The terms "long-action" and "short-action" do not refer to the length of the stock. These are the terms referring to the length of the magazine (and the size case that they are long enough to feed). The long action will generally fit any cartridge of 30-06 length. These would include the .270, .280, 30-06, etc. The short-action cases are based on .308 Win. length rounds like the .243, 7-08, .308 etc., as well as the new WSMs. The nice thing about the short actions is that they are lighter, and can be had in compact stock configurations, if that's what your hunting style or body type prefers. I hope that this helps.
K.K