag boxes will not let you seat near the lands and still fit the magazine.However some will shooot just fine with a jump to the rifling.Kinda like a Weatherby free-bored chamber I guess.Hey , "redial", I have a long stainless 700 here in 270 that I don't need and I feel the need for a longer range varmint gun than my 22-250. How does your 6mm feed in the long action? I've seen a 22-250 in a long action 700 but it looked pretty lost in that 3.70" mag box.The guy said it fed fine.

[ 01-15-2003, 07:55: Message edited by: rembo ]

Thanks guys.I'm going to go with along action.

rembo, the long actions feed the short rounds just fine in my experience. The long action rifle the 6mm barrel is going on was a .308 for the last several thousand rounds. Nary a hiccup. I loaded from strippers, to the back wall of the mag and it fed like it was original equipment.

The .22-250 is somewhat shorter has a bit more case taper so you may get rounds "diving" downward as they near the chamber, but I've never tried it so I can only speculate. I wouldn't hestitate to swap out your .270 barrel with a 6mm Rem though.

Cheers

Redial