Free floating the Weatherby Vanguard

Don't get me started on Weatherby...I'd buy the Venture any day and twice on Sunday. This is my personal experience

I've had a Weatherby Vanguard S2 7mm-08 for about a year now. And I can't get this thing to consistently shoot well. I have tried 4 different factory ammo's (Core-Locts, Power Points, Hornady SST's, and Hornady Interlocks) all were the 139/140gr weight. It will not shoot to consistent POI or shoot better than MOA.

With the same POA it may group 1" high and 3" right. I can remove rifle from rest wait 10 minutes and shoot again and it might be 2" left and 2" high. It seems to be very random.

I have tried 2 different ring/mount combos and also 2 different scopes. Those rings and scopes are known good as they are on different rifles and shoot well.
I had a professional gunsmith bed the action and free float barrel in an aftermarket stock. It shoots more consistent now but still has a slight random POI shift.

I have tried handloads with a 130gr Speer Hot-Cor and a 120gr NBT. Both have been loaded with IMR 4064 and Varget. I loaded min-max and neither bullet shot well with IMR4064. Yesterday I shot the same bullets with Varget and the 130gr Hot-Cor went from MOA to 3MOA during min-max testing.

The min charge of Varget (42.5) touched the first 2 shots and the 3rd shot I pulled slightly and it went right at 1" group. I didn't shoot anymore as I ran out of time.

FAST FORWARD:
Today and I got curious and checked Weatherby's website and they list 9.5 twist for the 7-08 but I checked mine today with a cleaning rod and it came out 1:10 exactly 4 times in a row. I checked other rifles I have and the twist came out exactly what they were supposed to be. So I believe my method was sound.

Did Weatherby "mess up" on my barrel do I have a bad barrel from the factory and could the 1:10 twist be why my gun despises 139/140gr bullets. Should I dump more $ on this rifle and swap barrels in hopes it shoots like I know it should.

I realize Weatherby says that their barrels like fore end pressure, but since it has been bedded and floated it shoots better, but not much better. The factory Weatherby stock did not fit my action very well at all it was really tight on the receiver and had pressure on the left of the barrel the entire length of the stock.

I'm at a loss here and next time I shoot the best shooting load I've found if it doesnt repeat itself I'm gonna rebarrel it.

BTW I talked to Weatherby and they said that I was wrong when I measured a 1:10 twist and I said I'd like to get the correct twist specified on their website. He just said that if I was to send it in and they shot it in their "master stock" if it produced MOA for 3 shots that it didn't matter what twist my barrel actually was.

I called Weatherby before I even took it out of the factory stock and the weren't exactly what I would call helpful...I was told that 99% of the time they get rifles sent back to them that the rifle shoots fine so I'd be quote "wasting my time and money"

After that conversation that's when I started messing with the rifle. Earlier this week I discovered that my barrel has a 1:10 twist instead of the 1:9.5 its supposed to have. Wetherby again told me that if they get it back and it quote "shoots 3 shots into MOA that it doesn't matter what the actual twist is" IMO if its supposed to have a 1:9.5 and it has anything different that I should get a new barrel installed because it not what I thought I was buying. Weatherby said it doesn't matter!
That's like a new car that's supposed to have 18" rims and tires on it, but when u get home its got 15" steel wheels and hubcaps...you call the dealership and they say it doesn't really matter because they still roll don't they.

When I have a Weatherby customer service person tell me I'd be wasting my time and money by sending it in. Then I just got over really quick. Also telling me that it was irrelevant that it has a 1:10 vs the 1:9.5 its supposed to have. And at that he basically said I was wrong.

Don't know about you guys but when I tell them about 2 concerns I'm having about their product and they say quote "wasting my time and money" and "barrel twist is irrelevant" I'm over it and at that point I'm done with them and I will NEVER reccomend Weatherby products to anybody.
 
CarJunkie, I think you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference in a half inch of twist rate for the 7-08 cartridge unless the worst groups are 10-shot ones under 1/10th MOA.

Weatherby's accuracy guarantee is based on 3-shot groups; each shot fired about 1 minute apart. Their rifles then start walking shots because their barrel's bending from head expansion putting more pressure on one point around the receiver face. This is common with all commercial rifles; they don't square up the receiver face with the barrel tenon axis. Rebarreling one without facing the receiver properly ends up doing the same shot walking as the barrel heats up.
 
The most accurate rifle I've ever fired was a Weatherby MKV.
The Van I I had could easily pull off 1.5 inches.
The Van II Kryptek I have here does what I said it does & it's in the top 10 rifles for accuracy I've worked with professionally in 24 years.

Every company puts out the occasional lemon.
Denis
 
wbw,

The weatherby vanguard and the TC venture are two very good rifle values. They are different animals but both enjoy good success for a reason, consumers are generally very satified with the results at the bench- usually with factory ammo.

One of my best bench shooters is a 30-06 Ruger Hawkeye in the factory wood stock, not bedded nor is the barrel floated. Its putting up .5" groups repeatably(fed fusion). Another top performer is a weatherby vanguard S1- originally non floated heavy barrel contour, unbedded in the basic synthetic stock. It shot MOA plus or minus. I put it in a B&C Medalist full aluminum bedded stock and with Nosler Trophy grade it shoots .5". I've never had a venture but I do own 2 TC Icons that I'll never part with. The venture uses the same barrel and trigger as the discontinued Icon.

There good shooters out there bedded or not, barrel floated or not. These two you've mention have excellent track records. If you need features to feel good about the purchase, sounds like the venture may be the choice between these two. Just be advised, accuracy features can be defeated by poor bench set-up and improper technique, so many times it's hard to pinpoint an issue with the rifle. Each gun will have a favorite ammo which you'll have to figure out.

Buy one of each, check the action screw torque on both, have fun. Both are very good quality rifles.
 
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