Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Short Action Cartridge in a Long Action?

I have a howa 1500 30-06 , can i replace the barrel with a 6.5 cm barrel?

Might or might not feed correctly--but there's an easy way to find out. There are also ways to help it feed correctly, some more complicated than others.

Take a 308 round or two and see how they feed…. The feed ramps on the bottom side of the action are cut back further for longer cases so they feed up at the right angle… unless you can get a shorter mag setup they might feed high and too soon…

IF… you could put a shorter mag well in it you might get away from it… or if you could replace the bottom metal with something that had a magazine becuase that’s where the feed ramp is.

Could always buy a new Howa rifle in 6.5 CM. You can find their blued std 22 inch w/.620” contour for around $500. That’s about the cost of a new chambered barrel installed on your 06. This way you have two rifles at your disposal.

I have a new Christensen Arms 6.5 CM Remington 700 Barrel and looking for cheapest set of action and stock.

Spotshooter,

Why test feeding with .308 rounds when he's asking about rebarreling to 6.5 Creedmoor?

Not sure of your intent. Are you trying to spin a Remington based barrel with its std cut threads onto a Howa receiver which has metric cut threads. If so, it won’t fly without extensive rework, also I doubt many smiths would wanna go there.

my intent is to build a gun with my new barrel.

Then you will need to buy one of the hundreds of Remington 700 action/receiver clones on the market or buy a SA Remington 700 action/receiver from Brownells. The Howa LA won’t work for your intentions. You’re better off setting it up on a SA in the first place for function, feed and workability. It’s all about the threads and Howa is not compatible with a Remington 700 based threading.

persiandog;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day behaved itself down in Boise for you and you're well.

Please be careful when Mule Deer suggests you try to feed some cartridge through a rifle action which you're contemplating building.

The last time he did that with me it was my "walking around rifle" which is a 98 Mauser marked action which was a .270 and John suggested I try to run 6.5x55's through it....

Well.....

That cost me a bunch of money with the gunsmith up the valley - since indeed they did feed and if anything better than the .270 it was chambered for.

You've been thusly warned sir, try feeding some of the desired rounds at the peril of your cheque book!

Anyways all kidding aside, as usual his suggestions are spot on.

I've done a .250AI on a Mauser 98 action and no, I wouldn't say that was the best windmill to tilt at, but yes it does now feed more or less acceptably and no I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else other than a lesson in personal patience building.

Good luck with the build, it sounds like a fun one.

Dwayne

I should have said 308 length cartridge or 6.5 if you have one…. I was in a hurry when I posted it I guess…

The ramp in the bottom of the action (side cuts on the action) extend further back on longer rounds… so with shorter ones they can nose up too fast if they are back further… if the new mag well is set forward enough it’s not a problem… but if it’s all the way back it can be can an issue…

A while back I posted a picture of 2 Remy short actions one was a 223, the other a 308… and you could see the feed ramp cuts extend back further on the 308 than the 223, not to mention they are wider… so it’s just to see if the action has such a thing…
Guys trying to get a 223 to feed 308’s have issues, this would be the other way around.



These pics - again this is a short action with 223 on one side, and 308 other the other…. But you can see the ramps cut into the action.
** the mag wells I put on there are both 308 mag wells…. (The 223 has a spacer to move the round forward )

thanks , i will buy a remington action.

I put a 260 Remington Varmint Barrel on a 30/06 Long Action Remington.. it had no feeding issues.

same with a 6mm Remington.

I’m not saying it will be an issue - I just check things that can be checked before hand…

Low cost, nothing lost..

It might work OK because I'm guessing yours is a controlled feed. I'd make sure before I ordered parts.

I don’t think any Howa 1500 is controlled round feed.

Maybe to late but FWIW I re-barreled a Savage long action in 270 to a 6.5-.284 Norma and had no feeding problems.

It was nice to have the extra length to seat my 140gr VLDs to the lands.

Or conversely simply barrel it as a 6.5x55. Problem solved. Unless of course you seek the panache of a 6.5 Creedmoor....

how does it solve the problem?

just called a gunsmith , can't do.

"Gunsmith" is not ! 6.55x55 requires a long action (look at any Tikka).
99.9% of 30-06 headsize actions will accept 6.5x55.
If any issue use Win or Rem brass that has .473 rim diameter.
Works just fine and with proper throat/twist is great with VLD bullets.
If building, go with 6.5x55 "AI" or 6.5x06.