Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
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  1. #1
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    Default Weatherby rifles?

    Does anyone know if Weatherby Vanguard rifles are made in the USA?
    Or which country they are made? And how is this rifle as compared to some others like Browning,Kimber and so on?

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Weatherby rifles?

    They are made in Japan by Howa*. Howa also makes their own 1500 series rifles, they made/make the Mossberg 1500 and the S&W 1500 rifles among others.

    They are good guns. They've been making them much longer than Kimber. They are comparable to the low to upper/mid level Rem 700's. Weatherby does use their own barrels, but the action and trigger group is Howa.

    *Howa rifles are manufactured by Howa Machinery, LTD in Japan.
    Last edited by knight0334; January 13th, 2009 at 02:35 PM.
    RIP: SFN, 1861, twoeggsup, Lambo, jamesjo, JayBell, 32 Magnum, Pro2A, mrwildroot, dregan, Frenchy, Fragger, ungawa, Mtn Jack, Grapeshot, R.W.J., PennsyPlinker, Statkowski, Deanimator, roland, aubie515

    Don't end up in my signature!

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Weatherby rifles?

    The old weatherby vanguard rifles were much better than the newer offerings. Either way, they're not a bad rifle and fairly accurate. Their triggers can be pretty sloppy, and even with alot of work, they're still not as nice as a tuned up Remington 700 trigger. Well the old Remington 700 triggers, the new X-Mark triggers are kind of hit and miss, some of them tune very well, and others you just can't quite get them to be how you want them to.

    I have not shot a Kimber rifle, but have heard that they're very nice, but I can't really make a comparison there. I have shot plenty of browning A bolts, and they're not as smooth and don't have as many features as the brownings. I haven't sat down with any of these rifles and tried to tune a load to them, so it's kind of hard to say a whole lot in terms of accuracy. With factory ammunition, my buddy's old weatherby vanguard in .300 winmag is a 1 moa rifle, or just a little less. We haven't tried to work up a load for it, but it would obviously probably shoot a little better groups. My other friend's browning A bolt that he'd done ALOT of load workup with in .270 WSM will shoot about .5 moa. I would say with handloads, they'd be pretty close in terms of accuracy. I still can't get used to the 60 degree bolt throw on the brownings, lol, but it is nice.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Weatherby rifles?

    Am torn between the weatherby vanguard SS and the browning A-bolt white gold medallion. Seeing the weatherby is now made in Japan kind of makes me turn away,my friend has an older one which was made here and it's an awsome rifle. The browning is about 3-4 months behind in production. Can't make up my mind.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Weatherby rifles?

    I don't know exactly what the prices are right now for the model of Vanguard that you're looking at. I know they have a Sporter SS, and a synthetic SS, and their prices are different. So it's kind of hard for me to know know what your price range in. I know what Browning A Bolt white medallions cost, though and they're pretty expensive. Is there a particular budget that you're trying to stick with on this rifle? What do you intend on using this rifle for?

    The white medallions are beautiful rifles and to be honest, I probably wouldn't want to be dragging one through the woods. The wood is graded and beautiful as is the finish, banging it around on rests, tree stands, and branches scratching it would really hurt my feelings on a rifle that cost that much. If you could be really careful with it or mostly were just using it for mostly target shooting or a bench rifle, then that would preserve it's beautiful. If you don't mind banging up a rifle that beautiful in the woods, lol, you're a bigger man than I am. If you do intend to take it in the woods, you might want to consider a different model and it might save you some money.

    P.S. I didn't know if you were aware of this, but the white gold medallions are glass bedded and I believe hand chambered, so nice features.
    Last edited by Tomcat088; January 13th, 2009 at 04:14 PM.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Weatherby rifles?

    I owned a Vanguard, and its an ok deer gun for the money. Everything on the rifle is cheap though, the blue on the barrel isn't that great, oil is needed very often, the bolt would leave brass shavings from the case, the stock was very cheaply made, and the the trigger had some horrible creeps. But it would do its guarantee of 3 shots 1.5 MOA or better, but if you have the $$ to get something better I would say to do so, especially the gold medallion
    "Skin that'n pilgrim, and I'll git ya another"

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Weatherby rifles?

    Quote Originally Posted by vetter3006 View Post
    Does anyone know if Weatherby Vanguard rifles are made in the USA?
    Or which country they are made? And how is this rifle as compared to some others like Browning,Kimber and so on?

    Most of my Weatherby's are F N's , 1 Sako, 1 Brevex and shoot well after a little work .. they're prior to Weatherby making their own action ... also got my U S and Jap stuff to shoot.
    My last few additions have been Browning Jap manufacture and shoot well, no complaints ... my older ones are German ... heavy, shoot well, smooth action.

    Not so many years ago when I followed 1,000 yd. Comp, Baer was using basically stock A-Bolt actions to build his winning comp guns.

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