Weatherby Vanguard VGX

J

jersurf101

New member
I pulled my deer rifle out today in anticipation of rifle season for white tails. It looks like I will get to hunt on some private land in Wisconsin this year which I am excited about. My rifle is a Weatherby Vanguard VGX that is made in Japan. Chambered in .270 win. Beautiful rifle that I bought in the mid 1990's. The rifle has always shot well but is right around MOA and no better. I have killed a fair amount of white tails with this rifle.

The questions I have are with the stock. It has been bedded for sure with some epoxy and it looks like a professional job. There are two small areas behind the recoil lug and right in front of the trigger on the stock that have the epoxy. Does anyone know if Weatherby does that from the factory?

The barrel on this rifle is not free floated. There is a pressure point built into the stock about 8.25 inches up the 24 inch barrel. I would never mess with the rifle before deer season but is it a good idea to float the barrel? Any knowledge is appreciated.
 
The Wby Vanguard barrels seem to be "whippy" in the heavier recoiling calibers. I added a barrel vibration damper to my 257 Wby which settled it down significantly. This is a low cost, do no harm possible solution to less than optimum accuracy issues. Keep in mind, MOA accuracy is plenty good for deer hunting.
 
I know I am about to spark the whole "if its built right it dont need a pressure point debate," but WBY intentionally put it there. From what I have seen, you will hurt your accuracy if you remove the pressure point. Sub MOA is not bad for a light weight rifle that did not break the bank.
 
If it ain't broke...........

You say the gun currently is bedded and shoots moa. Get into reloading for this rifle and you will imo improve on the moa you are currently getting w/o physically changing the rifle.
 
I would say leave it as is. I figure, if you're already killing deer with it, then its probably good to go.
 
Thx for the replies. My 140 gr vld's are so far performing best accuracy wise. I have no plans to mess with the rifle. I was just looking for some info really.
 
I have used the VLD on deer. Used 6.5 MM, .270, and .284. in it on whitetails. They perform as advertised. At higher velocity, they make a blood shot mess that looks like a small grenade went off in the animal. The deer drop like a ton of bricks landed on them. If you want to recover most of your meat, better shoot them through the lungs; but then they wont drop like a ton of bricks fell on em.:(
 
I floated my synthetic 243 Vanguard, it's definitely a better gun for it. POI shifted 3" right and 5" down after floating so there was a fair amount of pressure on the barrel. I haven't done a real accuracy test after floating, but while zeroing it seemed to group a bit tighter. Did a overgrown cucumber shoot and got the barrel pretty hot with no loss in accuracy, before floating it walked all over the place when hot.
 
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