Weatherby Vanguard

[K22]

I was at the range this week and a fellow was shooting a Weatherby Vangurad, 223 Rem. This rifle has a 9" twist, 24" No. 2 contour barrel. He was shooting factory ammo, Hornady 55 grain bullets.

His groups weren't impressive, about 1 to 1 1/4 at 100 yards but it may have been due the factory ammo.

Anyway we started talking and he let me handle the rifle. I was impressed with the excellent two stage trigger, three position safety and the extractor design.

The only thing I notice that might be of concern was the barrel was not free floated. I guess this is easily corrected but I wondered why Weatherby didn't float the barrel. It does not appear to be just a pressure point at the fore end rather the barrel touches all along the stock. It appears to be designed that way. Strange?

Any of you guys shooting a Vanguard - What's your experience / opinion on the non floated barrel.

 

[Prose]

They are okay. Your observations are spot on. I have one that took many hundreds of rounds till it finally performed. I could have bought a much better rifle for less. Be aware though, that there are multiple grades of vanguards, some of which are very nice.

 

[Mark W]

I have one in 240 Wby Mag and its a non shooter. The most inconsistent rifle that I have ever saw. It coppers up badly in as little as 4 or 5 shots. I tried skim bedding and free floating it in the factory stock with no change whatsoever. I will try a new barrel on it someday.

 

[Gary in MD]

I bought one from Walmart about ten years ago in 270 Winchester, it came with a cheap plastic stock. I immediately replaced the stock with the B&C stock that the nicer ones come with and I skim bedded it and floated the barrel.
It is one of the most accurate factory rifles that I have seen.
I don’t shoot it much.... too many other rifles to play with.
Gary

 

[muleman69]

Friend has one in a 6.5 creedmore, He worked up a load with RL-15 and shot under half at 200 yards. I think it will even get better with a free float as we pulled the stock and could see some rubs that didn't look quite right. The rifles are a bit heavy but look to be well made for the price .

 

[bpd459]

Greetings,
I have a Vanguard Varminter in .22/250. It is an MOA rifle with handloads and factory ammo. That said, it is a great rifle. I floated the barrel, and it made no difference. This is with the factory stock.
Good luck ,
John

 

[Bbear]

I have or have had, three. 308, 7mm-08 and a 243. All are the Vanguard II version. (which the one you handled sounds like). All of mine are/were shooters. The 243 has the best groups of the bunch - .4" @ 100 and 1.6" at 500. The others kept rounds inside of the 1 MOA guarantee fairly easily. The 308 shot 165 SGK's into .75" and the 7mm-08 was right at 1" with both the Prvi factory stuff and reloads. The other two only ever had reloads.
In all three I remove the barrel pressure point though the only one that it improved was the 243.

 

[mac86951]

My 30-06 is a shooter as long as I let the barrel cool between shots.

Stock putting pressure on barrel means the action scre torques are critical. I chased my tail a bit before accuracy returned after torquing screws.

I figure I'll rebarrel and MDT lss-xl chassis eventually; but hard to mess with something that's working now.

 

[SS427]

I had three Vanguards and still have two. They were/are the older Vanguards with the two position safety. A Vanguard is just a Howa wearing the Weatherby name, so performance/accuracy is pretty much the same.

My first one was a 22-250 Sporter with a nice walnut stock and it was a slightly less than a one MOA rifle the whole time. On occasion it would shoot smaller but overall any time it shot less than an inch I felt pretty good. Sold it because of the sporter barrel and the recoil was not conducive for seeing my hits.

The next two I still have includes a sub-moa 223 varmint model with a nice B&C stock and a .270 Vanguard Deluxe. The sub-moa is a consistent 3/4 inch shooter and the .270 does about the same. The Deluxe walnut stock is spectacular for the price and the deep bluing was done extremely well.

All three are about what I would expect for rifles in that price range. Perhaps a little less accurate than a Savage, but nicer in quality and build. I would equate them to what you would get with a decent Remington rifle for slightly less money.

 

[jetboat]

I have a 6.5 Cr that would shoot 1 to 3/4" using Horn 140 ELDM. I free floated the barrel but could not get it under 1/4'' without a flyer with 5 shot groups.
Had a 26" SS #3 Bartlein 5R barrel installed, but now waiting for the McMillan hunter carbon fiber stock to ship. 5-6 mos wait.
I like the action better than my Rem 700's. I'm hogging out the barrel channel on the OEM stock and will bed it with Devcon just to be able to try it out. Orig stock is junk and seems the same as trying to route out a channel in a rubber tire.
Will find out if it was worth the effort?

 

[JaoeyP]

Weatherby Vanguards are essentially a Howa 1500 barreled action with Weatherby's finishing touches- stock selection, bolt and /or barrel fluting, metal finish, et cetera. Ive owned half dozen different Howa 1500s, some branded Howa, a Weatherby, and a S&W 1500. Every one of them were sub moa rifles for me, but all but one of them took a good 100-150 rounds to break in.

The Vanguard I owned was a really nice rifle with a fiberglass stock. It also was not free floated. Had I kept the rifle, I would have free floated it.

 

[K22]

I did contact Weatherby out of curiosity and talked to one of their Tech people. She said that the Vanguards with synthetic stocks are engineered to not be free floated.

I found that explanation strange but didn't challenge her. I've never had a rifle group well where the barrel is in full contact with the stock. Also my Remington's never shot well until I removed that pressure point. Tikka and Browning A & X bolts are a few examples of firms that free float their barrels.

The Vanguard I examined at the range had the entire length of the stock's forearm in contact with the barrel. It didn't appear to be a single pressure point like the Remington's that have the pressure point at the end of the forearm of the stock but otherwise the barrel does not contact the stock.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

If the forend flexes bad then itll whip and hit the barrel on firing. Thats why they just kinda keep it rigid. Shooting 1” groups with a vanguard should be the stopping point

 

[flatlander]

Never owned or shot a Vanguard, but have built several accurate rifles on Howa 1500 & Mini actions. The HACT triggers are one of the nicest OEM triggers on the market. One of the things I've noticed while working on quite a few of these actions is that they're very consistent when it comes to fitting & quality. No, they're not as smooth as my Bighorn custom actions, but then they cost about 1/4 as a TL2 or TL3 action. When fitted with a Krieger or Bartlein bbl & bedded in a B&C #2093, Manners, or McMillan stock, the ones I've built will typically shoot right with a good M700 or M70 custom.

 

[JaoeyP]

I did contact Weatherby out of curiosity and talked to one of their Tech people. She said that the Vanguards with synthetic stocks are engineered to not be free floated.

I found that explanation strange but didn't challenge her. I've never had a rifle group well where the barrel is in full contact with the stock. Also my Remington's never shot well until I removed that pressure point. Tikka and Browning A & X bolts are a few examples of firms that free float their barrels.

The Vanguard I examined at the range had the entire length of the stock's forearm in contact with the barrel. It didn't appear to be a single pressure point like the Remington's that have the pressure point at the end of the forearm of the stock but otherwise the barrel does not contact the stock.

The Vanguard I owned had a single pressure point; there was bedding material intentionally put in the barrel channnel to contact the barrel. It still shot well for a lightweight hunting rifle.