Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire another Mark V catastrophe

Weatherby and Sako fans are loyal. You gotta give 'em that.

I love Browning, but I won't swallow a bolt thru my eye for them. Just a joke.

I believe Mr. Howell has access to info that we do not. I believe his post was made as warning that there appears to be gathering evidence that some of these actions are failing and causing significant injury.

I also understand that these rifles have given alot of folks great service over the years and these same shooters will come to Weatherby's defense when their is no hard evidence presented regarding the failures.

It boils down to someone who has more industry contacts than we do, trying to warn us that there could possibly be a problem with some Weatherby actions. I would appreciate such info if I shot them. I might would go get my gun checked out, point is we can decide what to do with the info.

If Mr. Howell cannot divulge sources of his information, it's very likely that we could find records of ongoing litigation concerning the failures.

I assume anyone who swallows a bolt and lives thru it would be looking for a lawyer. If these are not isolated incidents, there should be court records (suits filed) to go along with them.

Unless Weatherby is able to settle them out of court with a gag order, but I don't see that happening if the rifles in question pose a significant risk to the public, there should be some litigation occuring regarding the failures.

Pharmecutical Companies cannot settle out of court and impose a gag order on the plaintiff regarding medicines that may have a detrimental effect on thousands who may be using them, so it would make sense that firearms makers would not be able to do this either.

Bottom line is, if there were failures happening, they wouldn't have just started recently unless the rifles in question are of later manufacture. This should allow for pin pointing the place of manufacture, steel, process and design to be identified, thus leading us to the faulty rifles. The types of ammo used would be good info as well.

With no evidence of failures occuring within a specific lot of rifles, made at a specific location, it makes it hard to swallow that random failures are just now starting to occur thru-out the entire line of Mark V actions.

If it is a problem, it should be fairly easy to identify and know what rifles are supposedly dangerous.

JM.

Weatherby guys spit fire when their rifles are blasphemed. It's one of the requirements of ownership.

Me thinks it's the ammo not the action but this will be determined and I'm sure when the lawsuits etc.. We will all know about it. Any you fellas too scared to shoot your Bees, let me know I'll buy them.

I ain't skeered to shoot my 'Bees...


My 340 and 270Roys have done well for me, but I mostly shoot handloads through 'em.

Rolling the clock back to the forties and fifties , if someone [ Weatherby ] introduced a cartridge/rifle combo which claimed to outdo ALL the production stuff of its' time , and looked just like all the other stuff , everyone would have called B.S.

The double radiuis shoulder and different bolt lockup could be put down to an advertising gimmick except for one thing and everyone knows what it is :

THEY WORK !!

So far , all the catastrophic rifle failures I've seen pictures of on this website have been caused by barrel obstructions but you would have to read the entire thread to learn that .

We are still waiting for the " missing nose picture " explanation and how it relates to Weatherby - or any other - rifle .

Just got word of another catastrophic failure of a helium balloon.

Details are sketchy, but it appears that a homemade helium balloon (possibly made with Weatherby parts, possibly filled with Weatherby factory helium) was accidentally launched, with the potential to carry a 6 year old kid and drop him, causing irreparable damage.

the kid was not on board, but is probably mentally crippled for life, and lucky to be alive.

It all appears to be a hoax, but do you know of any other such hoaxes? I'd appreciate details.

Point is, if these rifles are failing, for whatever reason (action design, metallurgy, ammo) there should be some court records of suits filed against the manufacturer.

Has anyone found these?

JM.

I wonder if anybody chronographed the ballon, you know, to see if the load was to hot.

Ain't some balloons filled with hot air ?

Jessica is sitting in my lap, wearing a bikini as I type this...

She says ya'll are mean.

Is her nose still attached ?

Dang, those hips...

Kudos to you, Sir, for having your priorities straight, though. Keep typing.

That's exactly what has had me a bit befuddled by all this. In a country litigious enough to give us this:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3347961?IADID=Search-www.denverpost.com-www.denverpost.com

among WTHK how many other examples the idea that somebody wouldn't have landed in court over something like this seems hard to swallow on it's face. Throw in the fact that such events would surely get the attention of some of the anti-gun media and it gets a little harder to fathom something hasn't come out. If any lawyer even sniffed an actual pattern linking more than one case of severe injury to supposed negligence on the part of a gun manufacturer he'd clear his calendar for the whole year to go after it.

And that's not even taking into account an ammunition company, under contract with said firearms maker, is loading cartridges way above anything this country's overseer of such standards (SAAMI) recommends and hells bells it's a party time down at Shaftum & Grabbit law offices. To put that in perspective it'd be the rough equivalent of a restaurant chain not only having a policy of heating their coffee to volcanic temperatures but serving them in cups that can be shown to melt out the bottom at those temps and dump the coffee.

I'm not about to call Ken a liar (which means he would have to be intentionally describing events he factually knows to be false) but there has simply GOT to be more to this than he's being told and then relating to us. The legal issues surrounding what he's described are simply staggering.

About a decade ago I read an article from Weatherby that they had a falling out with the Japanese government and had found a company that built weapons for the military in Saco Maine, Saco Manufacturing I think it was. As far as I know they are still building Weatherby actions.

BTW: I went to the Weatherby site and built a Weatherby left-hand rifle for over $3,000 and that with a "custom" stock that would not have fit me. I stayed away from any fancy extras, just a plain Jane. For that kind of money I can have a custom rifle built to my specs with a stock that fits.

No, they won't all touch equally, but the elasticity of steel makes significant contact of all lugs practical with a little tweaking. They won't have exactly equal contact, but that's even true of different regions of the same single lug, even on a microscopic scale. Ie. if we were to pretend that steel is perfectly inelastic, then no more than 3 atoms anywhere on any part of the combined lug surfaces could be making contact, even if we only had a single lug somehow.

BTW: I went to the Weatherby site and built a Weatherby left-hand rifle for over $3,000 and that with a "custom" stock that would not have fit me. I stayed away from any fancy extras, just a plain Jane. For that kind of money I can have a custom rifle built to my specs with a stock that fits. [/quote]

Wanna sell it ?

The Wby Mark V must be about the most tested and thrashed action available, given the very nature of the calibres. In addition you have the very large case head size of the 30/378.

And remember if you can shear off the 9 lugs you also have to shear off the integral bolt handle.

I find it very difficult to believe factor Wby ammo could do this. Wby factory ammo is full of powder and Norma would not get enough extra into the case for rifle blow ups, unless they loaded the wrong powder.

You can lead a horse to water, but........

The MARK V action is a outstanding action,you can hear crap about any gunmaker and problems,it's the stinkin internet.I exceeded velocities I ever thought possible with my 338-378 and all were safe loads within the range of published data.I have also owned several 340's, 30-378's and a couple .378's never a single problem ,never sticky bolt lift nothing, firing alot of ammo.I believe it's probably the safest action out there.