I am needing a synthetic stock for a newer Weatherby Vanguard long action with the HACT trigger and a #2 contour barrel. Does anyone know how to tell the difference between the old and new stocks?

Old vanguard stock is black plastic. Newer, vanguard 2 stock is also plastic, but is grey with black grip areas in the wrist and forearm. Going from memory here.

New stock


Old stock

Thanks !

Those are both current production V2 stocks. The one that you have marked as "Old stock" is the stock that Weatherby is putting of the current production Vanguard Select style. It has rigid inserts instead of soft inserts.

The older Vanguard stocks that I've owned were more like a hard plastic version of the Hogue, with a more open pistol grip and a flat forearm.

The current production two- tone V2 stocks are my favorite factory installed injection molded synthetic stock.

Weatherby told me the Select stock is the same as the Pre-S2 stock. At a closer glance I don’t believe it. The stock on the current Vanguard compact looks more like the Pre-S2 synthetic stock. I had one but upgraded the stock in 2011, got rid of it and don’t remember exactly what the Pre-S2 stock looked like. Except that it was all black where as the S2 stock is primarily gray. The old Vanguard stock looks more like this:

I like the looks of the older ones.
Same for the Remington synth.
Checkered please

I believe that Butler Creek made the per-V2 Weatherby injection molded stocks in 2 styles, with and without a monte carlo style comb.

The back of the pistol grip merged directly into the bottom of the stock in the older style, there wasn't a gap that clearly marked the back of the pistol grip as there is in the current stocks.

Howa 1500s have been around for a long time and imported into the U.S. by at least 5 different companies; Interarms, S&W, Mossberg, Weatherby, and Legacy, so there are likely to be multiple styles of both factory and after-market stocks floating around.

EDIT: There is currently an old style Vanguard synthetic stock for sale of eBay, the seller is loneoaktrading