Weatherby drops stainless?

blargon

blargon

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Was looking at the Weatherby site for a few things, and it appears they have dis-continued all their stainless Vanguard rifles, including laminates, wood and synthetic stocked ones. If you want a stainless Weatherby, its now a Mark V for $1900...

Why would they do that when most young buyers are looking for stainless?:confused:
 
blargon said:
Was looking at the Weatherby site for a few things, and it appears they have dis-continued all their stainless Vanguard rifles, including laminates, wood and synthetic stocked ones. If you want a stainless Weatherby, its now a Mark V for $1900...

Why would they do that when most young buyers are looking for stainless?:confused:
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Usually when a company drops a product it is because sales don't justify keeping it.

Perhaps Howa has increased the prices on the stainless barreled actions too high for Weatherby?

Perhaps more people are buying Howas instead of Vanguards?

Perhaps "most young" Vanguard buyers are NOT buying stainless?
 
I bought two vanguards in the past year. Both blued. I have little desire to buy a stainless rifle, specifically as these are hunting rifles that don't need extra glare coming off of them. I also consider myself part of the young crowd.
 
Glare from a rifle is the absolute least of my concerns.
Scent, sound, movement more important. Many animals like shiny stuff.:eek:
 
If you read the Weatherby Nation posts by Ed Weatherby, he indicates stainless doesn't sell nearly as well as the blued steel models and that production costs have gone up more for the stainless models so instead of paying more for something they sell less of, they just dropped it instead. The only gun still available in stainless is the Accumark, and even then it's only the barrel since their research showed the chromoly actions were stronger than the stainless ones, but the stainless barrels lasted a bit longer.

There's lots of good stainless guns out there if you really need one. I love my blued Vanguard though, real sweetheart shooter.
 
So just have one stainless model , instead of 5 or 6, to keep costs down. In the US, they sell the blued/synthetic for $399, I'm sure people would pay $499 for a stainless...:)
 
blargon said:
So just have one stainless model , instead of 5 or 6, to keep costs down. In the US, they sell the blued/synthetic for $399, I'm sure people would pay $499 for a stainless...:)
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Simple economics. They didn't sell many stainless Vanguards, the prices were going to go up substantially, and the profit per-unit was going to go down. Once you make more money off your base blued/synthetic gun than your stainless gun which costs more to make, it no longer makes sense to sell a stainless gun from a business perspective. Same reason they dropped the base Mark V Stainless. It was posted on Weatherby Nation if you want to get the full scoop.
 
I am not bashing stainless at all but I have noticed a few things over the years:

1) It appears most recalls, defects and catastrophic failures like barrels splitting etc are on stainless rifles.

2) Blued steel can be coated to be weather resistant

3) Many top notch makers do not offer stainless, even in 'extreme weather' models, especially Euro rifles. Blaser, Steyr, Mauser, Sauer etc don't offer stainless but do offer rifles designed for inclement conditions and many of those rifles do get used in harsh conditions.

While you can't deny the usefulness of stainless do you think its necessity for harsh weather and ease of maintenance has been over sold?
 
Yup. Some now say carbon fiber wrap is the newest bestest thing.

I'm still shaking my head about the plastic stock craze and snapcaps. lol
 
I've said it before, but I've always gotten better accuracy out of regular steel barrels I've owned when compared to stainless. And while I've never put two identical rifles side by side in the same chambering I have shot them, at different times, and always had better results with the standard steel. Perhaps Weatherby found this too, and if they couldn't garantee their accuracy (as they do on all their rifles) they were scraping too many barrels.
 
I've said it before, but I've always gotten better accuracy out of regular steel barrels I've owned when compared to stainless. And while I've never put two identical rifles side by side in the same chambering I have shot them, at different times, and always had better results with the standard steel.
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So what percentage of benchrest shoots or long range shoots do you suppose are won with stainless barrels?

Perhaps Weatherby found this too, and if they couldn't garantee their accuracy (as they do on all their rifles) they were scraping too many barrels.
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Would you care to explain how Sako,Cooper,and H-S-Precision among others offer better accuracy with stainless barrels than Weatherby does with any of their rifles?
 
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