My new Weatherby Vanguard S2's

[rsj223]

Been chasing some more accuracy from my Ruger predator(.223) that's been ok but just not doing it for me, a mate had a Weatherby and was happy.
So I got 2 of these Weatherby's (.223 .308) because of there great special price and the talk of there accuracy and the LGS offered me a trade in price I was more happy with and I thought it was best to down size the Remington 30-06 as the surgeon said any reduction in impact will help the arm.
Will be putting the scope off the 3006 on the 308, have a 6-24 thats fair but I may upgrade for the 223.
Anyway had surgery last week on my elbow so will be a few weeks away from testing so will be happy to hear of anyone's experiences on these.

[Gwion]

Hi RSJ. I'm sure you'll be happy with your new rifles once you spend a bit of time tinkering and tuning them. I have been quite pleased with my Howa, which i've had for about 2 years and is effectively the same rifle.

First thing i did was pull the trigger out and send it to the ebay trigger dude. $60 and it is smooth, crisp and 2lb break. Maybe you could do this while you recover from surgery. It will be very worth while for both rifles. Mine is a pleasure to shoot and it was originally a bit heavy and rough.

In it's original stock, Remington 55PSP shot just under MOA and a bit tighter when i tuned the action screws. Federal equivalent did shoot too well and couldn't get it under about 1.2MOA. Then i started hand loading and bedded the rifle and things improved considerably. Got it to be a consistent 0.7MOA shooter. The with a a new stock and further load development it is probably a consistent 0.5MOA shooter with quite a few groups down to 0.4 and 0.3.

During that time i had also learned to shoot a lot better, but hand loading is the go for best results if you're chasing finer accuracy.


Good luck with the recovery!
Cheers

[sarki]

useless without pictures

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[rsj223]

without_pictures.jpg

Will get some I hope when I set up the scopes.

[rsj223]

Now this will be a bit time consuming.

TWO BOX BARREL BREAK-IN

This barrel break-in procedure requires two boxes of ammunition to complete. Start out by shooting one round at a time, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each round and allowing it to cool. This process should be followed for a total of ten rounds.

Then take the remaining thirty rounds and shoot ten three shot groups, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each group and allowing it to cool completely before firing the next group. Once ten, three shot groups have been fired the barrel is adequately broken in. At this point the rifle can be sighted in and used.

[brett1868]

I have a pair of Weatherby Mark V Accumarks in .257 Wby Mag & 300 Wby Mag and quite like them. Both have Warne 1 piece picatinny bases with Leupold VX4 LRT 8.5-25x50 scopes on Nightforce HD rings though I'll be swapping the .257 scope for a Leupold VX2 4-14x50. Both shoot .3 MOA though the .300 took a lot of development to find the right load while I must have got lucky on the .257 as I found its sweet spot on the 2nd load I tested.
As mentioned previously I'd be sending the trigger off for some tuning, I had the one on the .257 tuned and it's light and crisp with no hint of creep. the .300 on the other hand hasn't been touched and while light it does have a hint of creep in it so it'll be sent off soon.
My primary hunting rifle has mainly been the Sako 85 Varmint 22-250 but lately I've been reaching for the .257 Weatherby as it's lighter and hits hard with bugger all recoil. The .300 Wby Mag was a mistake to buy without a brake so that'll get fixed along with the trigger in the near future.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your new "Twins" and keep us posted on your experiences getting them setup and dialled in.

[rsj223]

I plan to do a modified version of the brake in (just shorter)
I was thinking on using these mounts on the 308 as these rings are on the old 3006 scope
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Leupold-STD- ... 3aa57a4616
But what to use on the 223? I have these http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-25-4mm-tub ... 41956c576c on the scope
or would it be best with a one piece rail for better accuracy

[basil brush]

HI

I am looking at doing the same.
Two guns for the price of one.

Can you confirm that the 223 is a 1:9 twist??

The shop cant seem to confirm one way or the other.

thanks

[Hinky]

TWO BOX BARREL BREAK-IN

This barrel break-in procedure requires two boxes of ammunition to complete. Start out by shooting one round at a time, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each round and allowing it to cool. This process should be followed for a total of ten rounds.

Then take the remaining thirty rounds and shoot ten three shot groups, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each group and allowing it to cool completely before firing the next group. Once ten, three shot groups have been fired the barrel is adequately broken in. At this point the rifle can be sighted in and used.

This old chestnut

Always arguments had over whether or not it's worth breaking a barrel in like this.

*popcorn*

[brett1868]

I personally prefer 1 piece rails to ensure good alignment and I find it easier to get the reticule level. Try and keep your scopes and mounts as standard as possible cause you may want to switch things around later.

[rsj223]

HI

I am looking at doing the same.
Two guns for the price of one.

Can you confirm that the 223 is a 1:9 twist??

The shop cant seem to confirm one way or the other.

thanks

This is what I went by
http://www.weatherby.com/products/rifle ... hetic.html
And 2 shops said it was 1:9
Hope that helps

[rsj223]

TWO BOX BARREL BREAK-IN

This barrel break-in procedure requires two boxes of ammunition to complete. Start out by shooting one round at a time, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each round and allowing it to cool. This process should be followed for a total of ten rounds.

Then take the remaining thirty rounds and shoot ten three shot groups, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each group and allowing it to cool completely before firing the next group. Once ten, three shot groups have been fired the barrel is adequately broken in. At this point the rifle can be sighted in and used.

This old chestnut

Always arguments had over whether or not it's worth breaking a barrel in like this.

*popcorn*

Yeah I dont want to get into that I will clean out the oil and crap then shoot 3 then clean, something like that.

[sandgroperbill]

I'm with you. Good but gentle clean, then light oil/lube of moving parts, then firea few shots. Another gentle clean, repeat, then just clean and light oil after i've finished with them. I can normally gett hem nicelyc lean with a few swabs and mops and a soft brush. I just don't like the idea of metal cleaning metal. Plenty of people will disagree, and that's fine. To each their own.

[rsj223]

I personally prefer 1 piece rails to ensure good alignment and I find it easier to get the reticule level. Try and keep your scopes and mounts as standard as possible cause you may want to switch things around later.

I got 2 piece for the 223 as 3 shops had bugger all and didn't want to buy new rings, I try it this way see how it go's.

[Grated]

I personally prefer 1 piece rails to ensure good alignment and I find it easier to get the reticule level.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you how to suck eggs but there is always just putting a spirit level on the action and scope

[brett1868]

I personally prefer 1 piece rails to ensure good alignment and I find it easier to get the reticule level.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you how to suck eggs but there is always just putting a spirit level on the action and scope

That's one method I use for the hunting rifles but it's not accurate enough for the big guns. For them I use feeler gauges between the rail and scope to ensure perfect level as half a degree off vertical translates to a few feet off at ranges over 1000. Another method I use is to level the action with a digital level then use a Bosch Quigo laser level to project a line on the wall that I line up on while tightening the rings.

And yes...I am an anal OCD type

[Gwion]

RSJ. I ditched the rail that comes with the rifle and put DNZ GameReaper one piece scope mount on my 223. Very happy with it. They also to a leveling tool that works with their mounts for quick, no fuss and accurate leveling. I have levels for scope setting and like Brett use a level line on the wall for reticule alignment but you are never 100% sure your stock is set perfectly plumb (or i'm not, anyway). This scope leveling tool from DNZ takes all that out of the equation. The GameReaper (still think it's a poxy name) is a very well made mount and very affordable, more than good enough for a Howa in 223 or 308. Mounted mine and was amazed that mechanical zero had me bore sighted with no adjustments!!!

The mount and scope tool would probably cost you about $100 or so.

[rsj223]

Found them on ebay but where can I get them for that price.

[rsj223]

Took some time to get the scopes on but slowly getting some more movement of my arm, don't know until next Thur as to how much I can move it.

[Gwion]

Found them on ebay but where can I get them for that price.

Optics Planet sell them but looks like you have mounts already.

[rsj223]

I thought the one piece one's would get in the way when loading but I think thats wrong, I would now think the one piece has more beifits.

[bigfellascott]

I thought the one piece one's would get in the way when loading but I think thats wrong, I would now think the one piece has more beifits.

Nah their fine mate, most of my rifles have 1pce mounts and they generally have a cut out to suit the port so no real issues loading them at all.

[Rocker]

That's one method I use for the hunting rifles but it's not accurate enough for the big guns. For them I use feeler gauges between the rail and scope to ensure perfect level as half a degree off vertical translates to a few feet off at ranges over 1000.

I'm sort of surprised no one has addressed that with some scope mount points and a square rail or something like that.

It would need to be high precision stuff but have something like a normal scope tube so you can fit it on normal ring mounts on anything, but also two points with a flat base. On a rifle with a rail and matching flat base rings you could just drop it on and know it's flat to within a thou or two.

[Tonit]

Sound like it has some merit, no one would want to spear head the change though I'm sure. For short-mid range shooters would be a great option.

Round rings do the job fine really, just need some fiddling which in theory you should only have to do once or twice.

[rsj223]

Well fingers are crossed for this weekend as my arm has a fair bit more movement and need some testing on the new rifles, so started to clean the grease/oil and whatever is in there and found copper so they must have fired them to test but never cleaned them?

[brett1868]

Well fingers are crossed for this weekend as my arm has a fair bit more movement and need some testing on the new rifles, so started to clean the grease/oil and whatever is in there and found copper so they must have fired them to test but never cleaned them?

Not unusual to find copper fouling, most rifles are proof fired in the factory with a few rounds prior to boxing. Would be too much work cleaning them so they're left dirty.

[rsj223]

Good to know thanks

[Bourt]

Not unusual to find copper fouling, most rifles are proof fired in the factory with a few rounds prior to boxing. Would be too much work cleaning them so they're left dirty.

Yup... Covered with grease before storage as you found though rsj223 to prevent any corrosion so it's nothing to worry about.

[rsj223]

Well got out to try set them up the .308 shot the group in the pic with Federal 150gr as per there recommended ammo.
The .223 not as good and managed one group at 22mm c to c with recommended ammo Federal 55gr both of these at 100mtr
My big stuff up was a sore arm and a body that had been resting for about the last 5 weeks had a hard time moving so did dumb things like adjusting the scope to the left instead of right, even the cleaning became almost impossible with my arm.
I used Outback ammo as well in both with some of these pushing out to 2inch groups with the best around 1.1/2 but all good for hunting, will set up again when I get a chance at the local range.
I'm getting a feeling that the scope on the .223 could be the problem with grouping as this scope is on its second rifle and gets pretty much the same groups its this one I got very cheap http://www.tacticalscope.co.uk/nikko-st ... -915-p.asp So if anyone can explain to me how or if this scope is a problem please do so.

[bigfellascott]

Maybe try swapping the scope of the 308? that way you will soon work out if its the scope or just the ammo it doesn't like. I take it you adjusted the parallax to 100m? not sure how good those scopes are (only cheapies) so wondering if changing down the mag a bit might make the groups smaller or not?

If it was me I'd put the scope from the 308 on and using the same ammo that shot ordinary and see what happens.