There will always be enough insecure people who equate a deep pocket to being able to buy mythical "best quality" toys, whether the toy happens to be an airplane, a car, a wristwatch, a gun, or some other bauble to support the people who pander to them in high style.
Jerry
That's a little harsh Jerry. There are several insecure people here that like nice cars, guns and watches. Don't know about airplanes though.:guns:
Just look at the flowers Lizzie, just look at the flowers.
I really like their wooden stock shape, not the godawful laquer, but the style, (California sporter i think its called) handled a few Weatherby's and did a bit of goat culling with a Brno in 223 that had the same style, handles wonderfully for me.
As for the nine lug carry on, I see it as gimmicky and unnecessary, and the proprietary cartridges are a resounding "meh", If my lottery numbers come in I'll likely own one in a 22 centre fire, but until then I'll pass.
I guess I must be insecure. I have always liked the look of a mark V but I like shiny stocks on some guns. 700 bdl, I would like to own one of those too. Mythical quality, that might depend on who was doing the evaluating. There are a lot of things I like or don't like that is contrary to most on here but I really don't care and I like looking at or hearing about things I would never buy. Actually I think that makes me quite secure.
Way back when, a local furniture store had a beautiful gun cabinet I lusted after in their front window (similar to this)...........
From a looks/art stand point, I would have liked to hang a MkV in that cabinet in my dreamed of gun room. More for lookin at than shootin...... In the realities of life, I have ended up with just utilitarian firearms.
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
Funny thing about people that others call insecure, they buy what they like and not because everyone else likes it. They also aren't afraid to wait until they can afford what they want rather than settle for what they can use. Not everyone buys a Rolex or a Corvette to impress the neighbors but rather because they wanted one for a long time and when they can afford it, they buy. I've owned a few Weatherby's but then again, I love polished blue and fancy wood. Nothing like a beautifully finished Sako Deluxe just like the royal blue on a Colt Python with a nice set of checkered wood grips. I think the style of the stock on the Weatherby rifles adds to the shooting ability and reduced "felt" recoil. Try shooting the same caliber from a Winchester model 70 and you would know what I mean. I currently own just 2 but still prize my 270 Wby Mag Euromark that I gave to one of my Nephews as an early inheritance. Gorgeous satin blue with just as beautiful satin piece of wood. The 9 lugs do not detract from the rifle just like the 8 lugs on an AR 15 bolt don't detract from that firearm. they are there, deal with it. The rifles weren't made for sustained firing at a range. They were made to be sighted in and used as hunting rifles. Just so you can see that they weren't all as described by the people that like "utilitarian" firearms, here is the Euromark.
“When guns are outlawed, only patriots will have guns.”
:yousuck: that is a nice looking rifle, the nine lugs are not are deal breaker, but they're vaunted as being stronger and superior to other locking lug systems and they are just not all that, my issue with them is more with the marketing of them then the design itself.
The Weatherby style stock is awesome though, I really like it and you have a fine example of it there.
It was my first legit big game rifle and with it I took my first whitetail buck, elk, muley and antelope.
Just in the last couple years, I bedded the action and handloaded some 165gr Sierra HPBT-GK bullets and she groups in the .1s"
I bought two Vanguard carbines (20" thin barrel) in 7mm-08 for my two SILs. I paid just over $400 each, and believed I was buying the best rifle for that price, at the time. Neither of them were gun nuts, but one is a good hunter, and both shoot pretty well. I sighted both in with Nikon ProStaffs and they both shot just a hair over MOA with factory loads. They had the feeling of rifles that could do much better with a customized load, but neither of my SILs require better than MOA. I would gladly buy another (or a Howa 1500) for myself, for that same price.
I have a MK V, with absolutely 0 dude factor. It's parkerized, with a cheap plastic stock. My father in law bought it a Kmart in Colorado, about 20 years ago. He paid aroud $500 for it, IIRC.
I bought it from him, more or less to keep it in the family.
The action is very robust, very high quality. Aside from that, it's a hunting rifle. It shoots OK, around an inch with factory ammo. I haven't started handloading for it yet.
I'm not in love with it, but I don't dislike it either. It's a hunting tool, nothing more. I sure wouldn't pay the premium to build a rifle on a MK V action, over a R700 or Savage 110.
I have a MK V, with absolutely 0 dude factor. It's parkerized, with a cheap plastic stock. My father in law bought it a Kmart in Colorado, about 20 years ago. He paid aroud $500 for it, IIRC.
I bought it from him, more or less to keep it in the family.
The action is very robust, very high quality. Aside from that, it's a hunting rifle. It shoots OK, around an inch with factory ammo. I haven't started handloading for it yet.
I'm not in love with it, but I don't dislike it either. It's a hunting tool, nothing more. I sure wouldn't pay the premium to build a rifle on a MK V action, over a R700 or Savage 110.
I have a German-made Mark V in 7MM Weatherby. It came to me with a stock broken in half across the trigger guard/wrist area. After I repaired it and refinished the stock, the owner traded it to me as part payment for leasing our farm for bird dog training. It eats brass like popcorn, 2 or 3 reloads and the neck splits. I might rechamber it to 7 STW one of these days. It doesn't make deer any deader than my .30-06, or even my .243!
Jerry
Not a Weatherby fan. I don't like the calibers, but especially don't like to looks. They look to Hollywood to me, all glitzy and with too much makeup. No dude factor at all. Given that, I'm sure they're great shooting rifles but that bowling-ball finish on the stock and the brilliant blue steel shows a Japanese influence. I like traditional-looking rifles, which they ain't. Given the choice of a free Weatherby or a free Model 70 with the stipulation I had to keep either one, I'd go with the Model 70.
Concealed carry is for protection, open carry is for attention.
Not a Weatherby fan. I don't like the calibers, but especially don't like to looks. They look to Hollywood to me, all glitzy and with too much makeup. No dude factor at all. Given that, I'm sure they're great shooting rifles but that bowling-ball finish on the stock and the brilliant blue steel shows a Japanese influence. I like traditional-looking rifles, which they ain't. Given the choice of a free Weatherby or a free Model 70 with the stipulation I had to keep either one, I'd go with the Model 70.
Reading through these posts, I was amused by the "problems" that different people focused on. Since almost everyone dislikes the stocks, I always wonder why they never offered a more traditional stock.
I've owned 7 MK-V Weatherby rifles (7mm-378 WM) and have nothing but good things to say about them. They are accurate, feed to chamber is superb, and they are reliable to the extreme. Anyone who says they have problems with the MK-V probably has never really owned one!
The first round I chambered in mine while checking the fit of a reload ended up shooting a big hole in the roof of my gun shop. As soon as I touched the bolt handle to eject the round (nowhere near the trigger, BTW) the warped die-cast trigger housing let the sear slip. On the Weatherby owners' forum, I found out the German-made rifles have that as a chronic problem, and those trigger assemblies are obsolete. With a LOT of tinkering, the trigger from a Japanese-made Mark V can be made to fit, sort of. Trouble-free, my rosy red bunghole!
Jerry
Actually SOME here do not like the stocks. Most complains are just about the heavy shiny finish. Quite a few here are happy owners and are fine with them. Thousands of very happy customers have kept them in business for MANY decades so a lot of people think their stocks AND their rifles are just fine.
To my knowledge, every high end rifle maker in the US offers choices in stocks.
Thus, I have never had to buy a heavy, laminated stock instead of walnut (my favorite for looks) or synthetic (my favorite for durability).
For example: If I want a Browning, they don't make me buy the horrible Birds Eye Maple stocks.
With cock-on-open, you are going from a stationary start to compress a really beefy spring, while at the same time potentially breaking loose a cartridge that has been pressure-fit to the chamber. Put the two together and the process is harder and slower than it needs to be.
Cock-on-close separates the physical effort you have to input to accomplish these operations, AND it saves compressing the striker spring until you have made a running start on the forward stroke.
Cock-on-open may offer certain advantages to installing fiddly adjustable match triggers that often have trouble standing the test of the real-world beating inflicted by a lot of operators, but for a system that's GOTTA work no matter what, I think Mauser had the right idea with the closure-cocking system on his '92-'96 - copied on the 1914/17. The beefy military two-stage triggers CAN be made clean enough for target accuracy, and they WORK. The more I play with the "Swiss Watches", the more I like the "Soviet Tanks".
You make some very good points as usual. But I guess it's what you're used to. I have one friend with a grand old sporterization of a 1917 that shoots great too. His dad had the rifle built by an old gun smith here in Port Lavaca some 55 years ago and it is cock on closing also. I know a guy that hunts Africa an he likes cock on closing. What you said about possibly having to break a stuck case loose made this a very good argument for your opinion.
Daddy, what's an enabler?
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
I'd take a Mark V if somebody was to gift me with it. I'd even shoot and hunt with it!
Just ain't gonna buy one.
If it makes any difference, oh hell whether it does or not, I didn't buy my one Weatherby Mk. V new and doubt I would have. I caught a guy in a weak moment and paid $1000 for a used Lazer Mark in .300 Wby Mag. There's a lot of lesser guns out there that will cost you more than that. Like anything else more expensive than Joe Sixpack is willing to buy new, the Weatherby Mark V can be had used and in good shape for a decent price if you shop around and find one at the right price.
Daddy, what's an enabler?
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Reading through these posts, I was amused by the "problems" that different people focused on. Since almost everyone dislikes the stocks, I always wonder why they never offered a more traditional stock.
Reading through these posts, I was amused by the "problems" that different people focused on. Since almost everyone dislikes the stocks, I always wonder why they never offered a more traditional stock.
Because no matter how many people on these Forums cuss them, there's still four gazillion people that love em. And that's the market they cater to.
Daddy, what's an enabler?
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
If it makes any difference, oh hell whether it does or not, I didn't buy my one Weatherby Mk. V new and doubt I would have. I caught a guy in a weak moment and paid $1000 for a used Lazer Mark in .300 Wby Mag. There's a lot of lesser guns out there that will cost you more than that. Like anything else more expensive than Joe Sixpack is willing to buy new, the Weatherby Mark V can be had used and in good shape for a decent price if you shop around and find one at the right price.
I wouldn't pay $500 for one.
"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Funny thing about people that others call insecure, they buy what they like and not because everyone else likes it. They also aren't afraid to wait until they can afford what they want rather than settle for what they can use. Not everyone buys a Rolex or a Corvette to impress the neighbors but rather because they wanted one for a long time and when they can afford it, they buy. I've owned a few Weatherby's but then again, I love polished blue and fancy wood. Nothing like a beautifully finished Sako Deluxe just like the royal blue on a Colt Python with a nice set of checkered wood grips. I think the style of the stock on the Weatherby rifles adds to the shooting ability and reduced "felt" recoil. Try shooting the same caliber from a Winchester model 70 and you would know what I mean. I currently own just 2 but still prize my 270 Wby Mag Euromark that I gave to one of my Nephews as an early inheritance. Gorgeous satin blue with just as beautiful satin piece of wood. The 9 lugs do not detract from the rifle just like the 8 lugs on an AR 15 bolt don't detract from that firearm. they are there, deal with it. The rifles weren't made for sustained firing at a range. They were made to be sighted in and used as hunting rifles. Just so you can see that they weren't all as described by the people that like "utilitarian" firearms, here is the Euromark.
I've known a few guys that shot .270 WMs and loved them. But one guy used to shoot 130 grain bullets out of his. I think that's a waste. That big case will shove a 150 or larger bullet along faster than my regular .270 Winchester will a 130 grain, making it an excellent Elk and larger game rifle. I wonder if Weatherby will take advantage of the availability of some of the heavier bullets in .277 they're coming out with now and tighten up the twist rates of their barrels. I can see a .270 WBY pushing a 170 grain bullet at 3000 FPS out the Muzzle with a 1.80 twist barrel.
Daddy, what's an enabler?
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Replies
I love my Vanguard VGS in .30-06.
It was my first legit big game rifle and with it I took my first whitetail buck, elk, muley and antelope.
Just in the last couple years, I bedded the action and handloaded some 165gr Sierra HPBT-GK bullets and she groups in the .1s"
That's a little harsh Jerry. There are several insecure people here that like nice cars, guns and watches. Don't know about airplanes though.:guns:
As for the nine lug carry on, I see it as gimmicky and unnecessary, and the proprietary cartridges are a resounding "meh", If my lottery numbers come in I'll likely own one in a 22 centre fire, but until then I'll pass.
Just ain't gonna buy one.
From a looks/art stand point, I would have liked to hang a MkV in that cabinet in my dreamed of gun room. More for lookin at than shootin...... In the realities of life, I have ended up with just utilitarian firearms.
“When guns are outlawed, only patriots will have guns.”
The Weatherby style stock is awesome though, I really like it and you have a fine example of it there.
I bought two Vanguard carbines (20" thin barrel) in 7mm-08 for my two SILs. I paid just over $400 each, and believed I was buying the best rifle for that price, at the time. Neither of them were gun nuts, but one is a good hunter, and both shoot pretty well. I sighted both in with Nikon ProStaffs and they both shot just a hair over MOA with factory loads. They had the feeling of rifles that could do much better with a customized load, but neither of my SILs require better than MOA. I would gladly buy another (or a Howa 1500) for myself, for that same price.
I bought it from him, more or less to keep it in the family.
The action is very robust, very high quality. Aside from that, it's a hunting rifle. It shoots OK, around an inch with factory ammo. I haven't started handloading for it yet.
I'm not in love with it, but I don't dislike it either. It's a hunting tool, nothing more. I sure wouldn't pay the premium to build a rifle on a MK V action, over a R700 or Savage 110.
That would be the 340, right?
Jerry
But you have a Howa, not a Weatherby...and since it's a Howa it makes sense that it's a shooter...never seen one that wasn't
Yes.
Reading through these posts, I was amused by the "problems" that different people focused on. Since almost everyone dislikes the stocks, I always wonder why they never offered a more traditional stock.
Jerry
Have you been peeking again?
To my knowledge, every high end rifle maker in the US offers choices in stocks.
Thus, I have never had to buy a heavy, laminated stock instead of walnut (my favorite for looks) or synthetic (my favorite for durability).
For example: If I want a Browning, they don't make me buy the horrible Birds Eye Maple stocks.
http://www.browning.com/products/catalog/firearms/finder.asp?f1=023B
If I don't like this Howa, they have other choices. http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/36_280/products_id/719001444/HOWA+223REM+20+HB+AB+CERAKOTE+HOGUE+K-HIGHLANDER
You make some very good points as usual. But I guess it's what you're used to. I have one friend with a grand old sporterization of a 1917 that shoots great too. His dad had the rifle built by an old gun smith here in Port Lavaca some 55 years ago and it is cock on closing also. I know a guy that hunts Africa an he likes cock on closing. What you said about possibly having to break a stuck case loose made this a very good argument for your opinion.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Like the one posted on page 2?
Because no matter how many people on these Forums cuss them, there's still four gazillion people that love em. And that's the market they cater to.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
I wouldn't pay $500 for one.
I've known a few guys that shot .270 WMs and loved them. But one guy used to shoot 130 grain bullets out of his. I think that's a waste. That big case will shove a 150 or larger bullet along faster than my regular .270 Winchester will a 130 grain, making it an excellent Elk and larger game rifle. I wonder if Weatherby will take advantage of the availability of some of the heavier bullets in .277 they're coming out with now and tighten up the twist rates of their barrels. I can see a .270 WBY pushing a 170 grain bullet at 3000 FPS out the Muzzle with a 1.80 twist barrel.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
yet you will pay over $1000 for a build? I love 700s but I don't think they're much better than Mark Vs.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.