Although the highwall action was designed during the black powder era, it's basic design is very strong. We use modern S.A.E. 8620 steel to make our actions and although we use various barrel manufactures, all of the barrels we use are made of modern firearms steels and are OK with jacketed bullets. HOWEVER just like the originals, our action have a 15/16 16 t.p.i thread which is a little small compared to many modern bolt action rifles. This means that the highest acceptable pressure is more dependent upon the diameter of the cartridge that you are using. The amount of steel surrounding the chamber is less. As a rule of thumb, any cartridge originally chambered in the '86 Winchester should be safe in our rifles AT SAMMI PRESSURES FOR THAT CARTRIDGE! We have chambered rifles in 6 mm Norma BR rimmed and 225 Win.

Because the Highwall action is very short, it can be fitted with a longer barrel than a bolt action rifle without becoming awkward or looking odd. The longer barrel will result in higher muzzle velocities from the same cartridge. Look for velocity increases in the neighborhood of 50 feet per second per inch of increased barrel length. Given careful reloading practices, the 22 Hornet can give 3200 f.p.s. with 40 grain moly bullets.  The 25-35 Win. can push the 87 gr. bullet to the 3000 fps range that gave the 250-3000 Savage its name.  Want 30-06 performance with a rimmed case?  One of our actions fitted  with a 30 inch barrel and chambered for the 7.62 x 54R case loaded to '06 data will do the job.