I have a Santa Barbara action, made in Spain. It
is brand new. Magnum bolt face. Appears to be set up for 300 WM or 7MM Rem mag. My question is would this be an action that would handle the pressure of a 375 Ruger? It appears little or no metal would need to be removed. I know there are better actions out there but I have this one with a stock. Pac-Nor makes the pre-threaded and chambered barrel. I think this would make a decent rifle at the price, but I've never had any experience with SB actions.
Your opinions appreciated.

I have a rifle with a Santa Barbara action. I built it in the early 70's. Barreled it in .220 Swift, shot a truck load of coyotes and a few whitetails with it. Finally shot the barrel out then went to .257 Ackley Imp. I have probably fired over 400 rounds of that chambering. Killed quite a list of game with it.

To date the head space and locking lugs have never changed. It has been a very accurate rifle in both calibers.

I can only find 2 faults with it. The trigger housing extends under the rear tang and must be bedded as if it were the tang. What on earth were the designers thinking? Must have had a few too many Bohemian beers that day. Second, the bolt handle is a little too short for my tastes.

Overall it's a good action, plenty strong. Go for it !

I've used them & had no issues except the trigger. Ditto what craftsman said about it. Always junked the trigger & used a timney instead.

I too, in the past used both Mark X's and Santa Barbara actions and I find them both fine platforms for a custom rifle. I do agree that the first part to be exchanged is the trigger with that interesting side safety. I Timney or Blackburn trigger works nicely. If you exchange the trigger, replace the bolt shroud with a military part and cut a swing safety or use a new shroud with the safety built in like the one built by Ed LaPour..

Does anyone know any specifics about hardness issues with SB actions? I know some were too hard and taken off the market years ago but I don't know ser.#'s or what year. Mine is definitely harder than my old military 98's but I can still cut them with a file. I read somewhere that some of these were up in the high 50's low 60's Rockwell. Does DeHaas' book talk about this? Olsen and Kuhnhausen's that I have don't give much detail on this.

Parker Hale Mausers were built on Santa Barbara actions for years, trigger & all. I had a couple which were pretty decent rifles, sorry I sold them now. I've never heard of any problems with them & there must have been thousands sold in New Zealand alone.
Steve.