Yesterday was an excellent day at the range. A friend and I put his brand new Vanguard HBST .308 through the paces. (HBST stands for Heavy Barrel, Silent Technology)
During the testing we used an old 4x40 Tasco scope and the DNZ Game Reaper mount. I love the simplicity and sturdiness of that mount, but the gun deserves a better scope than this one that is at least 20 years old.
The 22" barrel a good weight. Its definitely a medium-heavy barrel, but its not so heavy that the gun doesn't balance well.
The stock is a little unlike any other that I have seen. It is really solid and has a nice textured, rubberish feel to it. The surface kind of feels "grippy" like a Hogue, but it is way sturdier. I don't think that it flexed at all. Instead of the barrel being free-floated, it seemed to be embedded directly into the stock. I am curious to see what the stock looks like when the action is removed.
The trigger is one of the best factory triggers that I have ever shot. It has very little creep and when I took my first shot, it surprised me with how little pressure it required (I am used to my stock Rem700 trigger).
The bolt was really tight. Some of the extractions required us to really slam the bolt handle up in order to get the bolt to unlock. At first I was worried about excessive chamber pressure, but all the fired brass looked fine. As the day went on, it seemed to loosen up a little bit. I think that it will be fine from this point on.
The gun seems a bit like a "do it all" rifle. It is heavier than a hunting rifle, but lighter than a bench/target rifle.
First we boresighted the gun to get it on paper and then we had to go about 40 clicks left to get it centered at 50 yards (I blame the crappy Tasco 4x40mm scope). The grouping at 100 seemed to be about right after a couple more clicks, so then we started working on 200 yard groups.
In the process of all the sighting in, we followed the break in procedure from Howa's website. Basically, we ran 4 patches through the barrel between every shot. The patches were in this order: bore solvent, clean patch, windex patch, clean patch. Hopefully, this plays dividends in the future in terms of improved accuracy and easier bore maintenance.
By the way, the recoil didnt seem bad at all - probably due to the 8+ lb weight of the gun.
See attached 200yard Target1. This group was shot with Magtech 147gr FMJ and its a good start. Other than the one high flyer, its seems to be about a 1.5"-1.7" group. At two hundred yards, thats a sub-moa group.
The attached 200yard Target2 was shot with Prvi Match 175gr BTHP ammo. Much like the first group, there was one significant flyer. Excluding the flyer, this group is about 3". I think that there are 3 possible reasons for this larger group size:
1.) Later in the day, we were a little tired and thus less proficient in our shooting.
2.) The Weatherby may not like higher grain bullets - possibly due to the twist rate of the rifling. We should confirm this rate with the manufacturer.
3.) The Weatherby may not like Prvi ammo.
I think that all of our shooting would be a bit improved if we had a better scope on the gun, so next up is to find a real scope for this gun. In keeping with the gun's multipurpose use (target and hunting) I think the current frontrunner is the Nikon Buckmaster 4-14x40mm w/ mildot reticle. Of course, I am open suggestions.
During the testing we used an old 4x40 Tasco scope and the DNZ Game Reaper mount. I love the simplicity and sturdiness of that mount, but the gun deserves a better scope than this one that is at least 20 years old.
The 22" barrel a good weight. Its definitely a medium-heavy barrel, but its not so heavy that the gun doesn't balance well.
The stock is a little unlike any other that I have seen. It is really solid and has a nice textured, rubberish feel to it. The surface kind of feels "grippy" like a Hogue, but it is way sturdier. I don't think that it flexed at all. Instead of the barrel being free-floated, it seemed to be embedded directly into the stock. I am curious to see what the stock looks like when the action is removed.
The trigger is one of the best factory triggers that I have ever shot. It has very little creep and when I took my first shot, it surprised me with how little pressure it required (I am used to my stock Rem700 trigger).
The bolt was really tight. Some of the extractions required us to really slam the bolt handle up in order to get the bolt to unlock. At first I was worried about excessive chamber pressure, but all the fired brass looked fine. As the day went on, it seemed to loosen up a little bit. I think that it will be fine from this point on.
The gun seems a bit like a "do it all" rifle. It is heavier than a hunting rifle, but lighter than a bench/target rifle.
First we boresighted the gun to get it on paper and then we had to go about 40 clicks left to get it centered at 50 yards (I blame the crappy Tasco 4x40mm scope). The grouping at 100 seemed to be about right after a couple more clicks, so then we started working on 200 yard groups.
In the process of all the sighting in, we followed the break in procedure from Howa's website. Basically, we ran 4 patches through the barrel between every shot. The patches were in this order: bore solvent, clean patch, windex patch, clean patch. Hopefully, this plays dividends in the future in terms of improved accuracy and easier bore maintenance.
By the way, the recoil didnt seem bad at all - probably due to the 8+ lb weight of the gun.
See attached 200yard Target1. This group was shot with Magtech 147gr FMJ and its a good start. Other than the one high flyer, its seems to be about a 1.5"-1.7" group. At two hundred yards, thats a sub-moa group.
The attached 200yard Target2 was shot with Prvi Match 175gr BTHP ammo. Much like the first group, there was one significant flyer. Excluding the flyer, this group is about 3". I think that there are 3 possible reasons for this larger group size:
1.) Later in the day, we were a little tired and thus less proficient in our shooting.
2.) The Weatherby may not like higher grain bullets - possibly due to the twist rate of the rifling. We should confirm this rate with the manufacturer.
3.) The Weatherby may not like Prvi ammo.
I think that all of our shooting would be a bit improved if we had a better scope on the gun, so next up is to find a real scope for this gun. In keeping with the gun's multipurpose use (target and hunting) I think the current frontrunner is the Nikon Buckmaster 4-14x40mm w/ mildot reticle. Of course, I am open suggestions.
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