Weatherby is circling the toilet bowl

[Shō[t]gun]

After recently stumbling on the Weatherby podcast and barely making it through 10 minutes of three grown men giggling about bullet speed like its still the 90's, I had to do some looking around the interwebs on the company and it all looks bleak. These guys were talking about how one of them shot a deer in the heart 3 times with a 6.5cm and it just stood there unaware so he wished he had his trusty 6.5-300 to do the job... WTF? Then they went on about the drop charts for the 6.5-300 and how its the best thing out there for 2,000y shooting, as if standard deviation/extreme spread along with the barrel heat for that insanely overbore round were not even a factor for ELR shooting. It's cringe-worthy listening to them go on about the "wallop effect" being necessary, no wonder some people come on this forum and can't believe for a second that a .223 can kill a measly deer.
Their social media gets absolutely berated (deserved) whenever they purposely modify a graph to make the WBY cartridges look superior, and they conveniently leave out ranges where they're surpassed by modern bullets that their cartridges can't accept. I get it, still gotta try... Hornady has done a spectacular job educating the masses on superior modern ballistics with high BC and moderate velocity.
You have to sell one of your organs to buy a box of Wby ammo regardless of caliber. A quick google search shows their revenue is only 1/3 of Christensen, and Christensen doesn't even make shotguns or ammo! Wby's most popular rifle (vanguard line) is made by Howa, and other companies are making equivalent premium rifles that actually chamber calibers that people want.

I don't dislike Weatherby as a company. I think they're cool for niche they fill and have a great history in American hunting culture, but they've gotta do something other than the RPM to gain some traction in the industry or else they're gonna have to sell out.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

Vanguard® MeatEater Edition - Weatherby, Inc.

The Vanguard MeatEater Edition is the culmination of in-field experience, trends, and MeatEater’s personal touches rolled into a collaboration between two top brands in the outdoor industry. *WEATHERBY.COM PURCHASE REQUIRES 120 DAY DELIVERY TO SELECTED FFL* FINISH Barrel/Receiver/Bolt/Bolt...

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Vanguard® HUSH Edition - Weatherby, Inc.

The Vanguard HUSH Edition is sleek, lightweight, and incredibly accurate. Built in collaboration between HUSH and Weatherby, the HUSH Edition brings years of experience together in one rifle. FINISH Barrel/Receiver/Bolt/Bolt Knob/Safety - Graphite Black Cerakote Stock - Gray, raised Monte Carlo...

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[IrkedCitizen]

The RPM isn't even that impressive. Go watch the Hushin Colorado deer hunt video with the new Weatherby 307 rifles. The video is a paid commercial, they kill deer, but not effectively.

 

[bmart2622]

Team up with Hushin doesn't help matters

 

[OKHunter84]

I'm going to have to agree. I much prefer Browning for off the shelf rifles. All of WBY calibers have been always been overbore and their ammo has always been expensive. I usually just assumed the guys carrying WBY were the type ofguy that only likes to hunt, has a little money and doesn't want to take the time to understand turret adjustments. I know, it's a stereotype and most likely not always the case.

What was funny to me was it seemed like there was more rifle issues and misses on the Meateater show once they started carrying the painted up vanguard. I don't have anything to back that claim up but it sure seemed like a thing to me.

 

[amassi]

Can concur
Lifetime weatherby user,
Their first Wyoming advancements the backcountry with a privateer stock and triggertechwas great. Everything else has been influencer bait.
Their old bolts worked great, smooth and slick but to garner likes the fluted and cerakoted it and it sucked. Rough as heck so they doubled down with the 2.0 and made the flutes more aggressive. The 307 is a turd


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[Steve O]

It gets even better. Got this from Weatherby today:





Now you can have $ellout $teve cook for you. What a thrill that would be!

 

[MuleyFever]

Sounds like a sweet prize to me.

 

[Shō[t]gun]

I'm going to have to agree. I much prefer Browning for off the shelf rifles. All of WBY calibers have been always been overbore and their ammo has always been expensive. I usually just assumed the guys carrying WBY were the type ofguy that only likes to hunt, has a little money and doesn't want to take the time to understand turret adjustments. I know, it's a stereotype and most likely not always the case.

What was funny to me was it seemed like there was more rifle issues and misses on the Meateater show once they started carrying the painted up vanguard. I don't have anything to back that claim up but it sure seemed like a thing to me.

Lol the Meateater crew have always been twitchy shooters. Using copper bullets exclusively now doesn't help either, even the good hits run off! I can't vouch for the rest of the Vanguard fleet but the two I've owned in 22-250 and 7RM are both 3/4MOA guns and weren't picky with bullets during load development, Howa makes a good rifle!

 

[wind gypsy]

Can concur
Lifetime weatherby user,
Their first Wyoming advancements the backcountry with a privateer stock and triggertechwas great. Everything else has been influencer bait.
Their old bolts worked great, smooth and slick but to garner likes the fluted and cerakoted it and it sucked. Rough as heck so they doubled down with the 2.0 and made the flutes more aggressive. The 307 is a turd


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Curious on the 307 comment, why is it a turd? Besides the obvious configuration and being a 700 clone, is it a poorly executed 700 clone?

 

[Shō[t]gun]

The RPM isn't even that impressive. Go watch the Hushin Colorado deer hunt video with the new Weatherby 307 rifles. The video is a paid commercial, they kill deer, but not effectively.

Yep, the 6.5 is too late to the game after the PRC. The 338 isn't a bad round, there's just very little interest in chucking 338 rocks right now.

 

[slim jenkins]

I checked out one of their Mark V’s in a local shop and wasn’t impressed. Fit and finish left a lot to be desired. Especially considering the price. Pretty sure it was their Hunter model but could be wrong. Betting it’s still on the rack.

Recoil pad was fit by a blind guy and barrel hard into one side of the channel. Good grief. Not what I expect from Weatherby.

 

[IH8Cali]

There are goobers (being polite for the mods) in every market, hunting is no exception. I love the .300 wby and have never had any issues with the accumark, carbonmark, or the weathermark, in fact they're the most accurate shooting rifles I own right out of the box. I also have a Shaw that's phenomenal from a 'fit and finish' perspective, but still leaves a few things to be desired. Being a lefty, I kind of just went straight to weatherby irrespective of "who" was selling it at the time; the same criticism can be levied at other well notable brands, there are just products for every price point. Hell, people still think Vortex makes great glass, so there's something for everyone.

 

[Grousehntr]

Sellout Steve, good one lol

 

[Axlrod]

I'm going to have to agree. I much prefer Browning for off the shelf rifles. All of WBY calibers have been always been overbore and their ammo has always been expensive. I usually just assumed the guys carrying WBY were the type ofguy that only likes to hunt, has a little money and doesn't want to take the time to understand turret adjustments. I know, it's a stereotype and most likely not always the case.

What was funny to me was it seemed like there was more rifle issues and misses on the Meateater show once they started carrying the painted up vanguard. I don't have anything to back that claim up but it sure seemed like a thing to me.

The 460 isn't overbore

 

[cbuck516]

I certainly see the logic in a lot of people's complaints, but I don't think you can fault a company for attempting to stay relevant. Too each their own.
I hope to pick up a 307 builders action for my next rifle build.

 

[amassi]

I certainly see the logic in a lot of people's complaints, but I don't think you can fault a company for attempting to stay relevant. Too each their own.
I hope to pick up a 307 builders action for my next rifle build.

Relevant would have been more left hand models and chambering their rifles in modern saami cartridges to sell more of them. If they wanted to make a proprietary action then more power to them but it should have been at least a little different from the 20 other 700 clones. If your main selling point is field strippable bolt then you’ve missed the boat


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[SDHNTR]

They are trying to hold onto a bygone era. There was a time when the speed kills and flat shooting mantra made sense. It made up for error. But with rangefinders, clicks and dope cuttters, it’s all irrelevant now.

Weatherby has to do something else. I agree they were on the right track with better quality components, but the good seemed to stop there. Influencer sponsorships certainly aren’t the direction I want to see. The 6.5-300 was/is totally unnecessary.

The fact Weatherby can’t outsell Christiansen with all their widely known problems is sad.

I agree, build a better quality rifle in saami cartridges that doesn’t require expensive ammo and it will sell. Or better yet, just improve upon the old Roy favorites with modern bullet accommodations.

 

[Shō[t]gun]

I certainly see the logic in a lot of people's complaints, but I don't think you can fault a company for attempting to stay relevant. Too each their own.
I hope to pick up a 307 builders action for my next rifle build.

Attempting to stay relevant is different than spewing outdated information that has been surpassed by modern designs, skewing graphs and data, and pretending that anything less powerful is essentially unethical.
Theres nothing wrong with their rifles from what I've experienced, just seems like they're making dumb business decisions to purposely exclude cartridges people actually want, and when they do follow the industry trends they're way too late to the game to be competitive (RPM line).

 

[cbuck516]

Relevant would have been more left hand models and chambering their rifles in modern saami cartridges to sell more of them. If they wanted to make a proprietary action then more power to them but it should have been at least a little different from the 20 other 700 clones. If your main selling point is field strippable bolt then you’ve missed the boat


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I don't really care about the field strippable bolt, but I do appreciate that they upsized the scope base screws from 6-48 to 8-40. After upsizing the stripped threads on my 1944 Mauser I certainly appreciate some stronger threads.
I'm a bit of a Wyoming fanboy so I'm an easy sell I guess. I also think it is cool to see a classic American brand still in business and still owned by the same family. The weatherby cartridges have a cult like following, but the brass options are so limited that I just can't justify it as a reloader. Maybe some day.