Gunsmithing Dad's trusty Weatherby

[Derrick300]

It's time for me to follow through with some old plans my dad and I had talked about. My dad passed away a year ago in August and I want to get some thoughts on some minor Weaherby Vanguard upgrades. I know its just a Vanguard but I need to follow through if possible.
Accuracy has fallen off and some help is needed

The subject:
Weatherby Vanguard Synthetic stock, .308 roughly 15-18 years old (guesstimate)

The ideal:
Re-barrel with same contour Kreiger, Bartlein, Rock etc....
True action
Pillar bed action to stock
Free float barrel
And new trigger if available.

Now I know this is not a great candidate for an upgrade but given the circumstances I must see this through.
Any help on parts and more importantly a good reputable smith that will take on a Weatherby project would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Derrick

 

[Twisted300Win MAG]

The vanguard is a great platform to build off of. There are plenty of aftermarket add on's for them. Stocks, triggers, 20 MOA rails. I have a long action vanguard I had trued and had a 28" fluted hart barrel put on it. McMillan A2 stock. Trigger selection was kind of slim when I did mine, but has gotten better. The action is smooth always functions flawlessly. It's chambered in 300win mag and it shoots extreamly well. Sounds like a great way to honor your father. Go for it and good luck.
Donald

 

[Derrick300]

Thanks Twisted. What smith did you use? I'd lead read someplace that not many smiths work on Weatherby stuff so if anyone knows one who does and please let me know.


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[Twisted300Win MAG]

Hart rifle barrels fit and chambered the barre. I did the rest. Someone can correct me if im wrong but I'm pretty sure SAC, Xring accuracy and a few others work on the vanguards. The vanguards are basically a Howa 1500. I'll try and snap a few pics if my 300win to give you an idea of what's possible.
Donald

 

[MarinePMI]

Like Twisted stated, the Vangaurd is a Howa 1500 (Howa makes them for Weatherby). There are after market parts available, so what you're describing is well within the realm of the possible as well as prudent.

 

[Derrick300]

Thanks for the replies guys, I will look into it. I'd like to see the pics if you get a chance.


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[Flather18]

I love the idea of what you are doing! I'm looking to upgrade my newer vanguard 2 300 as well. I can't wait to see Twisted's pics

 

[Twisted300Win MAG]

This was my first custom rifle. Chambered in 300 win mag. Started as a vanguard sub MOA. I sent it to Hart to have a #8 28" spiral fluted barrel fit and chambered. They recut the threads squared the lugs and face of the action and bolt. I installed a rifle basix trigger set it to 1lb. Bedded it into a McMillan A2. Installed a EGW HD 20MOA base. Mounted a leupold mark 4 6.5-20 in mark 4 rings. Added a speed lock firing pin. Rifle shoots great. The group pictured is a 5 shot group at 100yards with 208 Amaxs.





Donald

 

[Red_SC]

Interesting project, my dad and I have talked about rebarreling his Vanguard once or twice. Only problem is the action threads are metric, so I'll have to use another lathe as minor doesn't do metric.

A couple years back I replaced the trigger in it. After swapping it in, it failed the function check with the safety on. Engaging the safety increased the pressure needed to fire, but it would still drop the pin. A call to the factory was useless, they said I could send it in but it was within spec. If I remember correctly, they speced the safety to hold against around 16 lbs of pressure. Looking at the design of the trigger, all it did was press a detent against the trigger bar that depended on leverage to increase the trigger pull, but didn't block it. There was no way to make it work right. Ended up ordering a different brand, which worked perfectly. I THINK the bad one was a Rifle Basix and the good one a Timney, but I can't swear to it. It's been a couple years and my memory is hazy.

Overall, though, I think the Vanguard is a great base for a build. Look at the options that are selling points of some Remington clones, and they're already on the Vanguard- integral recoil lug, one piece bolt, fluted bolt. Ive been told they're pretty true from the factory as well.

 

[Twisted300Win MAG]

I would have went with the timney trigger if their would have been one in stock somewhere when I put this together. I've been lucky and had great luck with this one. However I had nothing but trouble with the rifle basix I tried using on a rem 700 project a few years ago. The gentleman that went through this action said that it was very close to being true from the start, infact after setting up the bolt to square the bolt lugs and face he only took .001 off the lugs and measured no negligible runout on the bolt face. After I had this put together I started doing my own barrel work as well as the rest. All and all of my lathe would do metric threads I'd build off another one in a hartbeat.
Thank
Donald

 

[Trevor300wsm]

Tag

 

[flatland1]

I've done a few Howas in the past; the one pictured here was one of the newer bbl'd actions with their HACT trigger. I didn't bother to true this one, as several of their short actions I'd dialed-in in the past hadn't had enough run-out on the receiver face to justify the time & effort. Instead, I fitted & chambered a 26" Krieger 1-8tw sendero contour in 260 Imp 30*, machined the projection at the rear of the mag well to allow AICS mags to seat, and bedded it into a McM A5 after adding an EGW 20 MOA sloped rail. I used a Harrell's Precision tactical brake, then CeraKoted the bbl'd action & PTG DBM in sniper gray. It's a good shooter, and feeds reliably with the AICS mags - only thing I think it needs is an extended bolt knob, as bolt lift effort is stiffer than a M700.

ETA - I've done a couple more of the latest Howa SAs since doing this one, and found that after dialing them in in my action trueing fixture they had 2-3 thou runout on the receiver face. Went ahead and trued the faces & lug seats on these, and am contemplating pulling this rifle apart to check its action for runout. However, it's shot so well to date that I'm not sure it's worth the time & trouble.....will have to do some shooting with it from 1000yds and compare the results with those of my Rem M700 with a Bartlein chambered for the same ctdg.