Thank you. It's a Winchester 1885 in 270WSM, with the 28" barrel reduced to 24".

I was just trying to point out that you seemed t want a medium action because you didn't want a single shot. You then say using one as a single shot is the way to go.

I only meant that my stiller tac30 would have to run a bob sled in order get that long of a round into the chamber.

I have considered many times just running a simple single shot bolt action. Then it really wouldn't matter what size action I used so long as I could eject an empty case.

There's a lot to be said for a single-shot bolt action, most particularly for target shooting. They make cast aluminum inserts for the magazine that converts a bolt gun into a single-shot, but it's not hard to make a very good one out of soda-can aluminum, plastic or even wood. The magazine follower holds it in place under spring pressure. The thing is to make it V-shaped, or with a central groove, so the bullet will naturally center up with the bore.

Naturally, this only works well with push-feed actions.

My heavy-barrel .223 bolt gun is always operated single-shot. - If I use the magazine, I get longitudinal scratches on my brass.

I realize that's not really what you would call a heart-breaker, but I do get awfully picky about my target-shooting brass as I put a lot of work into preparing it.

With the single-shot falling-block, all of this is a moot point as there are no magazine lips to scratch up the brass, no feed ramp to deform an exposed lead bullet tip. - You just shove it in the back of the barrel with your thumb, lever up the block, and you're ready to go.

Another great feature of the falling-block is the ease of setting bullet seating depth... I make up a round with the bullet seated out too far, stick it in the chamber, where it stops when the bullet contacts the lands. Then I measure the distance from the back of the protruding case to the breech - and that's how much further the bullet needs to be seated in order to be just kissing the lands when chambered. - I add .015" to the measurement so the bullet will jump 15 thou before hitting the lands, that usually works out best for me.

For each his own.

6.5x47,

I took you for s shooter. Maybe you're so good you never miss due to the wrong wind hold. You're better than me, because I miss due to the wrong wind hold. And when that happens the best thing to do is witness the miss, cycle, and send a follow up shot, in the same wind, before it changes. Top loading makes this much slower.

So what good is it to be able to run too long for magazine, high BC bullets, at a slow speed, if you can't correct errors quickly because you're running a single shot?

This should be easy to fix on any tikka. They sell kits to change back and forth from long to short. Fab a bolt stop to the length you want. Use the long action mag with the short action spring. Shim to desired length then trim the follower to fit.

You could manufacture and sell a 3.1" kit for $70-100 bucks and that would include the magazine. If you was an industrious sort.

Defiance has had the XM action allowing for 3.2" for a couple years. Had a 300wsm built on one last year . I am using 3.05 of the available 3.2" with a 190 Berger.
Is the Stiller BM hole spacing a proprietary length like the Defiance is? Anybody know?

I've referenced the defiance xm several times in this tread too. Having a little extra room for the 300wsm sure is nice is it not?

I miss plenty. Believe me. Have you never run out of rounds in your mag, and just needed that one last shot? If you run something like the SAP two round holder, getting that extra round into the chamber isn't bad at all.

I am dubious about learning to dope the wind by taking a quick second shot after failing to get it right the first time.

That is "Kentucky windage", not doping the wind.

In fact, slowing down and going through the entire process every time from the start is one's best bet for learning to dope the wind as reliably as possible. Using a single-shot (or a repeater as a single-shot) leads one to pay more attention to what you are doing, for each shot. It encourages marksmanship.

If the "Salvo" method is going to be used, where you walk the rounds in on the target, a semi-automatic would be one's best bet, a bolt action is too slow and you lose your cheek-weld while working the action. A lot of the semi-autos have higher capacity magazines too, a real plus if you are going to use that method.

Charles, this is a little off topic, but I think you have to wrong impression about holding wind with a mil or moa reticle.

This is the way it works for me.

Look through scope to determine wind call. Grass, trees, mirage, etc, etc.
Give the wind call my best shot, and apply that wind call to your reticle. No need to dial windage.
Watch the impact of the bullet through the reticle.
If wind call was correct, write it down or just store it away in the old memory bank.
If wind call is off, you simply measure by how much in the reticle.
If conditions stay the same, make your correction using your reticle, and send another round down range.
Repeat, and apply what I have learned to other targets.

It may sound like walking a round onto the target to you, but I promise the learning curve is much shorter. Also, assuming I'm not moving my position,I never intenionally lift my head off the stock to rack the bolt. Wasted energy, and I'm too busy looking at environmental conditions anyways. Repeater, single shot bolt action, semi-auto changes nothing about any of the above processes.

With that being said, back to the bolt action discussion.

^^Exactly right^^

Using Mils, there is a very easy way to remember your wind hold, and you add or subtract from that based on the wind velocity and wind angle you judge.

From what I understand, this is not how it is done at Camp Perry. Every shot counts, kind of like when we are hunting.

You're still not getting it.

You want to bring up Camp Perry? Ok, we're about to make a 1000 yard shot, based on wind indicators (flags, trees, mirage, watever you have) the wind looks to be 3 o'clock to the shot, and 7 mph. Hold 1.3 Mil into the wind and let it fly watch the bullet arrive on the target and see where it lands. If it's good, then you held correctly, if it lands right of the target you held too much wind, and measure in tenths of a Mil by how much. If it lands left of the target you didn't hold enough wind. Measure in the reticle and add how ever many tenths is needed to get a center hit. Ever shot always counts, the misses are opportunities to learn.

I have 1 MOA targets on my range to 700. I promise a 7" square at 700 yards is very small. I miss it sometimes and I hit it sometimes. But when I miss it is due to the wrong wind hold, and I see by how much I missed and correct the next shot provided it happens quickly.

The target boards at Perry are pretty large.