bb122

When paying over $1000 for a rifle like a Weatherby or a Sako, what do you get over a $500 - $600 rifle? What am I missing?

Vapodog

please understand that high end rifles start at $6,000.....

bb122

Vapodog,

You're correct. I really mean high-end production rifles, not custom or semi-custom guns. Thanks for setting me straight.

Vapodog

now that I've said that let me answer your question.....what you're getting is fit and finish and in some cases trademark.

If you can't tell the difference in a custom hand polished rifle and a weatherby you will never understand the answer....you get fit form and function and a lot more.....

A high priced rifle should have flawless extraction, ejection, and feeding as well as fine accuracy......and I assure you that many off the shelf rifles don't have that......

Yes you can have flawless function in a "off the shelf" gun but it's not a good bet.

Make no mistake about it....there's some ego here too.....but you will learn that there's a heck of a lot more to a custom rifle than looks.....it's a quality that needs to be learned.

Vapodog

bb122

I personally don't believe you're getting anything of value in a Weatherby over a M-70.....or a Sako for that matter.

Custom guns however are another different story.....

DM

Weatherby is to rifles, what Harley is to motorcycles, what John Deere is to tractors, and YES, i own or have owned all of the above!!!

In other words, all are more expensive, but not necessarily the best, or in some cases even worth the extra money they cost!!

Drilling Man

handloader1

I own two Weatherbys and I hope to buy another one soon. The two that I own now are excellent rifles. I would like to get my hands on a German Weatherby NIB or in excellent condition for a decent price. Good luck.

Deleted User

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DM

I haven't found wby stocks to be so special. I use to sell them, and i sent two guns back for poor stocks, NOT because of there looks, i'm talking so full of knots and poor grainning both of them had split. At that time wby only allowed less than $15.00 per Mark V for the stock blank!! There were more that i figured would come back but didn't, at least to me.

As for the nine locking lugs, unless they've been lapped almost always 4 or 5 (or less) are carrying the load, and the rest aren't even in full contact. Wby should be lapping EVERY action.

The only firearm i ever had fail in the bush was a wby. They at one time had a lathe cut in the bolt stop, and i shot a moose, when i pulled the bolt back it came right out of the gun!! The bolt stop had broken at the lathe cut. Glad it wasn't a brown bear!!

I had guy come in looking for a bolt, as he had his wby on his pack with the bolt open, when he got on top of the mountain, he no longer had a bolt!! (broken bolt stop) This problem was later fixed.

I was a member of a gun club that had a lot of members who were bench rest shoots. Every time a non Rem shooter came along with a wby, he soon learned that if he didn't have a Rem. he couldn't win, even in the "out of the box" stock rifle class. Every wby owner who wanted to compete owned a Rem 700 for bench rest!! (includeing me)

I NEVER called wby's junk, i'm just saying they are over priced, and i stand by that statement!!

Drilling Man

wnogood

First off, let me say that weatherby is NOT what it once was. If walmart sells it, it aint a premium rifle. Second, I own a Sako mdl 75 and Sig Sauer, both in 7mm mag. There is a difference. The most obvious, the action. The next most obvious, the accuracy. Like someone else said, fit and finish is above the rest. Don't take me wrong, if you really can't appreciate a premium rifle, there is no need in you buying one. I hunted with a walmart gun for many years, and killed a bunch of deer with it. But now that I can afford it, I like the "better brand" rifles. Don't let smelly dog fool ya, 90% of all dead deer are dead because of a good marksman, not because of a good rifle......the other 10%.....pure luck!