• If you are being asked to change your password, and unsure how to do it, follow these instructions. Click here

Pawn Shop Rescue- Weatherby Ultra Lightweight 270

Roughrice

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
2,248
Location
Louisiana
Stopped at a local pawn shop and saw an early 2000's Weatherby Ultra Lightweight with factory stainless barrel with blackened flutes and black receiver in a grey speckled fiberglass stock.
Has a Nikon Buckmaster 3-9x40 in Leupold windage rings and mounts.
It was abused and still caught my eye. Looked like someone had sprayed clear coat on it without cleaning it and it had aged and yellowed and peeled.
After haggling a bit... I took it home on a chance that it'll clean up.
Well... after 2-3 hours of tough cleaning, it came out looking very good.

I then ran a borescope in it and it looked great throughout... like very little use.

So, I grabbed 2 older boxes of 270 Win 130 grain ammo I had laying around and took er out for a run.
Fired 4 of one and 4 of another and got poor results... as shown in the top picture.

Came back and loaded 6 rounds of the legendary 270 Win load of 58.5 grains of H4831 and 130 Sierra BTSP.

WALLA!!!
Here is the picture of the first boxed loads of 8 total rounds and the bottom is 6 of the famous 270 Win loads. (the high shot is the first of the group)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4580.jpeg
    IMG_4580.jpeg
    308.9 KB · Views: 170
  • IMG_4581.jpeg
    IMG_4581.jpeg
    237.5 KB · Views: 163
Last edited:
Stopped at a local pawn shop and saw an early 2000's Weatherby Ultra Lightweight with factory stainless barrel with blackened flutes and black receiver in a grey speckled fiberglass stock.
Has a Nikon Buckmaster 3-9x40 in Leupold windage rings and mounts.
It was abused and still caught my eye. Looked like someone had sprayed clear coat on it without cleaning it and it had aged and yellowed and peeled.
After haggling a bit... I took it home on a chance that it'll clean up.
Well... after 2-3 hours of tough cleaning, it came out looking very good.

I then ran a borescope in it and it looked great throughout... like very little use.

So, I grabbed 2 older boxes of 270 Win 130 grain ammo I had laying around and took er out for a run.
Fired 4 of one and 4 of another and got poor results... as shown in the top picture.

Came back and loaded 6 rounds of the infamous 270 Win load of 58.5 grains of H4831 and 130 Sierra BTSP.

WALLA!!!
Here is the picture of the first boxed loads of 8 total rounds and the bottom is 6 of the infamous 270 Win loads. (the high shot is the first of the group)
Nice find. What did it cost?
 
Stopped at a local pawn shop and saw an early 2000's Weatherby Ultra Lightweight with factory stainless barrel with blackened flutes and black receiver in a grey speckled fiberglass stock.
Has a Nikon Buckmaster 3-9x40 in Leupold windage rings and mounts.
It was abused and still caught my eye. Looked like someone had sprayed clear coat on it without cleaning it and it had aged and yellowed and peeled.
After haggling a bit... I took it home on a chance that it'll clean up.
Well... after 2-3 hours of tough cleaning, it came out looking very good.

I then ran a borescope in it and it looked great throughout... like very little use.

So, I grabbed 2 older boxes of 270 Win 130 grain ammo I had laying around and took er out for a run.
Fired 4 of one and 4 of another and got poor results... as shown in the top picture.

Came back and loaded 6 rounds of the infamous 270 Win load of 58.5 grains of H4831 and 130 Sierra BTSP.

WALLA!!!
Here is the picture of the first boxed loads of 8 total rounds and the bottom is 6 of the infamous 270 Win loads. (the high shot is the first of the group)
Gotta love that you found a diamond in the rough!
Good catch!
 
Congrats…..nice find at a good price these days! It looks like it might be a shooter!

I had similar, though with a much less expensive rifle, experience!

Back in '87, a friend of mine that used to make many of the gun shows with several tables of guns fixed me up with an older Winchester Model 670 in 30-06…..which was to be my daughter's rifle! She was in the 7th grade and in need of her first centerfire hunting rifle. Oh horror a 30-06…….Kids must have been a bit tougher back then! 😉 The 670 was a poor man's Model 70…..Birch stock, no "bolt jeweling", no hinged floor plate, and not much for bluing!

The stock had a very small crack in the grip area (which he opened a bit and put some epoxyin the crack), and looked like it had spent much of it's life bouncing around in the bed of a pick-up truck! 🙂

He sold it to me for $100, telling me if I wasn't happy with it, he'd give me my money back.

I put a cheap Bushnell scope on it, loaded up 2 different loads that I had developed for friends, and took it out for a "trial by fire"! From the bench, my pickup truck tailgate wasn't "inspiring"…..really bad! The next 5 shot group could be covered with a quarter! I had a $100 shooter…..I was pretty darn happy and decided to keep it!

I ended up doing a lot of work on it before handing it over to my daughter ( Bell & Carlson stock, Model 70 bottom metal, 2-7 Leupold scope) substantially increasing the investment! The original price was perhaps the best money I've ever spent on a firearm! memtb
 
Great find for a great deal!

Always feel like a criminal when I can snag a perfectly functional AND quality built rifle for cheap just because the stock and finish look rough.

Or maybe I'm a saint? 🥴. From the rifle's perspective no one was willing to love it and let it shine in all its glory, all because it was a little ugly, a little rough around the edges…along comes ME 😁. I see the potential within, I'll spend the time, it just needs a little lovin! 🤣.

The same is sometimes true for people and dogs 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Best dogs ever are the homely rescue mongrels, none of that fancy purebred nonsense for us!

Anyway, I feel I got a pretty great deal on two of my rifles from auction. Nobody else really wanted them all that much I guess, and they are "used" - there is nothing wrong with the actions, the bores were immaculate, no rust anywhere on the things (both in Europe, Canada, and America ive come to beleive from what I've seen that the job of blueing gunmetal well was taken much more seriously from 1950-1980 than in the subsequent years)
- the husqvarna did have a chip from the butt end missing and was missing the buttplate entirely. No worries, a little wood glue and a 16 dollar slip on recoil pad later and it's a non issue.

Husqvarna M98 sporter in 8x57, snagged for 205 dollars Canadian. Heck even as a donor rifle you can't possibly beat that, a controlled round feed strong-as-hell action that is WAY smoother and faster than it has any business being - like it actually shocked me when I first cycled it - the action alone these days is a good find for that price.

BRNO ZG47 (which is a Mauser m98 "clone" for all intents and purposes and according to some the best and strongest iteration of that action ever made) rebarreled in 358 Norma magnum. Again, beat up, well used, missing rear sight…and the barrel is just weird. 28 inch long 1 inch straight contour. But it's not as unwieldy as you'd think. Snagged that one for 400 Canadian (I think) last year. Been researching it more since…the action is definitely worth it on its own, a very well built piece of hardware. Says "BRNO ZG47, Czechoslovakia, 1956" stamped on the side.
 
Top