Troy,
The issue of short vs long actions has been much discussed by those that are interested in having the best rifle possible built. Here is my take with regard to HP Hunter. For Standard HP short is the way to go, but much of what will follow concerning reamer design holds true for Standard also.
Given that there is a max of 26" for the barrel, a longer action will push the muzzle out a little further than a short action and thereby improve hold due to slightly increased moment of inertial that slows muzzle movement that results from a shooter's ability to settle in and damp down movement. The down side is that the longer actions have less stiffness and therefore a bit less inherent accuracy for a given bedding job. That reduction is trivial except for BR shooters. As to added weight, well, the added action length is at the lightest part of the action, which does not contribute much to increased weight. Sure the mag is longer, but once again the total added weight is not that much. One could argue with a reasonable amount of justification that a long action just might be better than a short action if one is not confronting a rifle weight issue for Hunter HP and they are going to use a 26 barrel.
The optimization issue of bullet seating depth for a 6.5-08 is a matter for a properly designed chamber reamer for HP Hunter rifles. Well heck, there are plenty of Standard rifles Ive checked out that have poorly designed chambers too. Unfortunately there are few properly designed reamers for Hunter HP. The reamer should be designed so that both the 107/108 class bullets as well as ram bullets have plenty of neck tension, are in the lands and will feed out of the magazine. How far the ram bullet is in the case is no consequence. It just does not matter at all for our HP Hunter application using a 6.5-08 that should shoot ¼ MOA groups.
Reamers have been designed that allow both the short animal and ram bullets to hit the lands for optimum accuracy as well as feed properly. The MetalHead, Marvin Pearson, copied my design and had his reamer ground by the best in the business. Also, many of the so-called "tight" spec reamers are not designed for optimum accuracy. They are "tight" in name only. I have checked out quite a few prints from the major reamer grinders and can say with no equivocation that most barrels are cut with less than optimal reamers. I would never have a barrel cut by tight spec reamer from ANY of the prints Ive reviewed from the reamer grinders, NO WAY JOSE! There are a number of issues that must be worked through to design an optimum, feed from mag reamer for HP Hunter Silhouette.
Another point, there are many that say the 107/108's will not shoot in their 6.5-08 rifles. Those individuals should know that the reason accuracy is poor is that their chambers were cut, buy their gunsmiths, with a poorly designed reamer.
All the best,
Dan Theodore
