.308 bolt action Weatherby ??

[baih777]

I have been looking at getting a bolt action .308 to shoot 400 to 600 yards targets and zombies. no hunting. i was going to build another AR but i think i would save alot on a bolt action and i wont go through ammo as fast. I like the remington 700 varmint and tikka's but i never see anyone mention a weatherby? i have been looking at a Vanguard 2 also.
What are the cons on the Weatherby ?
thanks guys.

[scidx]

The Vanguard is a solid action with a "one-piece" bolt. It is a Howa 1500 with a new name. If you are going to modify everything except the receiver, the Vanguard is a decent choice. I prefer the Vanguard over a bottom line Rem 700 (personally); however, for a simple custom rifle, the Remington has it beat by a mile. The aftermarket options for the Rem 700 totally drown out any parts made for a Vanguard. Also, most gunsmiths know the 700 action more than any other.

The Vanguard will need a new trigger, out-of-the-gate. I don't prefer the stock, either. Although, the two Vanguards I have fired were good shooters straight out of the box.

The Vanguard/1500 will accept scope bases made for the Rem 700.

[someR1]

most people say remi/tikka/savage

[BDH]

Why not just get a Howa...less expensive than Weatherby and they now make a tactical magazine setup for the Howa (don't remember who "they" are but I saw one advertised recently.)
Bruce

[Merc1138]

Probably the biggest reason I can think of that no one mentions the weatherby vanguard series, is that the vanguard 2 is new and the original vanguard was sold in a dumb manner. Basically they cherry picked the sub moa vanguards after test firing them, did nothing special but write "SUB-MOA" on the bottom metal, and jack the price up $400. So you'd either be paying $850-900 for a sub moa rifle when tikka makes the same claim for under 600, or you buy the $500 vanguard 1 model and you're guaranteed to not have a sub-moa gun.

Weatherby finally fixed that by ditching the sub-moa cherry picking and pricing, however I don't think many people have gotten their hands on the vanguard 2 yet.

Most people will say remington/tikka/savage because the remington 700 has so many aftermarket parts available you can build a 700 from scratch and not have a single remington part in it. Great for customization.

Tikka makes a rifle that is guaranteed sub-moa out of the box and has models starting at just over 500 with that guarantee that all have a detachable magazine and user adjustable trigger. That is a hell of a lot of bang for the buck. Very little in the way of aftermarket(a few stocks, rings, a trigger, bolt knob/shroud, and bottom metal are all that come to mind)

Savage has a long history of making decent out of the box rifles and has some aftermarket selection. They truthfully make claims about people winning competitions with their rifles in a stock configuration, pricing isn't bad either.

[RuckerSMO]

Take a look at Sniper Central, they have package deals on Howa 1500s. Resonable price for good quality rifles. About the only thing that you may want to do is a trigger job, other than that they will work with you to get the rifle you want, mine is being built right now. You can go pretty inexpensive, or go through the roof. If nothing else, you can get some good ideas on what can be done with a Howa/Weatherby.

Midway is selling the bottom metal for the detachable box magazine for the Howa, as well as the magazines for it. The metal is from Legacy sports, the importers for the Howa line. Planning to make that upgrade at some point myself.