Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles WHY I SHOOT WEATHERBYS

jorgeI,

No flames here, so don't take it that way.........

I can buy a SUCKS SS, put an aftermarket stock on, a micky at that, and still have under $800 in it.

I like the Weatherby's, don't get me wrong. I just can't justify what one gets for what Weatherby charges. Not to mention the cost of ammo or even brass to reload with.

I actually have been looking for a deal on a LW 338/06, but has been going on two years and haven't found one in the price range that I am willing to pay.

Glad to see that you got a shooter. Time to get some blood on it......... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Tony

Redneck: I like Winnies too! but your prices are a bit off. Retail for a 70 synthetic and a comparable Weatherby are almost the same. No question that factory ammo is more expensive. BTW, here's what my Model 70 safri Express does "out of the box"with handloads
. Sorry, couldn't resist the "out of the box" comment <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> jorge

hicountry,
If you find one of those 338-06's try before you buy. Check the accuracy and check the fired brass for a bulge just ahead of the case web. There's a reason Weatherby discontinued that chambering. They had too many sent back under warranty. Chambers were big and their ammo was small.

Whoa! Was the Weatherby ammo actually off SAAMI specs? If so,
was it the brass or the COAL?

I was under the impression that the rifles were not chambered
to meet the .338-06 A-square standard. If the ammo was bad
too, then NORMA, who makes most of WBY's commercial stuff,
also has a 'my bad'!

What's the story?

1B

Sorry about the price difference. I was considering the wholesale price, not retail......

Still, it's about half the WBY and I have had only one M70 that shot like crap when I got it. Never did get it to shoot. Found out the factory had the wrong twist in the barrel. Traded it immediately. Wish I had it back now since I did that just before I got into this business. I could have rebarreled it and had a beauty. It was a FWT stainless/walnut. Only made that one a year or two. Currently own nearly 20 M70's and they all shoot at least as well as the target posted above from the WBY..

Besides, there are commercial rounds out now that outperform the WBY's so why spend double to get less? BTW, just TRY to buy a replacement wood stock for a WBY. They've not been available for nearly 3 years. (up to this May, last I checked) If you break a stock you'll be getting a rubber one for a replacement. For those of you who love them, God bless you. I'll pass......

That's ok Redneck. BTW, what "commercial calibers" outperform Weatherbys, the RUMs? maybe, but I've yet to see it on a chrono with factory stuff. Anyhow, you can't be all that bad, you like Model 70s and I also like the walnut stainless ones. I have three, a 270, 300 Win and 7 Rem Mag. Great looking rifles and they shoot great too! jorge

Where do you get a decent Winchester for $275-300? The price for a standard synthetic stocked Roy is between $550 (Gart Sports) and $620 (locally).

I just called Weatherby, if I wanted to switch my stock (Sporter) and upgrade to a Deluxe or Euromark the cost would be $598 (Euromark stocks are not in stock <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> right now). Made the mistake of asking about custom stock ... ouch <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> anywhere from $1200 upto $6000! That's friggin' nuts.

I'm not talking about a rubber stocked WBY. Compare a walnut/blue M70 to a walnut/blue WBY and the price is about half for the M70. I just checked the wholesale prices for both so I KNOW I'm in the ballpark... LOL...

The M70 SG is +/- $800 w/ship.. The Mk-V Deluxe is $1500.00 + ship....... Close enough to 50% for government work.

When you think about it, why buy a Weatherby only to have a rubber stock on it? To me, (IM most HO) it's like spending a geezer+ on a custom rifle then mounting a $40.00 Tasco on the top....

To each, his own. I'll stick to M70's and I know many others keep WBY in business. Whatever fires your primers....

BTW., as a side note here. I've got a walnut stocked WBY in the shop since last early winter, waiting to get a replacement stock from WBY. I haven't called them for about 3 months to see if there's any available so maybe I'll try again. Last time I talked to them they said it may be another year before they get any in. Something about "...changed stock vendors and can't find one to do the job they require...". Why the hell don't they make their OWN stocks? Geez...

What do you'all think of the Accumarks ?

Seems like a quick and easy way to pick up a sporter with a top quality barrel ?

SDGunsliger: I have an Accumark in 340 Weatherby. I bought it for a bear/moose hunt that never materialized. It is very accurate, but boy that 340 "barks"!. Either with factory loads or I load to factory equivalent using data from the old "Weatherby Guide" and Norma MRP powder, shoot to the same POI.

One interesting thing about the rifle it's the easisest to clean out of all my rifles. Either with tradiditonal Bore Shine/ Sweets or the new Wipe Out, it cleans up fast. Guess the barrel is finished quite smooth inside. I have a real nice German made 340 also. My wife hates the Accumark though, she calls it my "Rubbermaid Rifle." I really don't care for synthetic rifles, so I broke down and bought the Accumark and I've grown to like it, plus the 340 os a hell of a cartridge. jorge

Now I see. Just so few people around here talk about wood stocks I assumed you were jabbing about synthetics. Yeah, the Deluxe is a salty puppy, (however the Sporter is an affordable alternative .. not much more than the price you quote for the M70) but I'm still gonna own one someday in 30-06 ... gonna be my retirement rifle.



Although I don't own an M70, its due to lack of desire to do so. I was just telling another poster here my two top choices for my DGR (may never face DG ... but does that matter <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />) are either an M70 (similar to the one that just sold in the classified ... but with the bolt on the correct side), simply an awesome rifle IMHO, or of course a MkV with a nice matte deluxe stock (euromark style) in .375 WBY. I found a deluxe in 7RM that may fit the bill and not cost me nearly $2k. Next to a nice Weatherby, I think the M70 classic with a nice piece of wood is hard to beat. Period.



I cannot argue ... it is what trips one's trigger. I've been incredibly lucky ... I've been able to squeeze into everyone of my Roys for close to 1/2 (less in some cases) than what they should cost.

Around here, the only ones that buy the weatherbys, as so I am told by our local dealers, are the rich doctors that get invited on a hunt but know nothing about rifles. they want something that is pretty, expensive and not common. they think they can impress the guys at the hunt club with a "fancy rifle". I saw this myself one afternoon. I was in the gun shop and this fat cat drives up in his red convertable mercedes and say he was invited to go deer hunting but did not have a rifle. he left about thirty minutes later after dropping $3,000.00! I really have nothing against the rifle and the company supports the shooting industry, but I simply do not want to be associated with the LOCAL "weatherby crowd".

257: Well I guess that's why they make blondes, brunettes and redheads. Many-a-time I've been in my friend's gun shop here in Jacksonville called Green Acres where some neophyte in a "pocket T-shirt" and let's just say I doubt he has a working knowledge of firearms either, rolls in and says pretty much the same thing as the doctor you describedexcept for " I don't know gimme a 30/30 and whatever bullet you got on sale" and out the door he walks. Ignorance and idiocy transcend all walks of life. I'll take the Weatherby. jorge

Its kinda funny the reasons some people dont like Weatherby's. Its kinda like the car industry. Many of the average Joe's look at the Vette and the Viper as cool cars but also as wannabe cars. I think the WBY falls in that range. They are not the Ferrari (Lazzeroni) or Lamborghini's (Jarrett) of the rifle world. It goes the opposite way as well. The so called "Weatherby crowd" looks at a Win or Rem as a joke just like the Viper and Vette owners would look at these rice rocket wannabe race cars as jokes too. Some of them can perform without a doubt but it takes more to get there than just buying a Honda, you have just that a Honda till you dump time and money into it and even then a good driver in a Viper will blow your doors off. With a Weatherby your paying for IMHO superior quality wood, fit, and finish of the whole package and most will perform with the best available. I would bet everything I own that Rem and Win on a scaled number, have put out more supposed wouldnt shoot 3" group rifles than WBY ever has and their fit finish is down right terrible compared to WBY. IMHO Win has done better at that than Rem has though. Unless you get into there custom grade stuff which then your getting a wannabe WBY in my eyes cause you get into custom Roy's and its another world still yet.

Weatherby and Sako's for me thank you and I am not nowhere near the income of a Dr. either.

Nowdays, you can get a Wby. in almost any combo of stock, caliber, metal finish, configuration, and price range imaginable.

I own three of them- a Fibermark in .257 (my favorite all-time), a .300 synthetic, and a .416 Euromark which I bought from a friend in unfired condition. The Euromark is one beautiful rifle.

But pretty is as pretty does, and my Fibermark .257 is the shiniest of all. This rifle, with the 120 gr. Noslers that it prefers, has put more heads on the wall than anything else I own. The assets of short bolt lift, strong action, resistance to dings and abuse, and- of course, accuracy, are just very hard to beat with any rifle/cartridge combo used for deer-sized game.

Most of you may not regard a guarantee of 1.5", 3-shot groups out of the box a great deal, but it takes some balls to back it up with a target which comes with the rifle to prove the point.

257bob,

That seems to be the "Weatherby Crowd" around here as well. They usually have money but no knowledge of guns or hunting. They just want something flashy to brag about.

BTW, they usually have a Zeiss or Swarovski mounted by the gun store and shoot factory loads.

Nothing against that sort of thing it's just not my style...

Give me a Reminton 700,Luppy scope and handloads and I'm happy.

Yes the ammo was undersize in body diameter, chamber was at or near SAAMI max. The 338-06 does not have the same body diameter as the 30-06 according to SAAMI, their ammo did.

here's the story from a previous post:

After much discussion with the engineers and technicians at Weatherby I have come to a couple conclusions and while the engineers and technicians didn't come right out and say I was correct they never said I was wrong either.

The problem I believe stems from the fact that they produced the rifle using the SAAMI chamber specs but not the ammunition. The SAAMI 338-06 chamber is larger than a SAAMI 30-06 chamber. The Weatherby ammo and the resized 30-06 cases I used were too small for the chamber. Had the ammo been manufactured to the SAAMI spec or the chamber body cut to 30-06 dimensions there wouldn't have been a problem.

SAAMI says the ammo should be .4698 just ahead of the web. Their ammo averaged .4667 same as a 30-06 case. With a chamber size of .473+ and a fired case size of .4715 the case was bulging .0048 on the first firing. Their only comment was they had nothing to do with the ammo and the rifle was within SAAMI specs.

Once they insisted the rifle was within SAAMI specs I asked them to accuracy test it. I didn't ask for that at first because with the obvious case bulging issue I expected it to be rebarrelled. They replaced the rifle because the best group they could obtain was 1.8". Not surprising as the case had over .006" of slop in the chamber before firing.

I asked the warranty department if the reason they dropped the 338-06 chambering was because of the chamber problems. The only reponse they would give was "it might have had something to do with it." It wasn't a fair question I know as they have no control over what calibers are offered but I figured they would have an idea of the number of 338-06 rifles that came through the warranty department.

Well if the "Weatherby crowd" includes guys like Elgin Gates, Herb Klien, CJ McElroy, General Chuck Yeager and others, throw me in that "no nothing about hunting" crowd. Except that I like Leupold scopes, even though two of my Weatherbys have Zeiss,' EVERYBODY knows how much I make and I do load my own ammo. I knew that sooner or later reasonable discussion would go out the window and emotions would set in. If you don't like Weatherbys, FINE, but why the "put downs"? jorge

Jorgel,

I have a question on Weatherbys, that I asked on your other post forum about Weatherbys. Instead of repeating my self here, can you read my qusetion , & reply on either AC , or here. thanks

Go over "there." jorge