300 Weatherby

Alexandro Faria

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So, life has thrown a spanner in the works, as it usually does.

Just came by a 300 weatherby at a great price and I'm heavily tempted. It's a beautiful thing and I feel it could be made to work pretty well for my needs.

I wanted to hear from you all, are the mark V actions reliable?? I'm a fan of controlled feed, but I'm open to a push feed if it's not going to give me problems.

Thoughts??
 
I have been shooting my Mk V .340 Weatherby now for over 25 years with zero problems.

Where I have seen problems creep up is when someone tries to lighten the trigger pull which causes problems. There is a thread on here about PH's or others hating on the Weatherby's that you can take with a grain of salt.

https://www.africahunting.com/threa...-in-375-calibers-not-liked-on-a-safari.34505/

You will find that it is best if you reload since a box of 20 premium rounds will run you around $100 US and you can reload the same loads for around $1.50 US.
 
I’ve only owned one Mark V (378 Wby). Functioned well. I fired a few since and all functioned well. Planning on buying one next year.
As far as the cartridge, I own a Wby Vanguard chambered for the .300 Wby and previously owned a Golden Eagle 7000 in that chambering. Very effective on game. Very few game animals I wouldn’t use it on. Make sure you use tough bullets. Back in the 1980’s I used a 190 gr Hornady spbt. It worked great on a mule deer at 300 yds and a black bear at 135 yds. However, it about blew an exotic ram in half at 20 yds.
 
I had one for a bit. A beautiful Japanese made Mark V with a left handed action. In my opinion, this rifle was/is a bit too light for the recoil generated.
My current .340wby and .460wby are much more pleasant to shoot comparatively. I find most .300 magnums to be too snappy vs the bigger stuff. I have no doubt that it will lay down whatever it hits though. Only one way to find out. ;-)
 
I have a fairly recent Mark V synthetic in 300 wby - it's a US made gun. No problems with it and it is an MOA or better rifle after I bedded it. I am a fan of the round and have used it to take a number of animals at longer range. Only downside is the rifle is fairly heavy, which is also a benefit with the recoil.
 
I own a 257 super accurate and a great trigger, I'll agree with others about the recoil being a bit stout, but Buy it anyway
 
Being pulled every which way, decided to stop getting distracted and focus on what I've been after for a while now. Thanks all!
 
I am a huge Weatherby fan, and since I was a kid I have always loved the look of the rifles. I own a Weatherby MK V rifle from 240 Wby to the new 6.5-300 Wby. The only one I shoot with a break is the 300 Wby, I shoot all the others without. Knock on wood, so far have not had any issues with any of them. The rifles are more accurate than I'll ever be, and Weatherby calibers kill with authority. I took my 300 Weatherby Vanguard to Africa for PG, and had no issues. I reload for all of them, but the Weatherby spire point ammo (cheap ammo), is very accurate on most of my rifles and inexpensive at about $40 per box. Hard to beat that by reloading. I do not know if this would be an issue with you being in SA.
 
My dad bought a 300 Weatherby Deluxe about 65 years ago. It was the light model, as I recall with a 4x Kollmorgen scope it weighed 7 lbs 15 oz. A few years later when I was allowed to shoot it I remember that I had to follow-through with the recoil rather than my practice with a 30-06 of letting go during recoil with one hand to operate the action. Other than that slight delay in operation it was a very serviceable round. It was built on an FN action. Later he purchased a 257 Wby in a Mark V and it was a nice trouble free action although it did seem a bit over engineered for the cartridge.

For reloading I found that getting Winchester 300 H&H brass and fireforming it worked very well and reduced the dependence on Weatherby ammo.
 
I have had Weatherby rifles from the first ones made to the last ones made and have never experienced any failures what so ever with any that would cause any of them to not function.

I can also say the same thing with most rifles, except Remington which have had a few trigger malfunctions which caused accidental discharges which the factory did fix.

The biggest detriment to rifle reliability and function has always been the know it all kitchen table gunsmith who's mechanical abilities can basically be summed up as " piss poor light bulb changer" at best.

Have I had to repair Weatherby rifles in the past? Well sure I have. I have worked on all makes of rifles as anything mechanical should be professionally serviced from time to time. I have a Rolex watch that I have professionally maintained every lustrum by a real honest to God watch maker and not my accountant next door neighbor who I watched service his Casio watch with 100 pound air from his compressor and a can of WD-40.

Amazingly.........my watch has kept perfect time for 50 years.....his are normally in pieces .

If someone says that they have had a handful of Weatherby rifles....all of which had given him problems.....then that person, and his fan club, should state what exactly the problems are that they have experienced and just not some vague smattering of yammer.

Weatherby is the finest machined American mass produced weapons that I have never personally seen fail unless it's mechanism was "tweetle dee'd" by some tweetle dumb bastard who didn't know his ass from his elbow when it came to the mechanics of firearms.
 
I have had Weatherby rifles from the first ones made to the last ones made and have never experienced any failures what so ever with any that would cause any of them to not function.

I can also say the same thing with most rifles, except Remington which have had a few trigger malfunctions which caused accidental discharges which the factory did fix.

The biggest detriment to rifle reliability and function has always been the know it all kitchen table gunsmith who's mechanical abilities can basically be summed up as " piss poor light bulb changer" at best.

Have I had to repair Weatherby rifles in the past? Well sure I have. I have worked on all makes of rifles as anything mechanical should be professionally serviced from time to time. I have a Rolex watch that I have professionally maintained every lustrum by a real honest to God watch maker and not my accountant next door neighbor who I watched service his Casio watch with 100 pound air from his compressor and a can of WD-40.

Amazingly.........my watch has kept perfect time for 50 years.....his are normally in pieces .

If someone says that they have had a handful of Weatherby rifles....all of which had given him problems.....then that person, and his fan club, should state what exactly the problems are that they have experienced and just not some vague smattering of yammer.

Weatherby is the finest machined American mass produced weapons that I have never personally seen fail unless it's mechanism was "tweetle dee'd" by some tweetle dumb bastard who didn't know his ass from his elbow when it came to the mechanics of firearms.
Agree whole hearty. I've owned Weatherby's for fifty years. I've replaced a spring in the trigger mechanicism (gunsmith) and a extractor myself.
 
Sirs, as here - like everywhere I guess - is so difficult to find powders and components in general, I'm forced to reload with what I already have.
Have you a good recipe for my 300 Wby (in a Sauer 66" / 1:11) with H4831 and Partition or Accubond 180, in Norma brass?
Thanks in advance
 
@Phil Giordano, I don't have that load, but I'm sure if you go into their web site you'll be able to find a starting point for sure.

This is what their site is showing:

 

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