Weatherby Vanguard: the Weatherby Vanguard was introduced in 1970. Howa of Japan made the barreled actions to Weatherby's specifications, chambered for popular standard cartridges. They were stocked in good quality walnut, hand bedded and hand checkered - i.e., non-Weatherby - Cover Story

Guns Magazine, March, 2004 by Dave Anderson

The stocks had the distinctive look Roy Weatherby had made famous on the Mark V; a prominent Monte Carlo comb, flared pistol grip, squared forearm, rosewood grip cap and forearm tip, white line spacers, and bright, gleaming finish.

Currently one of the features for which the Vanguard is touted is its value. Younger shooters may not know it, but when introduced the Vanguard was rather a pricey item. Suggested retail was similar to Sako rifles, and about 25-percent higher than the popular "7s", the Remington 700, Ruger 77 and Winchester 70.

Betty Noonan was with the Weatherby company for 37 years, starting as a secretary and retiring as vice president of sales. She wrote, "Both Roy and [son] Ed were aware that the amount of tedious hand work required ... especially in the area of the flared pistol grip, was very costly and responsible for keeping the selling price higher than most of the competition." (Weatherby: The Man, The Gun, The Legend by Grits and Tom Gresham).

For the first decade or so the Vanguard was a steady but not outstanding seller. Shooters who admired the Weatherby stock style and wanted standard cartridges, or who didn't want to pay the price for a Mark V, bought the Vanguard. On the other hand, riflemen who Simply wanted a sound hunting rifle didn't see much advantage in paying a premium over other good models.

Passing Fancy?

In 1983 Roy's son Ed Weatherby became president of the company. It was under Ed's direction that Weatherby became the first big Company to offer a synthetic stocked rifle, the Mark V Fibermark. It was introduced over Roy's objections. In a famous-last-words quote, Betty Noonan quotes Roy as saying the fiberglass craze" was just a "passing fancy." (Point of interest: the original Fibermark suggested retail price was $110 higher than the walnut-stocked Mark V.)

The success of the Fibermark is important to the Vanguard story. Ed Weatherby was Convinced a lower price would lead to greater Vanguard sales. In 1984 he pushed for a new stock design. Its more traditional appearance with classic oil finish was actually preferred by many shooters, and the stock was less costly to make. By 1985 the Vanguard's suggested retail was somewhat lower than that of the competition.

Quoting Betty Noonan again, she recalls Roy saying to Ed, "I won't stand in your way because you've proven me wrong with the Fibermark ... but these rifles don't even look like a Weatherby. I guarantee you they won't sell."

To Roy's utter amazement Vanguard sales promptly quadrupled. Despite being proven wrong Roy was no doubt proud to see his son's judgment vindicated, and pleased to know the company he created was in good hands.

Vanguard sales grew even more when the synthetic-stocked Fiberguard model was added. In 1993 an agreement was reached whereby Wal-Mart became the exclusive U.S. distributor of the Weatherby Vanguard, with two basic models stocked in wood or synthetic. For 10 years the Vanguard was not listed in the Weatherby catalog.

Commencing in 2003 the Vanguard is back in the catalog, and available once again at gun shops. The current Vanguard Synthetic is offered in either blued carbon steel or stainless steel, with synthetic stock only. Currently the blue-steel Vanguard retails for some 30-percent less than the three "7s."

Cost savings and price reductions were achieved by using less costly stocks. While the tooling for injection-molded stocks is expensive, once in production individual stocks are inexpensive. Weatherby no doubt gets a pretty good price discount by buying in large quantities.

Accuracy Guaranteed

Weather-by guarantees the Vanguard will shoot into 1 1/2, inches (three shot groups, 100 yards, cold barrel, using premium factory ammunition), It's not uncommon to heal shooters disparage the guarantee as no big deal--"An inch and a half is nothing, any rifle will do that, I demand at least one inch groups." etc.

Actually the guarantee is a big deal; or rather, the fact Weatherby can make such a guarantee on a rifle selling for such a modest price is a big deal.

Any company, after all, could easily offer and back up an accuracy guarantee. One way is simply to test every rife market those which pass the accuracy test, and scrap the rest. No problem, right? Well, there is one problem. Income from rifles sold has to cover production costs of all the rifles, including those which are scrapped. Thai increases the selling price.

Another way would be to salvage the rifles which don't measure up the first time. Rebarrel, rebed, lap locking lugs, do whatever is needed to improve accuracy. Of course labor costs would increase, and again the price of each riffle sold would have to reflect such costs.

But there is only one way to offer rifles with all accuracy guarantee, at a moderate price. That is to build them right the first lime, every time. Virtually every rifle has to pass muster, and without a lot of fussing. That can only be accomplished with a design which is basically sound, built to close tolerances--which in turn requires high quality machinery and materials, and a skilled, experienced work force.