300 Weatherby Magnum – The ExhaustNotes Blog

300 Weatherby Recipes: An Update

I’ve been on a tear the last few weeks, playing with the Mk V 300 Weatherby and developing loads for it. I developed loads with cast bullets and with jacketed bullets, and at reduced-load levels and at factory ammo levels.

The Internet weenies advise going hotter with this cartridge to get better accuracy, but I don’t want more accuracy that badly (don’t get me wrong; I like accuracy, but not at the expense of this kind of recoil). The recoil with this cartridge is severe. I shot some sub-minute-of-angle groups with the 180 grain Remington jacketed softpoint bullets. I also had a few larger groups, but I’m chalking that up to the wind and me still being a bit recoil sensitive. For me, it’s close enough to call it done.

All groups presented here were at 100 yards from my Mk V Weatherby. It has a walnut stock and a 26-inch barrel. I bought this rifle about 10 years ago but I had not shot it much until recently. I have a 4×16 Weaver on this rifle and all groups were with the scope at 16X. The scope is no longer available, but it is a good one.

This Mk V initially had a terrible trigger. It was creepy and gritty, and it was so bad it surprised me. I was thinking about spending another $200 on a Timney trigger and then a funny thing happened: The trigger suddenly and spontaneously improved. It’s about a three-pound trigger now with zero creep. Don’t ask me how or why. Maybe there was some grit in the trigger, or maybe there was a burr somewhere in the mechanism. Whatever it was, it’s gone.

I now use a Caldwell shoulder pad for the full bore stuff. It helps tremendously with recoil, but it is probably degrading my shooting position because of the unnatural stretch to get a good scope picture and cheek weld. Even with that pad, though, I still get kissed by the scope on occasion. The rifle likes to let me know who’s the boss.

The Caldwell shoulder pad really helped tame the 300 Weatherby’s recoil.

Cast bullets are okay for light loads and practicing, but to keep the groups below 3 inches, I had to use a bore brush between every group. If I didn’t bore brush it every three shots, the groups opened up. If I use a bore brush and run it through the barrel three or four times after each group I can keep my shots in the black.

After calling Hodgdon to make sure I wouldn’t blow myself up, I tried a few jacketed loads with 130 grain Hornady and 150 grain Winchester bullets and Trail Boss powder. They grouped okay. The jacketed bullets with Trail Boss were more accurate than the cast bullets, but not as good as the full bore stuff. It’s good to know, but I’ll reserve the Trail Boss for cast loads.

Hornady 130 grain jacketed soft point bullets. In my 30 06 Ruger No. 1 with IMR 4320 powder these bullets will group under an inch all day long.

Winchester 150 grain jacketed soft point bullets. These bullets shoot into a half inch from my 30 06 Winchester Model 70.

Remington 180 grain jacketed soft point bullets. These bullets shoot well in any rifle I’ve tried them in (a single-shot Browning 30 06 B78, a custom Howa 1500 30 06, a Ruger 308 GSR Scout rifle, and others). They are no longer available, which is a pity.

200 grain Sierra jacketed hollowpoint boat tail bullets my good buddy Marty gave to me.

I shot neck sized brass with the Trail Boss cast and jacketed loads because the Trail Boss loads don’t expand the case very much and it’s easier to reload if I neck size only. I don’t have to lube the cases and it goes a lot faster.

180 grain cast .309 bullets from my good buddy Roy.

The Trail Boss sweet spot with cast bullets is 20.0 grains. That’s near the bottom of the charge range. I went down to 19.5 grains and there was no improvement in group size. I went above 20.0 grains and the groups opened up. I’m a quick study. 20.0 grains. Got it.

I tried neck sizing only (instead of full length resizing) with full bore loads and I found that was not the way to go. I had a lot of cases that wouldn’t extract when I shot neck sized only full bore loads, and then I found when I neck sized a case it stuck it in the chamber even without firing (it was difficult to extract). Full bore loads have to be full length resized in my 300 Weatherby (with an extra quarter turn on the sizing die after it touches the shell holder for this rifle; that’s a trick a tech rep at Sierra turned me on to). The cases expand too much if you neck size only after firing full bore loads.

With cast bullets, crimping the bullet is necessary for better accuracy. Not crimping opened up the groups substantially. Crimping brought them back down. But that’s only with cast bullets. For jacketed bullets, the rifle doesn’t care if you crimp them or not. There’s no accuracy gains to be had with crimping jacketed bullets in my rifle.

Keeping the bore clean makes a difference (duh), and you need to get up close to make sure the bore is clean. Simply judging cleanliness by the patch coming out clean isn’t good enough. After my patches were coming out clean, I took a photo of the muzzle. I looked at it on my computer and I was shocked. Before examining the photo, I thought this was a clean barrel:

A macro photograph of the Weatherby’s muzzle after I thought it was relatively clean.

I realized I still had a lot of copper and lead streaking in the barrel and I went to work on it with Hoppes No. 9 and Butch’s Bore Shine. That reduced most of the copper, but the lead was not giving up. A bit of online research, and what do you know: Solvents (like Hoppes or Butch’s) don’t affect lead at all. I’ve been a shooter for 50 years and that was news to me. Nope, lead has to be mechanically removed. I soaked a pad with Kroil penetrating oil, ran it through the bore and let it soak for a while, and then I ran a bore brush down the barrel repeatedly. It was better, but it needed more. I repeated the process several times over the next two days and got the bore down to this:

The Weatherby muzzle after a much more stringent cleaning. Additional effort did not remove the minute streaks of remaining lead and copper.

The bore wouldn’t get any cleaner that what you see above. To the naked eye, it looks clean. But then, to the naked eye the first photo looked clean. I was probably penalizing my inspection with that macro photo. I know I could probably get it cleaner with something like JB Bore Paste, but I’m hesitant to use an abrasive in the bore.

It’s Trail Boss for cast and reduced jacketed loads, and IMR 7828 for the factory level loads.

H1000 is a powder I had not previously tried in the 300 Weatherby. That’s the Mk V behind it. Weatherby has discontinued walnut stocks on their regular production rifles; they are still available on rifles through the Weatherby Custom Shop. Nothing looks better than fancy walnut, in my opinion.

I loaded various permutations of IMR 7828 and H1000 propellants, and the Sierra 200-grain jacketed hollowpoint boat tail and Remington 180-grain jacketed soft point bullets for the factory level loads.

So how did the above combinations perform at 100 yards? Take a look:

The rifle is unquestionably capable of better results than you see above, but not with me. I’m usually not recoil shy, but this 300 Weatherby at factory ammo levels is a bit beyond what I’m willing to live with on a regular basis. A better rifleman could probably keep most of the above loads below an inch. But an inch and half is good enough for me, and several of the factory-level loads above did that. I can hunt with this rifle, and that’s what I’m going to do.

So what’s next? I found a couple of boxes of 180 grain Hornady jacketed soft point bullets, and I have a few Nosler 180 grain bullets as well. I’m going to try a few loads with them. I haven’t tried too many loads with lighter bullets, mostly because earlier results were disappointing. But I haven’t given up on the lighter bullets. I’m going to revisit a few loads with them. And I have a couple of powders I want to try as well. Bottles of powder don’t last long with a 300 Weatherby, though, when you look at kind of powder charges these cases demand. When you’re dispensing 80 grains of propellant per round, 100 rounds of 300 Weatherby consumes an entire bottle of powder. And powders (like everything else) are somewhat difficult to find these days.

Truth be told, the 300 Weatherby is specialty item, and it’s a punishing beast. It’s surprising how much of an increase in recoil there is in going from a 30 06, a 300 H&H, or a 7mm Magnum (in either Remington or Weatherby flavors) to a 300 Weatherby. But shooting the 300 Weatherby is fun in its own way. I sure enjoy mine.

If you shoot a 300 Weatherby, we’d like to hear your thoughts on the cartridge and the rifle. Please leave a comment here on the ExNotes blog.

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Reloading and Shooting the .300 Weatherby

I’m in the money with the Mark V .300 Weatherby now, but it took some doing to get there and the journey isn’t over yet. My recent reloads with this rifle were all over the place at 100 yards. I suspected it was more me than the rifle (or the loads) and I was probably right about that. This rifle has serious recoil, way more than I am used to. I was developing a flinch in anticipation of getting whacked by the Mark V.

I have a friend who shoots the .300 Weatherby a lot, and he’s about the same size as me. I thought about him a bit, mentally picturing him on the range, and then I realized: He uses a shoulder pad. It was a click or two on Amazon until I found the Caldwell recoil shield.

I had the Caldwell recoil shield the next day, and I had to play with it a bit to find how to wear the thing. I bought the thickest version, figuring that if some is good, more would be better.

I next researched the Internet to find ways to improve my bench rest technique and I immediately found two improvement opportunities: Parallax, and how I positioned the rear rest.

With regard to parallax, it’s a real thing and a real issue. Most scopes don’t have any adjustment for parallax, but the 4×16 scope I have on the Mark V does. To adjust for parallax, you set the rifle in the rest and put the cross hairs on the target. Then, without touching the rifle, you move your head around and see if the reticle moves around on the target. On a scope with parallax adjustment, what I read is that you ignore the markings on the parallax adjustment and move your head around, adjusting the parallax adjustor until the parallax is minimized. I couldn’t completely eliminate the parallax on my 100 yard target, but I was able to greatly reduce it. After making the adjustment I looked at the scope objective (the parallax adjustment feature), and what do you know, it was right on the 100-yard mark. I guess those Weaver boys knew what they were doing.

I had a rifle with me that has a non-parallax-adjustable scope and checked it for parallax at 100 yards, and wow, when I moved my head around the reticle was moving around a good 3 inches on the target (left to right, and up and down). To control parallax with a non-parallax-adustable scope, the trick is to get your eye in exactly the same spot every time. In fact, that’s good technique with any scope.

The next thing for me was to get the rear rifle rest directly under where my face rested on the stock. You can see the front and rear rest in the large photo at the top of this blog (I use Caldwell equipment). The idea behind getting the rear rest directly under where your cheek contacts the stock is that the downward force from your cheek is transmitted directly through the stock into the rear rest without flexing the stock. It may not seem possible (or even detectable), but if your face is ahead of the rear rest or behind it, you will impart a torque into the rifle and it can be enough to shift the point of impact at 100 yards.

On to my loads: I reloaded the next set of .300 Weatherby cartridges, going with 73.0 grains of IMR 7828, the CCI 250 magnum primer, 200-grain Sierra MatchKing bullets, and every trick I knew of to improve accuracy. This is a relatively light load. I neck sized three different sets of brass (fireformed .300 Remington cases made from .300 H&H brass, Remington .300 Weatherby brass, and Weatherby brand .300 Weatherby brass). I have a Lee .300 Weatherby collet die that squeezes the neck down to size, and I used brass I had previously fired in the Mark V rifle. I also seated the bullets out much further (the reloading manuals all show the cartridge overall length to be 3.560 inches, but I seated the Sierras out for an overall length of 3.718 inches). The Weatherby Mark V rifles have a lot of freebore. The cartridges still fit in the magazine and the bullets did not contact the rifling, so I was good to go.

It was a quick trip to the West End Gun Club and I had the range to myself. I got everything set up, pulled on the Caldwell shoulder pad, and went to work. The Caldwell shoulder pad was awkward at first (as you might imagine), but it was wonderful. The .300 Weatherby Magnum is still a beast, but the Caldwell pad did its job. It greatly alleviated my fear of getting clobbered every time I squeezed the trigger and my groups tightened up immediately.

So my groups were way better, but I had a new problem. Many of the cases were sticking in the chamber after firing. The bolt would rotate freely, but the cases didn’t want to come out. When I pulled harder on the bolt, the extractor popped over the rim and the case stayed in the chamber. I had to tap the cases out with a cleaning rod. Other than the cases sticking, there were zero indications of excess pressure. No flattened primers or anything. The Remington cases were sticking almost 100% of the time (both the fireformed .300 H&H cases and the .300 Weatherby Remington cases). The Weatherby brass did not stick in the chamber, although a couple felt like they wanted to.

On to the good news: My best group was a .608-inch 3-shot group at 100 yards, which ain’t half bad on a fire-breathing monster like the .300 Weatherby. Before you trolls tell me I should shoot 5-shot groups, I will share with you that in my experience it’s pretty difficult to get animals to sit still for five shots. If your dead set on being critical, let’s get your butt out here. I want to watch you shoot 5-shot groups with your .300 Weatherby.

The next morning, after cleaning the rifle, I rechambered a couple of the fired Remington cases, and then when I withdrew the bolt the cases stuck in the chamber again. And again, I had to tap them out with a rod. The Weatherby brass did not, but it was tight. I measured each of the cases that stuck, and they all met the SAAMI .300 Weatherby specification. My conclusions are:

- - I don’t have an excess pressure situation. I loaded at the bottom of the propellant range, the bolt rotated freely, there were no pressure signs on the case base, and the primers were not flattened.
  - Neck sizing on my .300 Weatherby Mark V is not a good way to go (notice I said mine; your mileage may vary). I full length resized one of the cases that stuck (a Remington case) and it chambered and extracted easily. Weatherby brass is better (but it is hard to get).
  - I need to full length resize when reloading for this rifle.
  - The Weatherby Mk V extractor is weak. For a dangerous game rifle, that’s not a good thing. Maybe the extractor spring is weak.

I think the real issue was the neck sizing approach. I’m out of IMR 7828 propellant (powder goes fast with the 300 Weatherby) and no one seems to have any in stock, so I’ll try either H1000 or IMR 4831 next. Like we always say, stay tuned.

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I reload with Lee Precision equipment.

Vanguard Safari First Shots

Last week I wrote a blog about my .300 Weatherby Magnum Vanguard Safari, and I recently spent a bit of time with it on the range. In a word: Wow! This is a most impressive firearm, as is the .300 Weatherby Magnum cartridge.

Before the rifle arrived, I called both Leupold and Weatherby to ask which rings and mounts I should use to mount a 4X Leupold scope. Both told me they didn’t know because there are so many possible combinations of rifles and scopes (which kind of surprised me; you’d think they would know). The Leupold tech rep suggested I try their dual dovetail mounts and low rings and he gave me the part numbers. (so it was off to Amazon for both). The Leupold guy said he didn’t know if what he suggested would work and if it would clear the scope’s bells, but that’s what I ordered and it worked like a champ. The Leupold scope has a lot of eye relief and it just looks right with the low mounts. The matte finish on the rifle, the mounts, the rings, and the scope looks good.

Good buddy John asked about how I sight in a scope, and I thought I would explain that here. I don’t use a boresighting device. The idea of sticking something in the muzzle doesn’t appeal to me, as it is the most sensitive part of the rifle and any nicks or dings in this area will hurt accuracy significantly. My approach is to:

- - Set the rifle up on the rest, pointing it at a bullseye downrange.
  - Remove the bolt.
  - Look through the barrel and center the bullseye at 50 yards in the bore. I use the rear opening of the barrel and the front opening of the barrel (which visually form two concentric rings) like a peep sight, getting the circles formed by both centered on the bullseye.
  - Bring the scope’s crosshairs onto the bullseye without moving the rifle on the rest.
  - Fire the first shot.
  - Make scope adjustments accordingly for subsequent shots.

I can usually get the first shot within 10 inches of the bullseye using the above approach. A couple of times I’ve got it within 2 inches of the bullseye on the first shot, and this was one of them. I took some photos to make my explanation easier to understand.

First, set the rifle in the rest and have a target at either 25 yards or 50 yards:

Next, center the bullseye in the barrel:

Then (without moving the rifle), bring the scope’s crosshairs onto the target:

At this point, my approach is to fire one shot to see where it hits and then make adjustments. My first shot was the one at the lower right in the target below. I cranked in 15 clicks of elevation and 15 of windage, and my next shot was near the middle of the orange bullseye.

That was close enough to get me started. I then moved a target out to 100 yards and fired a few groups. This was the third group, and it measured 0.865 inch.

Not everything ran as smoothly as that target above suggests, though. About a third of my .300 Weatherby Magnum ammunition (all ammunition I reloaded) had difficulty chambering or would not chamber at all, and the rest of the groups were all much larger than that .865 group shown above. I was pretty sure the chambering difficulties were affecting accuracy, but that one good group showed the rifle had potential.

I recognized that the chambering difficulty was the same problem I had encountered with my .257 Weatherby Magnum Ruger No. 1 rifle. A traditional resizing approach didn’t work on the .257 Weatherby Magnum cartridge, and when I called Sierra about it, they told me turn the resizing die into the press an additional quarter turn after the die contacts the shell holder. I think there’s another issue as well due to case distortion due to the neck expander dragging during the resizing operation. If the cases are not well lubed inside the case neck, the dual-radius Weatherby shoulder is more easily distorted upward when withdrawing the case from the resizing die (more easily distorted, that is, than would be a conventional non-dual-radius case shoulder). The trick is to lube the inside of the case neck and to do the extra quarter turn of the die into the press. This addresses the neck expansion longitudinal distortion, takes out all the clearances in the reloading press’s pivot points, and accounts for any springback in case exterior dimensions.

I went home, pulled the bullets on the .300 Weatherby Magnum cartridges that wouldn’t chamber, resized as described above, cleaned the cases thoroughly, and then reloaded them.

On the next range visit a few days later, every round chambered easily, and wow, the results were good. My first group was the one at the top of the target shown below (it measured 1.452 inches). I dialed in five clicks left the Leupold and fired the next two groups in the two lower targets. The group on the left is 1.191 inches, and the one on the right is 0.871 inch.

Note that these 300 Weatherby Magnum groups were fired with a 4X scope at 100 yards. It’s not easy to get great groups with a rifle that smacks you authoritatively each time you squeeze the trigger (the .300 Weatherby Magnum is one potent SOB). My load was the 180-grain Remington jacketed soft point bullet and IMR 7828 SSC powder a grain or two below max, and I’m not done yet. If my shoulder and my wallet hold out (and I can find components) I’ll bet I can get a ½-inch out of this rifle.

Take a peek at an earlier blog on three rifles chambered for the .300 Weatherby Magnum!

Three .300 Weatherby rifles. Click on the photo to read the story.

What’s it like meeting Roy Weatherby? Hey, take a look!

Roy Weatherby in his office in the old South Gate facility. I met Roy in that office and had a nice conversation with him. Click on the photo to get the story.

How about a Ruger No. 1 in .300 Weatherby Magnum!

One of the world’s classiest rifles…a Ruger No. 1. This one is chambered in .300 Weatherby. You can get to that story by clicking on the photo.

Hey, how about an earlier standard Vanguard in .300 Weatherby Magnum!

Bought used but in as new condition, this Tupperware-stocked Vanguard is unusually accurate!

More gun stories? You bet! Just click here!

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A .300 Weatherby Vanguard Safari

I’m a shooter and a collector. I’m old enough and I have enough toys that each time I buy a gun I’m pretty sure it will be my last. Occasionally a friend will ask if there’s anything I still want and usually the answer is no. But then something comes along and I decide I have to have it. The Weatherby Vanguard Safari is a rifle that fits that description, except it came and went before I even realized Weatherby had offered it.

Okay, let’s back up a bit and do Weatherby 101. Weatherby offers two basic rifles. The high ticket, fancy-schmancy rifle is their renowned Mark V. This is the original Weatherby and it’s a beautiful rifle. I’ve written about them here on the blog before, and I’ll give you the links that will get you to those stories at the end of this one. Then there’s the other Weatherby, and that’s the Vanguard. The Vanguard was originally conceived as a way to offer Weatherby rifles to someone who’s not a movie star, a head of state, or a blog writer. The funny thing is, though, that the Vanguards are usually more accurate than the Mark V. There’s a bunch of technical reasons for that I don’t need to get into here, and like always, I’m sure there’s an army of Internet assholes out there who will take issue with this conclusion. That’s fine. I own both and I will tell you that a Vanguard will usually shoot tighter groups than a Mark V. If you disagree you can leave a comment, or better yet, start your own blog and write an article about it.

A Weatherby Mark V chambered in .300 Weatherby Magnum.

Look, I like Weatherby rifles, and I make no excuse about that. I met Roy Weatherby 40 years ago and I’m still talking about it. I am a Weatherby fan boy.

Okay, so on to that collecting thing…in 2018, Weatherby offered a Vanguard model they called the Safari, and it was really something special. They were only available for about a year and only in three chamberings (.30 06, .300 Weatherby, and .375 H&H), and then Weatherby discontinued the model. That made me want one even more, but there were none to be had. Then the pandemic was on us, and they were really gone. As in POOF!, no more. I called Weatherby (they are in Wyoming) and offered to pay up if they would make one for me, but they wouldn’t. Absence. It made my heart grow fonder.

I kept my eye on Gunbroker and the other gun sites, but I had not seen a Vanguard Safari for sale in the last two years. I kept looking, and I kept getting frustrated. Finally, on a whim, I did a Google search a couple of weeks ago (“Weatherby Vanguard Safari for sale”) and what do you know, a small gun store in Oklahoma City had one. I called, and yes, it was new, and yes, they still had it. It was chambered for the mighty .300 Weatherby Magnum and that was what I wanted (I would have been okay with the .30 06 or the .375 H&H, too, but I wanted the .300 Weatherby). The price was $699, which might have been a mistake on the dealer’s part ($699 was the price for the non-Safari walnut Vanguard, another excellent rifle, but as Lloyd Bentsen might say to the regular Vanguard, “You’re no Safari, Senator.”

I asked the dealer they could do anything on the price and they knocked off $30 (which brought it down to $669), so I did what people do with guns and I pulled the trigger. I really scored.

Last Friday, my cooling off period ended and in the eyes of the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia, I had achieved the mandated state of acceptable chill. That’s nanny-state speak for my 10-day waiting period ended and the rifle came home with me. I’d never seen one in person before this.

The Weatherby Vanguard Safari. Ooooh, it’s nice.

With apologies for the disheveled state of my reloading bench and the iPhone photos, this blog includes some first look pics. The rifle looks even better in person than it does in the photos. The trigger is excellent. Weatherby calls it a two-stage competition trigger. It’s light and unlike that other political party, it is creep-free. There’s about 1/8-inch of slack takeup, then it breaks super clean at what I’m guessing is about 2 pounds. It’s exceptional for a factory gun. It would be exceptional for a custom gun, too.

A classic Weatherby stock profile. People said it was too Hollywood when Weatherby first introduced it, but it works.

The checkering is laser cut, but Weatherby did an above average job on it. There’s no fuzz like you would normally see on laser-cut checkering and it’s fairly sharp. I like the fancy pattern (fleur de lis, they call it) and the contrasting rosewood grip and fore end accents. The Weatherby website claims these rifles have an oil finish and that’s a plus for me, too. (In case you were wondering, fleur de lis is French and it means flower of the lily.)

NIcely laser cut fleur de lis checkering. It is well done.

Pistol grip checkering on the Vanguard Safari.

A closer shot of the laser-cut checkering. Weatherby’s supplier has this process dialed.

The 26-inch barrel is free floated and I believe the action comes from the factory glass bedded, but I can’t see enough to confirm that from the outside. Weatherby appropriately relieved the area behind the stock tang, which is good (it will prevent the stock from cracking).

The free floated barrel. There’s plenty of clearance here. Free floating prevents the barrel from moving as it heats, which prevents successive shots from walking or stringing (or so the theory goes).

Relief around the rear tang. You want this so that the tang doesn’t act as a wedge and split the stock under recoil.

Everything is subdued, including the satin oil finish and matte bluing. The walnut figure is not fancy, but I like it anyway. There’s just enough contrast to make it look good.

I called Weatherby to learn more about the Vanguard Safari line, and wow, I was impressed. The nice lady I spoke with told me the .300 Weatherby Magnum Vanguard Safari was only offered for about a year. Weatherby shipped 146 in August 2018, and then another 4 in 2019, so this is a relatively rare puppy. I guess that makes it worth more, but it’s a moot point. This one is not for sale. Still, it makes me feel better knowing I have something other kids on the block don’t.

I have a new Leupold FXII 4X scope that I essentially got for free from Leupold and I am going to mount it on this rifle. I bought a set of Leupold rings and mounts after I bought the rifle, and I will probably mount the scope in the next day or so. Then it’s out to the range. I have a bunch of .300 Weatherby ammo already loaded. I’ll let you know how it shoots.

Take a peek at an earlier blog on three rifles chambered for the .300 Weatherby Magnum!

What’s it like meeting Roy Weatherby? Hey, take a look!

How about a Ruger No. 1 in .300 Weatherby Magnum!

Hey, how about an earlier standard Vanguard in .300 Weatherby Magnum!

More gun stories? You bet! Just click here!

Never miss an ExNotes blog!

A Tale of Three 300s

The word “wow” might have been invented in anticipation of the .300 Weatherby Magnum. It’s that impressive. I’ve owned and fired a lot of different cartridges over the years, and the one that I find the most interesting, the most intimidating, and the most coolest ever is the .300 Weatherby. For a lot of years it was the most powerful .308-caliber cartridge on the planet. Roy Weatherby, my personal hero, created the cartridge in 1944 and it’s only been in the last few years that two or three more powerful .30-bore cartridges emerged, but these new .30-caliber cartridges are overkill. In fact, I could make a good argument that the .300 Weatherby is overkill. But I won’t. I love the round and I love the fact that it scares me a little every time I shoot it.

A sense of scale. From left to right, it’s the .22 Long Rifle, the .45 ACP, the .223 Remington (essentially, our M-16 round), the .30-30 Winchester (America’s premier deer cartridge), the mighty .30-06, and the last two are .300 Weatherby Magnum cartridges. Every cartridge shown here (with the exception of the .22 Long Rifle) is a reloaded round.

The first rifle I ever bought chambered for the .300 Weatherby, oddly enough, was not a Weatherby. It was a Winchester Model 70 that I bought maybe 35 years ago. It was a limited production item and that might have been a good reason to buy it, but the thing that grabbed my attention on this particular rifle was the walnut. You just don’t see factory Model 70s with fancy walnut, but this one had it in spades.

A 1980s Model 70 Winchester in .300 Weatherby Magnum, wearing a Weaver T-10 telescopic sight.

The right side of the .300 Weatherby Model 70.

Ah, that beautiful walnut. It’s not often lumber like this appears on a Winchester.

Both sides, too! When I saw this rifle I was still in my 30s. I really couldn’t afford it, but I couldn’t afford to let it get away, either.

I think I paid just over $400 for that rifle back in the 1980s, which is what they were going for then. I had a Weaver T10 target scope I had used when shooting metallic silhouette and it went on the Model 70. It’s most definitely not the scope for a .300 Weatherby, but it’s what I had at the time. The scope is a collectible item all by itself…it’s steel and it was manufactured when Weaver made their scopes in El Paso.

So that’s the first rifle in this trio of .300s. The next is one I bought exactly 10 years ago, in 2009, at the height of the Great Recession. I was lucky in 2009…I was working, and lots of folks were selling things to raise cash, including more than a few gun stores. An outfit called Lock, Stock, and Barrel advertised a new-in-the-box Mark V Euromark on Gunbroker, and I was on that in a New York minute. The store was in the upper Midwest somewhere and they stated in their ad they would not sell to California (our state commissars make life difficult in a lot of ways, and more than a few sellers simply won’t ship to California). But I wanted that Euromark something fierce (the Euromark is a Mark V Weatherby with a satin oil finish, rather than the Mark V’s usual high gloss urethane finish). I called the guy, did my “woe is me” routine, and he agreed to ship the rifle to my FFL-holder here in the Peoples’ Republik.

Saw it on Gunbroker, saw the wood, and I couldn’t say no.

It was nice on both sides, too. Rosewood accents, beautiful walnut, and the mighty .300 Weatherby Magnum in a Mark V. What’s not to like?

I bought a new Weaver 4×16 scope, put it on the rifle, and then I put the Mark V in the safe. It stayed there for 10 years. I fired it for the first time this weekend, for this blog.

You know, the funny thing is my good buddy Marty saw the Weatherby before I put it in the safe and he decided he needed one, too. He tried calling Lock, Stock, and Barrel a week after I received mine, but they had already gone out of business. The Great Recession was rough. My grabbing that rifle was a lucky break.

These photos impart a bit of an orange hue to the Mark V’s stock. It’s really a bit more subdued.

Like the Model 70, this Mark V is pretty on both sides. The stock profile is the classic Weatherby Monte Carlo look, which actually works very well in reducing felt recoil.

Unlike the other Deluxe Mark V rifles, the Euromark has a classic, low-sheen satin finish. It works well with the rosewood accents.

It was sunny when I was on the range this weekend. I get better photos when it’s overcast, but you get the idea. The 4×16 Weaver on this rifle is a magnificent optic.

The last .300 Weatherby I’m going to talk about today is my Vanguard. It’s one of the original series Weatherby Vanguards, and it has what we tongue-in-cheek refer to as the Tupperware stock. I’ve written about this rifle on the ExNotes blog before. I wasn’t looking for a Vanguard when I bought this one, but I saw it at the Gunrunner gun shop in Duarte, the price was right, and, well, you know how these things go. It came home with me.

My Series 1 Weatherby Vanguard with the plastic stock. It’s accurate. And it’s hard-hitting (on both ends).

A view from the port side. You can see the profile similarity between the Vanguard’s composite stock and the Mark V’s walnut stock above.

The Vanguard came from the factory with a Bushnell 3×9 scope. It needs more eye relief. Before I go into the field with this rifle, I’m going to replace the scope.

The deal on the Vanguard rifles is that Weatherby wanted to bring a lower cost rifle to market without cheapening their flagship Mark V, and they contracted with Howa of Japan to build the Vanguards. The principal difference is that the Vanguard has a 90-degree bolt lift compared to the Mark V’s 54-degree bolt lift, and the Mark V sells for about $1400 more than a Vanguard. I’m here to tell you that the Vanguard is an outstanding rifle, every bit as good as the Mark V, and in many cases, more accurate.

So how do these three puppies shoot?

Like I said at the beginning of this blog, the .300 Weatherby is intimidating. I like to think I’m not recoil sensitive, but the .300 Weatherby is right on the edge of what I think I can handle shooting from the bench. It’s not an easy rifle to shoot for accuracy. To get the best groups from any rifle, I like to minimize contact with the rifle. I let the rifle lay in the benchrest, lightly hold the fore end with my fingers, barely touch my cheek against the stock, move my head to an appropriate position to get a full image through the scope, and just touch the recoil pad with my shoulder. The idea is that I don’t want to exert any force on the rifle, as that can move the rounds around on the target, and I’m shooting for the tightest group. That works with rifles that have light to moderate recoil, say, up to the .30 06 level. Try that with a .300 Weatherby, though, and you’re going to get popped in the face by the scope when you drop the hammer. Really. Trust me on this; I know. Nope, when you shoot the .300 Weatherby from the bench, you need a solid grip on the rifle, and you need to pull it firmly into your shoulder. It’s a little harder to get tight groups doing that. But it’s easier than getting smacked by the scope.

Before I get into the accuracy results, I’ll share my impressions of the three rifles based on trigger pull, felt recoil, fit, and optics.

The Mark V has the best trigger. I broke cleanly at about 3 lbs, and it made shooting the rifle easier. I guess that’s to be expected with a rifle that has a price tag like the Mark V (these things ain’t cheap). The Model 70 had a crisp (no creep) trigger, but it was heavy. That made it a little harder to shoot well, especially when shooting it right after I shot the Mark V (I got spoiled; it’s pretty hard to follow the Mark V act). The Vanguard trigger had a bit of creep in it, and it was about as heavy as the Winchester’s trigger, which is to say both the Vanguard and the Winchester triggers were heavier than the Mark V’s trigger.

The Mark V is a clear winner from a felt recoil perspective. There are several reasons for this. One is that it is the heaviest of the three rifles, with its dense walnut stock and 26-inch barrel. Another is the Weatherby stock profile. Folks make fun of it, but it works. When the gun recoils, it draws away from your cheek, and the perception is that it has less recoil. Another factor is Mark V’s recoil pad. And the last one is the Weaver 4×16 scope’s eye relief. Head position isn’t critical, and you’re far enough back from the scope that it doesn’t hit you in recoil. Don’t get me wrong: The Mark V still packs a wallop. It’s just easier to shoot than the other two. The Winchester Model 70 was a close second, most likely because it also has a real stock (read: walnut), but it’s thinner recoil pad made it slightly more punishing than the Mark V. Third place from the felt recoil perspective was the Vanguard. It has a big recoil pad like the Mark V, but the plastic stock and 24-inch barrel make the gun lighter, and like we say in the engineering biz, f still equals ma. Also, the Vanguard’s low end Bushnell Banner scope does not have generous eye relief, and I got smacked a couple of times. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to get my attention.

I’ve already started talking about scopes, so let me continue that discussion. The Weaver 4×16 I purchased for the Mark V is a killer scope. It’s incredibly bright, crisp, and clear. In fact, it’s so good I didn’t realize I had it turned down to 4X for the first couple of groups I fired. Eye relief on this scope is generous enough for a bucking bronc like the .300 Weatherby. It’s the clear winner.

The Weaver T-10 on the Model 70 was out of its element. It’s a target scope. Eye relief was good enough, but alignment and distance were hypercritical; move just a little too far forward or backward, or left or right, and you’ve lost the image. I like the scope (I’ve owned it for over 40 years), but it’s in the wrong place on a hunting rifle.

The Vanguard’s Bushnell Banner…what can I say? Maybe this: Halitosis is better than no breath at all. I played around with the focus adjustment, but the Bushnell just isn’t as clear or crisp as either of the Weavers. That said, it’s considerably less expensive than the other two scopes. When I bought the Vanguard, it was essentially in as new condition, and the Bushnell was part of a factory package (it came with the rifle). If I was do it over, I’d get the Weaver 4×16, or maybe a Leupold, for this rifle. I may do that anyway. I know this is heresy, but I actually think the Weaver has a crisper image than a Leupold scope.

Of the three rifles, the Mark V fits me best, with the Vanguard a close second. I like the Weatherby profile. It just works for me. If I had to choose one of these three rifles for a hunting trip in the mountains (and I do, as I’m chasing deer with good buddy J later this year in Idaho), it would definitely be the Vanguard. It’s lighter, and that counts on a hunt like the one I’m headed into. Yeah, I know…a .300 Weatherby is a bit much for deer. You take what you want when you hunt. I’m taking my .300.

Okay, so the big question emerges: How about accuracy?

I almost didn’t include this. I did a bit of accuracy testing, but my advice is to take my results with a grain of salt. A big grain. Maybe a barrel of salt. I hadn’t been on the rifle range in a month or two, and firing 50 or 60 rounds of .300 Weatherby Magnum ammo in one sitting is not the best way to do this kind of shooting. Stated differently, I was not really giving these rifles a fair shake in this test. The first few groups you see below are me getting settled in, and the last few groups you see below are more likely than not me deteriorating after getting smacked around all morning. These rifles are better than what the results below indicate.

That said, here we go. All groups you see in the chart below were 3-shot groups at 100 yards from the bench. There was no wind, it was a bit warm, and conditions were about ideal.

The loads. Don’t take my word for this stuff; get thee to a load manual, study it, and do your own testing. Start low and work up.

I knew from past dealings that IMR 7828 propellant is good stuff in the big magnums, and I think that my 76.5 grain load with the 180-grain Remington jacketed softpoint bullet is a great load. I was a bit off on the first group I fired with this load (two shots were touching; the third was a flyer most likely induced by me) and then the other two groups with this load were at minute of angle. I could do better if I shot this rifle more (yeah, that’s another factor; this was the first time I had this rifle out and the barrel is not broken in yet). This is not a max load (I could go hotter) and the group size was smaller with the warmer of the two loads I tried with 7828 and the Remington 180-grain bullets. That suggests an even warmer charge of 7828 under this bullet is where greater accuracy lives, but I just don’t feel a need to go there. No animal on the planet would be able to tell the difference from an energy-on-target perspective and minute-of-angle accuracy is close enough for government work (especially for the game I plan to hunt). Dead is dead. There’s no sense getting beat up by more recoil to make an animal more dead.

The 80 grains of 7828 with the 165-grain Hornady bullet I show in the table above is near a max load, and I think it’s obvious I was losing my edge toward the end of this range session. I shot a 0.507-inch group at 100 yards with that same load in the Vanguard a couple of years ago; I just couldn’t duplicate it near the end of my range session this past weekend.

The difference between a cup of coffee and my advice is you might have asked for a cup of coffee, but I’ll give you my advice anyway. If I was going to get one rifle in .300 Weatherby, I’d get the basic model Vanguard with a walnut stock, and I’d put either a Weaver 4×16 or a Leupold scope on it. You’d be getting the Vanguard’s accuracy, with the walnut stock you’d get a little added weight to soak up the recoil, and you’d save a cool $1400 over the Mark V. I think the Weatherby Vanguard is the best rifle value on the market today. Shop around on Gunbroker.com for a bit and you can find new walnut Vanguards for about $600. That’s a phenomenal deal and owning a Weatherby will make you thinner, taller, and better looking. It will make you a better man. Trust me on this.

One last comment: The results you see above regarding different loads are my loads in my rifles. Your mileage may vary. Consult a load manual, and always work up your own loads starting at the low end of the manual’s recommended propellant charges.

More Tales of the Gun? No problem. Click here, and enjoy!

More random walking…

It’s another one of those stream-of-consciousness blogs, folks…things I’ve been meaning to mention but forgot, new stuff that’s cool, and more.

For starters, you all will remember my good buddy and former US Army paratrooper Mike. I first met Mike on one of the CSC Baja rides and we’ve been friends since.

Mike posted a photo on Facebook over the weekend of himself and, well, take a look…

I saw that photo, and I realized: This is an image that cries out for a caption. So, we’re having a caption contest. There’s no prize, other than seeing your entry posted here on the ExNotes blog. There’s all kinds of possibilities with things related to being Airborne, being a turkey, sitting under a turkey, that “almost airborne” T-shirt Mike is wearing, and on and on it goes. Let’s hear your thoughts in the Comments section, or shoot us an email.

If you missed this one, you gotta go back. And if you didn’t miss it, read it again. I have. Several times.

More good stuff…I keep returning to Gresh’s blog on the BMW R18. I first read it when I was enjoying an Einstein’s bagel in the Denver airport a couple of nights ago, and I realized that folks were looking at me because I was laughing out loud. The writing is classic Gresh. Funny as hell. My good buddy Arjiu can write.

Another one…you might remember my blog on the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site a few weeks ago.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. It’s in southeastern Colorado and it’s worth a visit.

While I was out there, I asked the US Park Ranger which of the several books they offered for sale he would recommend, and he suggested A Misplaced Massacre by Ari Kelman.

The Ranger’s book recommendation was solid, and A Misplaced Massacre was a fascinating read. Part of the book was about the massacre, but most of it was about the controversy in contemporary Colorado associated with recognizing that Sand Creek was a massacre (and not an heroic battle, as claimed by the cowardly cavalry officer who led it). Another aspect to the story I had not heard before was the uncertainly associated with the actual massacre site (since resolved, but the effort involved in finding it was one hell of a story that resulted in the title of this fine book). And yet another aspect was US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s involvement in designating the site as a national historic site. I met Senator Campbell over 20 years ago at the Laughlin River Run. Yep, Senator Campbell is a motorcyclist.

Gordon Smith as the XO of VA-152 during a deployment in Southeast Asia.

More good stuff…30 years ago, I managed the Sargent-Fletcher plant in El Monte, California, where we designed and manufactured aerial refueling equipment and combat aircraft fuel tanks. It was a fabulous place to be and I had a wonderful team, but the best part was that I worked for Rear Admiral Gordon Smith, one of the best bosses I ever had. I learned more about leadership working for Gordon than I did in any other job, and I’ve worked for several truly outstanding leaders. Sue and I reconnected with the Admiral a few weeks ago, and we’re having dinner with him this week. I’m really excited about that. It’s a story we may share here on the ExNotes blog.

A 2014 L.A. Cetto Malbec. This, all by itself, is worth a trip to Mexico.

Another random thought…Joe and I did a Baja run a few weeks ago for Royal Enfield, and I mentioned that story is running in the current issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine. On our way home, as I always do on any Baja run, we stopped at the L.A. Cetto vineyard along the glorious Ruta del Vino between Ensenada and Tecate. It turns out that I am somewhat of a wine snob. Well, not really a wine snob…that implies a degree of sophistication I don’t possess. What I am is a guy who appreciates a good Malbec, a wine I learned about on a business trip to Colombia 15 years ago (I had never heard of Malbec before then). When you re-enter the US from Baja, you can only bring one bottle of wine, and when Joe and I visited the L.A. Cetto vineyard, I asked if they had a Malbec. It turns out they had a couple, and the guy there recommended the 2014. It cost a little more than the other one so I figured it must be good (like I said, being a real wine snob requires a level of sophistication I don’t have). Based on my wine selection logic (more expensive must be better), I bought it. Susie and I barbequed salmon last week and we opened the Malbec (another demonstration of my lack of sophistication…drinking a red with fish). Good Lord, it was wonderful. I checked, and you can’t buy L.A. Cetto Malbec in the US. You know what that means: Another trip to Baja!

And finally, I was out on the rifle range yesterday, and we’re working up a good story tentatively titled A Tale of Three 300s.

Winchester made a small number of Model 70 rifles chambered in .300 Weatherby in the 1980s, and I managed to get one. Nope, it’s not for sale.

A Tale of Three 300s will be up in another day or two after my shoulder recovers from the recoil. In the meantime, if you need more gun stuff, just mosey on over to Tales of the Gun!

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