Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Weatherby Vangaurd First year gun

So years ago in a trade i acquired a Weatherby Vangaurd with a serial number that put it in the first year they were imported. it is not the normal Howa bolt with the holes in it, it is a claw type and pretty sure it has some of the characteristics of a Sako. The rifle become my favorite it has killed countless whitetails, BUT the bolt opens extremely easy and when over ur back i have lost the bolt twice in the woods, one time i walked the trail back and the second time i heard it hit the ground, So i look online yup there is a 3 position safety for it, weatherby themselves say yup should fit, take to gunsmith all I have is a 3 position safety that work like a 2 position safety no bolt lock, weatherby then say WELL it might not fit LOL can't really blame then the gun is well older that they are. So were these Sako knock offs the first year and I may need a sako trigger if there is such a thing. Anyone dealt with this, i have it at the second gunsmith and he is getting ready to take a look at it. ThANKS, always appreciate the input.

Saw those in the 70's but I was using MarkV's so never had hands on experience with Vangards until the 80's when the design had changed.

Your smith will have to do some research.

Capt. John,
I very recently installed the trigger that Weatherby sells on their web sight in my 1970's era Vanguard aka as the copy of the Sako. It required a some
minor fitting but went in and works perfectly. It is a 3 position safety all the way back locks the bolt and trigger middle position unlocks the bolt for
unloading trigger is still locked and of course forward is fire at will. The one drawback that some folks may not like is that it is a 2 stage trigger that has
some very light take up prior to trigger release. Also it appears to be adjustable for weight of pull. Mine has a 3 pound pull at the factory setting which
is fine for me. I never did like the original trigger and had problems with installing the Timney after market trigger. So with a price that wasn't to bad
I decided to try this it works and I consider it an improvement over the original trigger.
Good luck
Dave