Can someone tell me the action length of a weatherby markv in 7-08? Would it be practical to turn it into something larger? say a 7x57 or 280? I know the remingtons are 2.8 and the winny's are close to 3.0 but what is the weatherby? thanks for the help guys. Les

It's a long action with a spacer in the magbox. You could convert it to either the 280 or 7x57. Weatherby does not make a short action MkV.

I know they don't still make it but according to Frank de HAAS in his book "Bolt Action Rifles" Weatherby did indeed make a short (at least shorter) action Mark V.
Introduced in 1964 it was sized for the then new .224 Roy and it was called the Varmintmaster.
The specs as published in the book are,
Weight....32oz
Length....7.50"
Bolt travel....3.25"
Receiver Diameter....1.100"
Bolt diameter.....709"

OCC is correct about your 7-08 though.

I had an SS 6-lug Weatherby action (which I presume your 7mm-08 is) chambered in .280. In a Rimrock stock, it made a nice mountain rifle, Quickly looking at the specs for the 7mm-08, 7x57 and .280, it looks like you might have to have the barrel set back before re-chambering for either the 7x57 or the .280. It might be simpler to go ahead and re-barrel with a good aftermarket tube.

All MK V actions are standard long actions. I think it's good to have that flexibility in an action. Today it's a 7-08, tomorrow it can be what ever you want (within reason). My Mk V in .308 is the same size as a pards in .280 rem.

Here is a good article by Layne Simpson about the original Mark V, the much littler Mark V Varmintmaster, and the stretched Varmintmaster which is the 6 lug Weatherby action for standard cartridges.
So there have been 3 sizes of Mark V's and presently there are 2.

...........A Stretched Varmintmaster Action.....................

The original Mark V action is ideal in size and weight for big magnum cartridges, but it is a bit much for standard-size cartridges such as the .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield. This is why Weatherby rifles are now built on two actions, the original magnum-size Mark V and a smaller action that weighs 10 ounces less. How the original Mark V action came to be has been well documented through the years, but not a lot of people know the story behind the development of the standard action. Here, then, is how it happened.

While attending a gun show in 1975 I bought a used Weatherby VarmintMaster in .22-250 at a very good price. In those days most factory rifles tipped the scale at well over nine pounds with scope, so lightweight big-game rifles weren't exactly hanging on every bush. I had never owned a centerfire rifle as light as the VarmintMaster, nor one that handled anywhere near as nicely. So I shot a few deer with it. Despite the fact that the little rifle killed whitetails like lightning, there were no .224-caliber Nosler or Swift deer bullets in those days so I knew I was asking too much of the .22-250 cartridge. What the hunting world needed, I figured, was that same rifle chambered for a cartridge of larger caliber, one powerful enough to use on deer. With the help of gunsmith Wally Strutz of Eagle River, Wisconsin, I came up with just that. I knew what I wanted to do, and Wally had the talent and machinery to make it happen.

What we came up with was a Weatherby VarmintMaster modified to handle a wildcat I called the 7mm SGLC. This was a .308 Winchester case necked down and blown out to minimum body taper and a 40-degree shoulder angle. This, by the way, took place prior to Remington's introduction of the 7mm-08 cartridge.

Not long after the project was completed I loaded up a batch of ammo and traveled to Rhodesia, where I used it to bump off various and sundry game up to the size of sable and greater kudu. After returning home I filed a report on the rifle and cartridge in one of the gun magazines, and soon thereafter Roy Weatherby called and asked me to ship the rifle to him for evaluation. As it turned out, Roy was intrigued by the idea, but he was in the business of selling not only rifles but magnum ammunition. As he saw it, selling a Weatherby rifle chambered for non-Weatherby cartridges would put money in somebody else's pocket instead of his.

Fast-forwarding through a few decades, Roy Weatherby's son, Ed, who was running the company by that time, ran across my article while cleaning out some old files. In the meantime I had made my VarmintMaster into a switch-barrel rifle, and in addition to its .22-250 and 7mm SGLC barrels it also had a barrel in .250 Savage Improved. Making another short story even shorter, Ed liked the idea and decided to offer the VarmintMaster in a version called the Whitetail Deluxe in .250 Savage. A page in the 1993 Weatherby catalog was devoted to the new rifle, and I also recall seeing a couple of those rifles on display at the SHOT Show. Not many people buy rifles in .250 Savage anymore, so Ed wisely took my idea a step further by increasing the length of the VarmintMaster action by about an inch and introducing it in 1997 as the standard Mark V. This made the action long enough to handle not only short cartridges such as the .22-250, .243 Winchester and .308 Winchester but longer best-sellers such as the .30-06 and .270 Winchester as well. My favorite chambering of all in this rifle is the .240 Weatherby Magnum. Too small for the magnum Mark V action in which it was once available, the .240 Magnum is a perfect match in size and performance for a rifle built on the trim little scaled-down Mark V action.

Article by Layne Simpson.

I have a VarmintMaster in 22-250.

A Whitetail Deluxe would be the Cat'z Nut'z .... has anyone ever seen one?

A cat with nuts?

Why sure.

Thanks guys for all the info. Local shop has one I may end up with and could maybe be happy with the current chambering although it seems such a waste of space. It may turn into a 280AI. We'll see. Les