Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Weatherby Vanguard Stocks

Got a Howa with the terrible Hogue stock and was curious as to others' experience with the plastic stocks off the newer Vanguards. Thinking I might pick one up as a cheap alternative to replacing with a quality fiberglass stock.
Are they Tupperware garbage or acceptable in stiffness for a hunting rifle?

The current griptonite (sp?) Injection-molded stock on the Weatherby Vanguard S2 ( with HAct trigger), is a good stock. It has slight upward pressure on the barrel/forearm tip area, and is stiff. The new stock fits you well, and has a nice wundhummer pistol grip that feels "svelte." I have one (270 Win), and I like it.

HS Precision makes the stock for the Howa 1500 / Vanguard "Precision" model. I bet that is a heck of an outfit.

The Weatherby Vanguard /Howa 1500 has got to be the greatest sleeper value deal for rifles in today's market. It has MOA or better accuracy, a great trigger (HAct 2-stage), well-made and well-designed forged/machined action with integral recoil lug, a strong one-piece bolt body/handle with robust extractor, and a 3-position safety. Overall, a fantastic rifle.

I have a Vanguard S2 in 25-06. The stock is light years beyond a Ruger American, Savage Axis type plastic stocks. It is stiff, has nice inlays and feels like a rifle stock. No comparison. That is why for 490 bucks the S2 line is the most you can get for dollars spent.

I think that the V2 stock may be the best design and execution of an injection molded stock that any manufacturer is currently shipping with their basic/standard grade center-fire rifles.

Weatherby sells them for $130, but I've bought new take-offs for as little as $50, some via eBay.

If you want to upgrade your stock a little more, the B&C Weatherby-style Medalist is a stiffer stock, but Stockey's is asking $290 for them and I don't know if they are enough better than the V2 stocks to justify the cost for everyone.

What length of action do you have?

Short action

Don't know if you'd be interested in a walnut stock, but the last time that I looked, GPC had some NOS walnut stocks that were made way back when S&W was selling Howas as their Models 1500 and 1700.

I purchased one of the Weatherby composite stocks off EBAY for reasonable price. It fit my Weatherby Vanguard s2 perfectly. Stiff and accuracy is better than the wood stock from factory. I want to keep the beautiful wood stock in new condition. Just be sure to check the barrel channel opening . Match the weatherby sock with the correct barrel. The stock for #1 bbl will not fit a #2 bbl. The inletting of the composite stock is much more aggressive and provides very good handling with cold hands or gloves.

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What about the older B&C fiberglass stocks with checkering and no aluminum bedding block. Anybody have experience with these?

I had one of the older B&C stocks with the schnable shaped forearm tip on a long action 1500 in 6.5x55 and didn't care for the ergs of the pistol grip, so I swapped it for a V2 take-off.

There is a NOS short action B&C stock currently listed on eBay for $169.95 by seller stocks1176.

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