Which Weatherby

[Pete Lincoln]

To be perfectly hones, i doubt that there is an accumark, a mk 5 or any other weatherby that will handle as well, shoot as well or be a better value for money thanthe weatherby vanguard. the vanguard is one of the best ´kept secrets in big game rifles. Its the same stick as the Howa 1500, colt something or other and the RWS 89.
I usedto have one in 300win mag,it was a one ragged holerat 100m, it was an excellent rifle, i sold it because i couldn't find a synthetic stock for it at the time, ive been kicking my self ever since.
Pete

 

[ccsykes]

Victor, I might be wrong(someone correct me if I am), but I believe that your custom outfitter rifle actually has a Krieger barrel on it where as the other mark v rifles that are not from the custom shop have the Criterion barrel, which is a little different (at least that is what one of the guys in the custom shop told me, even though their website says otherwise). Victor, if you are not shy of a hard pushing rifle, go with the lighweight, you are only going to be shooting it MAYBE, 2-3 times at an animal on a given hunt. If you are going to hunt paper and targets more often, then I would get the accumark. My accumark seems heavy enough to handle the paper, but light enough to carry through the woods and swamp.

 

[Fotis]

Sorry for posting this but...I have never, ever, ever seen a WBY Ultralight shoot well in 300 WBY MAG chambering. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Others yes but not the 300 WBY.

 

[WunderDog]

POP,
You may have never seen a lightweight in 300 shoot well, but mine sure does. It produces great groups at the range and has proved itself more than once on game. I don't know that it would be the barrel as Weatherby's website says the Custom Outfitter has the Krieger Criterion which I believe is the same as the Ultralightweight. In any case, from my experience I would recommend this gun without reservation as long as the shooter can stand the recoil to get used to shooting it off the bench.

 

[Fotis]

[ QUOTE ]
POP,
You may have never seen a lightweight in 300 shoot well, but mine sure does. It produces great groups at the range and has proved itself more than once on game. I don't know that it would be the barrel as Weatherby's website says the Custom Outfitter has the Krieger Criterion which I believe is the same as the Ultralightweight. In any case, from my experience I would recommend this gun without reservation as long as the shooter can stand the recoil to get used to shooting it off the bench.

[/ QUOTE ]
Honestly I think you got lucky! My buddy had one and we spend 5 months truing to get it to shoot. We used Partitions, Grooves, Northforks and a plethora of other bullets...nothing...nada...zilts! This was the one with the Krieger BBL on it (the desert tan flavor stock and black barrel). Additionally I have other people on other boards who report the same findings as me. This is the reason why my buddy and I both got SAKO 75 Mine in the RUM flavor and him in the 300 WBY. Both are extremely accurate! Now all that said if I ever see a 300 WBY Ultralight for sale that will shoot MOA or less I will buy it on the spot! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[WunderDog]

Sorry, it's not for sale...and I will disappoint you by saying that sub-MOA accuracy has seemed to come relatively easily to this gun. I will admit there are bullets that it really doesn't like though. It groups factory 165gr Ballistic Tips quite well. That is my woodchuck ammo to practice up for the fall and produce some good reloading brass. My pet loads are all with the Swift Scirroco bullets. Those are the favorite so far. I put some Lost River factory ammo through it and that didn't shoot at all. I was considering ordering some LRB bullets until I saw how well the Swifts did (and how magnificent they were on big game). I also tried some Sierras or something that my dad had laying around and they were pretty poor also. It is not the easiest gun I have ever tried to find accurate loads for but it is far from the hardest.

 

[WunderDog]

I just remembered, when I was developing loads early on in this gun, I did do one other thing to it. I noticed the accuracy was decent but sensitive to barrel heat. I had the gun apart for a thorough cleaning and noticed that the fore end of the stock was contacting the barrel with some pressure. I did some extensive work with sandpaper to freefloat it and the accuracy improved dramatically.

 

[sniper2]

Don't worry about the weight of the rifle rent a horse!!!

 

[victor]

Hi All,

This is Victor and I just want to let you all know that I purchased the .300Wby Ultra Lightweight Rifle. The one with the grey stock and SST Fluted barrel. It was the last one left on the shelf. New for 2005 they are changing the color of the stock to tan color and although the barrel is still SST it is colored black. The barrels on these guns are Krieger Criterion barrels. They are button rifled, not single point cut like the premium Krieger barrels.

Weatherby recomends that their barrels have approx. 14lbs of pressure on them at the fore end.

I have a .257Wby in the Ultra Lightweight model as well. I love that gun. Accurate and light weight with hardly any kick. That's my long range deer rifle. I get anywhere from .25 to .875 groups with it. My group size is pretty much determined by the quality of my brass. I reuse brass until the primers just won't stay in the pocket anymore. the older cases just don't shoot as consistently do to strecthing near the belt where you can't resize. I shot my biggest buck with it from approx. 500 yards 2 years ago. Perfect chest shot, went right thru breaking the far shoulder. My load is Norma MRP powder 70.5gr with a 115gr Barnes Triple Shox bullet. It also likes 117gr Hornady's.
Also I would like to mention that I experimented by free floating the barrel on this rifle. It was a bad idea. It shot worse. I epoxy bedded the action and the forend with approx 14 lbs of pressure under the barrel. (to rough measure pressure, get regular grocery scale, rest barrel on scale and pull fore arm of stock down. Notice size of gap when scale reads 14lbs. Its not perfect but it got me in the ball park)
I pretty much glued the gun into the action this way, used very light application of car wax on action. I have not needed to take the action out of the stock yet and it shoots great now.

Back to the .300Wby. I started testing the .300Wby and with factory 165gr ammo it shot 1.5 groups at 100yds. Just within the guarantee. I tried some hand loads next. I finally settled on MRP-84.5gr with 200gr Nosler Accubonds. This gave me .875 3 shot groups @ 100yds. Not the tightest but it should hit the kill zone on any elk. I tried 180gr bullets of various makes and it definately likes the 200gr bullets better. Each barrel has its own frequency, so they won't all shoot the same.
I shoot from a home made gun vise that takes the recoil of the rifle off my shoulder. I do this to take myself out of the accuracey equation.
Just for kicks I shot it out of the vise, on my shoulder. I wasn't sure how hard it would kick so I held on tight. At the shot, the scope came up and touched my eyebrow. It didn't hit but just made contact. Man this thing kicks so much harder than my .257wby or my .270wby. I should have got the Accumark. Oh well, now I am looking to put a muzzle brake on it. I feel I need it to be able to shoot it comfortably. Normally when I shoot, I use a rest and hold the rifle very lightly and just let it surprise me as I gently squeeze the trigger. The surprise factor with this rifle is great. It surprises the hell out of me every time. I decided on having the SG&Y 11 deg. brake put on. It is supposed to reduce recoil by 60-65% and the muzzle blast is angled slightly forward to save your eardrums.

I will send it there as soon as I get it back from the shop. It has a problem with extracting fired shells. The extractor has a rub mark on the back side, indicating that it rubs against one of the internal locking lugs, when bolt is rotated, which depresses the back of the extractor just enough to disengage it from the shell. The problem is either an out of spec extractor, or the hole drilled thru the bolt that the extractor pivots on is out of spec. Its under warranty, but its been at the smith's for over a month now. I think I will call today and see what's up.

Overall the fit, finish and accuracey of this rifle purchased at the end of 2004 has gone down from the .257wby that I purchased in 2000.

Also I wrote a detailed 4 page letter to Weatherby explaining what was wrong with my rifle and asked what to do for warranty. They never responded.
I ended up calling and the person on the phone told me to just send it in to one of their authorized service centers.
I didn't get the feeling that they really gave a **** about my troubles once they got their money.

I would rate their customer service as POOR!

I don't think I will buy anymore Weatherby's. But I do like their 54 degree bolt rotation a lot and will have Kirby rebarrel all my guns with the Krieger single pt. cut barrels when the need arises. Probably a slightly heavier contour too.

End of Report,
Good shooting all,
Victor

 

[Buffalobob]

Couple of thoughts on Weatherbys

As you may know the 257, 270 & 7mm are 300s with the shoulder set back about 0.3. This results in a case capacity difference of 82 gr to 98 gr. This is a 20-25% increase. This is what you are feeling on the bench and this is what is vibrating that #2 contour.

Mental tricks for the flinch prone - What helps me is once you get your hunting load established, go and get some really light varmint bullets for the gun and load them about 200-400 fps below max so they are pretty tame but still moving fast and have a trajectory similar to your hunting load. Practice shooting this load at lizards on a rock, crows, jacket rabbits, possums or what ever you have available. This should be field practice not bench. This get you and your shoulder used to the gun as a mild recoil similar to your other guns. When it is time for seriuos work, all of your shooting mechanics will be tuned and ready for that serious shot.

I had a Berreta 12 ga. 3" O/U that was instant headache so I learned to include aspirin in my gear. Now my shooting shoulder has some damage in it from a fall I took when I stepped into a stump hole, so it is even more tylenol per shot for me. Being an idiot, I moved up to a 12 ga 3 1/2 but in an auto. Now, I carry more tylenol than bullets. If you need it do the same. It is hard to shoot with a pounding headache.

All of us fast gun shooters owe Roy Weatherby some credit for advancing the state of the art for fast magnums and for guaranteeing accuracy from the factory.
On the other hand you pay a premium price for it and you should get what you paid for.

 

[Jerry-MI]

Of all the larger than 22 caliber that I have owned is a 30/378 Accumark. Most of the rifles I own are Remington and to date I have owned over 75 rifles. Hopefully that helps. I also have a 338/378 Accumark that thus far I cannot find a load/powder combination that will give me less than 1 1/2 inch groups.

 

[Freebore]

Victor,
I have 2 Weatherby's both in .257 caliber. One is gourgeous (Lazermark)and she does not come out until the sun is shining. The other is the lightweight. They both required a complete rebedding job. They both will NOT shoot unless there is a pressure point at a specific measurement from the forend. I just happen to be lucky enough to have a bedding guy who understands these rifles and what it takes to make one shoot if it doesn't from the factory. The factory is no help.
The lightweight I have taken alot of antelope and deer out to 612 yrds. with the 115 ballistic tip. The lightwieght did require quite a few round to 'clean' up barrel tooling marks. It come in after ~150 rounds. It does consistantly shoot <.600 group at 200. Ist and 2nd cutting, the 3rd at 10:00 every time. Only shoot three shot groups as the barrel need to cool COMPLETELY between grouping. Remember Weatherby's were designed to be 1 shot rifles. As most/all should be.
The 300 is alot in the lightweight and I highly recommend their brake as they work very well.

 

[bobaran]

I agree with Brian B. and BuffaloBob. You should look at the 270 Weatherby. I purchased a Mark V 270 WBY mag from an estate sale. It had a 26" barrel, accubrake and a Nikon Buckmaster 3-9 x 40 (which is a very modest scope).

After rough sighting the rifle at 25 yds, I shot a group at 100yds. It was 5/8"!!! I re-adjusted the scope to achieve 0" at 300 yds, and shot again. I got another 5/8" group.

I figured the first group might be luck, but not two of them in a row. I've been shooting and hunting all my adult life (54 yrs and counting), have shot lots of rifles and have never produced anything close to that accuracy, even with varmint-scoped rifles.

As a follow-up, I dropped a wild boar in its tracks with my new 270 WBY.

Unless you plan on hunting grizzlies or polar bear, you should consider a 270 WBY mag with accubrake. It is a joy to shoot and should be classified as a laser-guided weapon. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[RJS]

I had the same questions as the original poster but instead of the 300 I was going to get a 270 mag. I had it narrowed down to the accumark or ultra lw. I would imagine that recoil on the ulw 270 isn't as much a concern as with the 300? I hunt in the Sawtooths near Sun Valley Idaho and will be shooting at both mullies and elk in open high country. The extra few pounds wouldn't bother me I don't think but if the ultra lightweight will perform as good as the accumark why not go with it?

Any thoughts?

Thanks