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

Making accurate rifles is not some black art. It's a matter of making components to close tolerances (tolerances easily achieved by correctly-used modern CNC machinery) and fitting everything up square, straight. and concentric.

The Vanguard has now been in production for nearly 35 years, The manufacturers have continually upgraded equipment, adding precision computer-controlled machine tools. Workers are highly skilled and experienced.

No Compromises

I asked Weatherby representative Mike Schwiebert how often they receive a customer complaint about Vanguard accuracy. He replied, "Actually our service department very seldom gets a Vanguard back for any reason, and virtually never due to complaints about accuracy. We know the rifles will shoot Before they ever get shipped."

In fact they are tested twice. As each barreled action is completed it is bolted into a stock, checked for proper functioning of all parts, and test fired for accuracy. Once received at the Weatherby plant in California they are bolted into Butler Creek stocks and tested again for function and accuracy. Test targets are signed by the person doing the testing and are packed with the rifle.

What happens if a customer just can't get his Vanguard to shoot? "We'd have the rifle shipped either to us in California or to an authorized service center." Schwiebert advised. "We would check it out, if it didn't meet the guarantee we'd either repair or replace it."

"The Vanguard on consignment, a .270 Winchester, came with two test targets measuring 1.060 and 1.114 inches, fired with W-W Power-Point ammunition. Weatherby also sent along a set of their new one piece alumminum bases and rings. The rings are made for Weatherby by Talley, to the usual high standards we've come to expect from Talley. At under $35 they are a real bargain.

The base/ring combination has no Adjustements for windage, so any required adjustment must be done with the scope's internal adjustments. As it turned out, very little adjustment was needed. I fitted a new Leupold 4-12x VX-l scope, new from the box with its adjustments centered. Much to my suprise the first shot, without touching the adjustments, was just a bit low and left. It took only about a quarter-turn of windage and elevation dials to sight the rifle in.

What this means is both the Talley rings and the vanguard's receiver are precisely machined, sight base holes aligned properly, and the barrel is filled square and straight to the receiver.

Test Ammunition

The Weatherby guarantee specifies "premium" ammunition, I suppose so someone doesn't complain their stock of Korean War surplus .30-'06 amino isn't adequately accurate. I had four types of premium ammunition in .270 Win. on my shelves: Black Hills Gold with 130 grain Nosier Ballistic Tip and Barnes XLC bullets, and Winchester-Western Supreme with 130 gram Ballistic Silvertip and 140grain Fail Safe Bullets.

After a couple of shots to ensure the rifle was on paper I fired a three-shot group with each ammo type. The four groups averaged .63 inches. The weather was brutally hot. around 95 degrees, and even waiting several minutes between shots the barrel didn't cool much. Fortunately I was able to get out early the next morning and complete the shooting in cooler conditions.