Weatherby Rifles....good, bad and the ugly

[Buck Rub Jr]

Mines just just the first lite vanguard model but I’m more than happy with it. Shoots better than I ever will. I was going to go with the 6.5x300 but just decided to go with .270. My grandpa loved his Mark V’s. Backcountry Ti is probably going to be my next purchase! I’ve had mine for 3 years now and ol wendy the weatherby has tipped over 4 deer and a bear.

[Alchase]

I had 1984 Weatherby Mark 5 Custom, in 7mm mag, that shot sub-MOA. Beautiful rifle and I mean beautiful, I got to the point I did not want to take it hunting and take a chance scratching that impeccable high gloss finished  wood. I sold it for more then I paid for it to a guy who had two other identical rifles. Apparently Mark 5 Customs, of that config were pretty rare, I found out later.
That was the last rifle I ever sold. If I had it now, it would be mounted on the wall, it is to pretty to hunt. 

[Shoofly09]

i love my weatherby 270, but I don't reload and ammo is hard to come by (nosler 150 gr partitions)

[MADMAX]

Ive got 2 weatherby vanguard’s
270 win
257 weatherby mag
Both great shooters

[b23]

Ive got 2 weatherby vanguard’s
270 win
257 weatherby mag
Both great shooters

Ironically, the Howa made Weatherby's always seem to shoot pretty well.  I bought a cheapy Weatherby Vanguard 223 about 18yrs ago at Sportsman's.  It was on sale, if I recall it was $334.  Had the typical cheap plastic stock and was blued with a 20in 12tw heavy barrel.  Howa triggers back then were horrible but that was an easy fix with a trigger swap.  That little thing shot amazingly well.  I let a buddy of mine talk me out of it and he is still shooting it.  I can't recall a Vanguard I've been around that didn't shoot well.

[Igor]

Ive got 2 weatherby vanguard’s
270 win
257 weatherby mag
Both great shooters

Ironically, the Howa made Weatherby's always seem to shoot pretty well.  I bought a cheapy Weatherby Vanguard 223 about 18yrs ago at Sportsman's.  It was on sale, if I recall it was $334.  Had the typical cheap plastic stock and was blued with a 20in 12tw heavy barrel.  Howa triggers back then were horrible but that was an easy fix with a trigger swap.  That little thing shot amazingly well.  I let a buddy of mine talk me out of it and he is still shooting it.  I can't recall a Vanguard I've been around that didn't shoot well.

My issue with Vanguards is that they are heavy.  I had one in .300 Win Mag, and it shot great groups, but including scope it weighed in at just over 9 lbs.  I was glad to finally get rid of that beast.

[MADMAX]

I dont think mine are terribly heavy
But my go to walking around guns are a Kimber mountain ascent and CA ridgeline 

[b23]

I used to have a bit of a love affair with Weatherby's but we had to break up because you pay a pretty big price for a rifle that, if you luck out and get a good one, will shoot relatively well, but, if you don't, will make you pull your hair out.

Very first one I had was a older used MkV (made in Germany) 257 Wby 24in that shot very well.  Sold that 257Wby and bought a new MkV 7mm Wby that shot groups in the inches.  Shortly after I bought that 7mm Wby mag I also bought a new MkV 257WBY that only shot slightly better then the 7mm.  Factory or loaded ammo it didn't seem to matter they both shot for sh1t.  Sold those two and bought my first Accumark this time in 300 Wby and it was one of the best shooting factory rifles I've ever owned and it shot just about any 180gr bullet I sent through it and there was nothing finicky about it.  Next one I bought was another Accumark but this time in 338-378.  That shot fairly decent, just not great.  Ended up selling both Accumarks to a anesthesiologist in Texas.  My dad has had a couple different semi custom 270 Wby mags, first one built on a Pre 64 model 70 the second one built on a Rem 700 both had Douglas barrels on them with very little freebore, couldn't shoot factory ammo in them, and both of those shot crazy good but they don't really count in this discussion because they weren't factory guns.  My dad also had a semi custom 7-300Wby built on a MkV action, I think that one had a Hart barrel, and it shot really well too but it wasn't a factory barreled gun either.

My experience with Weatherby's has been a couple different things.  First, luck of the draw on whether or not you luck out and get a good one or other but to some degree I don't believe that's exclusive to Weatherby because a lot of factory off the shelf rifles suffer from the same issue.  Secondly, all of them that I've had shot their best below max velocity.  My 338-378 did not like to be pushed very hard at all and it didn't matter if I was shooting 225's to 300's.  If I kept the velocity a few hundred fps under max it would shoot in the 1/2-3/4 range.  Sure, they'd all shoot the velocities Weatherby crows about but not with any level of accuracy.  In comparison, my 300AX (Kirby Allen's version of a 30-338 Lap Imp) shoots 230 Berger's it's best with upper end loads and my 338 Lap Imp is the same way, shoots the 300's best at nearly max load.

Weatherby Accumarks used to have Criterion barrels but I'm not sure if that's what they still use of if they've switched to someone else.

IMO, the 6.5-300 is to overbore for the factory length barrel and if I had to pick a 6.5 and it had to be a Weatherby rifle I'd go with their 6.5RPM.

I still have a bunch of new unfired Wby brass in everything from 240Wby to 338-378 and I think I've still got two boxes of new Nosler 338-378 loaded with 225 AB's if you decide to go with one of those.

FWIW, I think there are better ways to spend the same money and increase you chances of getting a rifle that'll shoot to your requirements. 

I'm all ears....give me your expertise and suggestions.  Don't really want to build a rifle.....but would entertain anything.

Suggestions I can do, expertise, HA!, not so much. 

I'm not a Savage fan.  I know they often shoot very well and I'll apologize ahead of time but their actions are just to damn fugly for me.  They're kind of like that saying about dating a fat girl or riding a scooter, they may be fun, you just don't want your friends to know about it.  We don't use the S word in my house, although I do have a couple Savage rimfires, shhh just don't tell anybody about it though.

Not sure if you're aware but Weatherby has a new action and rifles built with it coming out called the Model 307.  It's kind of funny because for years part of Weatherby's whole promotion and sales pitch was how awesome their 9 lug action is but now they have this new Model 307 that's a Rem 700 clone but with some upgrades.  It has a pinned M16 type extractor and the LA version has a 3.95 allowable OAL which is quite a bit longer then the MkV allows.  Also, this new 307 has the same foot print as the Rem 700 so any stock or bottom metal or trigger that works for a Rem 700 will fit this new Weatherby action.

If you're leaning .264/6.5mm, and, you want a Weatherby, I'd take a look at one of their new Model 307's in 6.5 RPM.  That new Ranger XP looks like a lot of bang for the buck.  The stock may not be the best but since it's a Rem 700 clone that'll be an easy swap to whatever you want.  https://weatherby.com/product-category/rifles/model-307/

I know you said you'd rather not build but the benefit to having something built, even if you want to use a Savage action is you get to pick and choose exactly what you want and I've never had a "built" rifle that didn't shoot extremely well.

[Jolten]

I built a 26 nosler off a savage action. I'm sure you could build a nice 6.5-300 off of one as well.

[b23]

I find that the suppressors adds 100-200 fps.

  that's funny. 

Wait, you were just joking about that and not serious right?

[10mmg]

I find that the suppressors adds 100-200 fps.

  that's funny. 

Wait, you were just joking about that and not serious right?

on all my bolt guns running a suppressor i do find a significant increase in fps. 2 from a 26” barrel and one from a 22” barrel. Using factory ammo i find that all three guns chrono about what is advertised. once i spin on the suppressor i add 100+ fps on all three based on factory advertising. Not an expert but this is what i see in my fps.

[b23]

I find that the suppressors adds 100-200 fps.

  that's funny. 

Wait, you were just joking about that and not serious right?

on all my bolt guns running a suppressor i do find a significant increase in fps. 2 from a 26” barrel and one from a 22” barrel. Using factory ammo i find that all three guns chrono about what is advertised. once i spin on the suppressor i add 100+ fps on all three based on factory advertising. Not an expert but this is what i see in my fps.

I'm not sure what kind of chronograph you're using but I shoot just about everything I have suppressed.  From 22LR's to 338's using multiple different suppressors and I've never had a single one add more than 25fps and most of them it isn't even that much.  I've never heard of anyone gaining 100-200fps just by screwing on a suppressor and nothing else being different.  Are you shooting factory ammo because I've seen that much variance in factory ammo but that didn't have anything to do with a suppressor.

[10mmg]

I use both factory and reloads. Almost all my shooting is suppressed as well but i only have chronographs the bolt guns. The chrono is a caldwell green brick looking thing.

[bearpaw]

I have both Vangaurds and Mark V's, most shoot very well, usually less than 1" groups and sometimes 1/2". I did have one 300 Wtby Mag that shot Remington corelocks better than anything else and it was only about a 1.25" shooter before I shot out the barrel. (I just had it rebored to .340 wtby) It has killed hundreds of animals, I used it as a loaner gun for many years, lots of guys showed up with rifles they couldn't shoot much past 200-300 yards. I could hand them the .300 WTBY and tell them exactly where to hold out to 600, I kept a small chart clear taped on the stock. None of those hundreds of animals ever knew the rifle only shot 1.25 groups.

Savages are good too, they are excellent shooters, but a bit ugly. I think Weatherby builds one of the nicest looking rifles, and they now have a great assortment of special purpose rifles.

As far as Weatherby calibers, they are very affordable if you handload. The only initial higher cost of components is buying brass. I look at most of their calibers this way, if there are 10 horses on the race track, they will probably all finish the race but only three will place at the finish line, if you want one that will be in the top three just buy a weatherby caliber and you don't have to build a rifle that when finished probably won't look as nice.

I really don't think Weatherby is any different than any other brand in that you sometimes have to figure out what load works best. As far as shooting out barrels, it can be done, but I've only done it twice in my life, and that includes loaning guns to hundreds of hunters when needed. If you want a gun for banging targets every weekend then probably a slower caliber is better, but for a hunting rifle in most cases most hunters will never shoot over 500 or 1000 rounds at game.

You mentioned the lapua, it's a great caliber, but the 338-378 will beat it to the finish line. If you just want to be in the race you might also consider the 340 wtby, I really like that caliber for an all around big game rifle and it doesn't have the recoil of the lapua or the 338-378. You might want to take a look at the accumark in your preferred caliber, they are pretty nice rifles.

[mountainman]

338-378 in an accumark all day John!