Yes well the only way VLD bullets in otherwise short cases make any sense is in a longer than short action. If you build on a short action you always run out of OAL length in the magazine for the newest heavy for caliper VLD's. If you have to seat the bullet into the case to make it fit in the magazine you have already taken 2 steps backward. Once you get into 6mm, 6.5mm and 7mm heavy for caliper VLD's in short actions it is game over if you want true precision sense you are now asking the bullet to jump a huge gap by precision reloading standards before engaging the rifling of the barrel!
I have been waiting for 2 decades for someone to post any credible research on short action being stiffer and stiffness being needed in the action behind the locking lugs since the cartridge is ahead of the locking lugs not behind them. Also the lines force the action are in line with the direction of travel and the barrel not perpendicular to the cartridge. Any stiffness afford a short action over a long action or magnum action would not be in line with the actual direction of travel so being stiffer perpendicular to the lines of force would not affect anything in the front receiver ring on forward or the locking lugs forward.
You would think if there was a large advantage the Militarizes of the world would be shortening and necking down 25mm rounds or 50BMG so they could have a insanely short fat case in insanely short auctioned rifles but we do not see this. Instead we see 338LM, 300 Win Mag loaded hot, 300 Norma Mag., 50 BMG etc.......Even the Army when using 7.62 NATO went with a long action that could be set up for 300 Win Mag if need be.
On that same note factory built rifles still have not modernized their twist rates to allow you to run VLD's in heavy weights for caliper so buying a factory rifle in a hot rod is not that smart. Just look at the 243 it has been around longer than I have been alive and factory rifles still have twist rates that make them useless for most VLD's. Keep in mind David Tubb used 243 for a long ago with VLD's that has to be 20 years ago.
So anytime you want to run very long bullets that are very heavy for caliper you always want more room in the magazine box to properly seat those bullets so they are kissing the rifling and you cannot do that on most short actions. In public schools they often leave out important words like "Theory" so it is the study of Evolution not the study of the "Theory of Evolution" again people leave out discount that Einsteins Theory of General Relativity has a lot of holes and things that just do not work out as "theorized" people treat it as if it is 100% factual and always works and describes all things when it really does not. Likewise when it comes to action length I have never seen any research with a large enough sample size to be statistically significant demonstrating that a short action is more accurate than a longer action. In fact the 300 Norma Magnum is a beast compared to most cartridges that people hunt with and think of and routinely shoot in most competitions even F-Open yet it has been turning in 4" groups at 1500m in US Military testing if what has been writen is accurate. In a fairly long action.
I would just caution you to take things with a grain of salt in terms of what is in pop culture in shooting circles. If there is no hard science to back it up then it is prob. not true and is like rules of thumb or old wives tales! If a third party is has not done the research it is likely not true. If the person educating you on the product is also selling said product then it is prob. not unbiased and is likely not true.
So logic dictates that a short action is not the way to go if you want a future proof rifle system that can be upgraded as technology and designs change with time!
