I'm not very knowledgeable about rifles, are the Weatherby rifles of poor quality. I always thought they had a good reputation.
Hello IA Monsterbuck,
NOTE:
After posting this, I realize that I am in error for not referring you to my earlier response, on this very question within a Weatherby topic thread.
Moments ago, I have asked a Moderator to move my blathering here to an appropriate thread.
In Weatherby's defense, their rifles are usually very accurate.
Be that as it may, so are most other rifle brands today.
The older Brno and present day CZ series of bolt action hunting rifles are, in my personal experiences, noticeably more accurate than any brand commonly available 20 or 30 years ago.
Even the cheapest ones like Savage, are way accurate today.
Moving right along, I do like the very silent "safety" catch on the MK V.
It is significantly similar to the excellent P-14 and P-17 Enfield design.
But anyway to answer your question, back in the 1970's, a Chico California Gunsmith, Ray Spiegel told me that, over the years he used a candle flame to coat the 9 locking lugs on more than one or two Weatherby MK V rifle bolts, with waxy smoke film and then he worked each bolt several times in its respective rifle.
Not one of them engaged more than 3 lugs maximum.
He did however point out that Weatherby obviously uses best quality steel, as he had never heard of one shearing off even one of those 9 tiny lugs.
Ray was in his 70's back then and so sadly, he is long gone now and cannot give us his May-2017 opinion on rifles.
I will however presume that, with today's greatly improved manufacturing technology, CNC machining and so forth, all 9 Weatherby lugs actually contact their intended counterparts (?).
Well known Author and PH, Robin Hurt, mentioned in one of his articles that, he'd witnessed a factory loaded round stick its empty brass in a MK V chamber so tightly that, the bolt could not be opened by human hands.
They had to use a makeshift bludgeon of some sort to literally beat it open.
He credited this unpleasant, equipment failure to the Africa sun being hot that day and the Weatherby reputation of loading their factory ammunition to near maximum pressures.
If the above paragraphs do not raise more questions in your mind than they answer then, I encourage you to seek out any owner of a .340 Weatherby, to ask if they'll let you fire off a factory loaded or hand loaded equivalent velocity round.
Pay no attention to the half moon scar over their shooting side eyebrow.
It's probably just coincidence that it is the same shape as about half of the rear bell on his scope.
If you turn out to be one of those rare souls who, can repeatedly fire a .340 without developing a flinch, then ask yourself if there is any target you've consistently hit with the .340 that, likewise you could not also consistently hit with the same weight bullet from a boring old .338 Winchester.
Last but not least, look up the word "garish" in any English dictionary.
Let the hate mail begin,
Velo Dog.
