Weatherby or Tikka?

[Greg Nolan]

I just bought a plane jane stainless Vangard 257 Wby. I'll give you the stats on accuracy as soon as I get em worked out. The stock is ugly ( black with red spider web) so I ordered a black laminate, thumb hole stock from Boyds.
Good Hunting
Elkhunt

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

My friend has one of those 257 WBY Vanguards and I dont like the feel of the rifle one bit. Not much I do like about the rifle except the caliber. I dont like the stock for one, and for two the thing is BARREL HEAVY, and for three, the adjustable trigger is a joke. For only having a 24" bbl, you would think they could make it a little more balanced, guess not. It does shoot decent with handloads however.

 

[hardpan]

Chuck Hawks wrote an article on the Tikka.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/critical_look_T3.htm

I own several weatherby rifles from .257, 7mm, .300... All shot sub 1 inch groups at 200 yards, with only the .257 not shooting a smaller 1/2 inch group. The .300 and the 7mm did this with factory loads from weatherby and federal!

I am not a fan of the vanguard, but admittedly it is because i am skeptical of a lower price with the same quality. My rifles will be handed down to my children, and hopefully, to theirs as well. So, the extra cost does not bother me as much as it would if I were buying an item that I will replace later.

To each his own, but i really like the weatherby's and mine are far more accurate than a 1.5" group at 100 yards. In fact, I would not buy a rifle that i could not get to shoot better than that. Also, i know of a couple of shops that can accurize a rifle very well. Get the best rifle and scope that you can afford, work up a good load, and enjoy!
Best of luck,
Hardpan

 

[SakoSteve270wsm]

Tikka 8)

 

[jtoews80]

Well, I'd have to say this isn't a really obvious choice. I've have/had 3 sako's, 1 tikka, 1 vanguard & 1 Mark V weatherby over the past 7 years. All were excellent, but had their own flaws. The first sako was a forester in 22-250 with an old weaver K6, it shot 0.4 MOA with hand loads. Second a S/S sako 75 with an Elite 4200 2.5X10 in 7mm rem mag, Nice gun. Then I bought a Tikka T3 lite S/S in 300 win mag, put a 4200 2.5X10 on it, it shot well and was great to carry, but the lite isn't much fun at the range because of the recoil. I bought a 257 vanguard with the desert camo stock, shot 5 rounds out of it and traded it back to the dealer on a 30-378 accumark. I have a 264 that is ballistically the same. Don't ask about the 30-378 for ammo cost, but it shoots phenominally, gets awesome groups even in a lot of wind.

Point of all that is there are several considerations when buying a gun, personal preferance and application being the big ones followed immediately by the economics of your situation. First, the sako's and tikkas have a european stock with a somewhat large pistolgrip. I like that feature, many don't. THe weatherby's are a much more graceful in this area especially their deluxe vanguard or Mark V in high gloss wood. The weatherby's are availible with a muzzle brake on special order for people that don't like heavy recoil. If you do a lot of target/varmint shooting, invest in a heavy barrel, it's worth it. the vanguard Sub-MOA is about the same price as the tikka varmint, but not the tactical t3. If you do a lot of hard country hunting in places like minnesota's tamarack swamps or in heavy underbrush you probably don't want a high gloss rifle or will be disappointed when it isn't as shiny. Try to pick a caliber that suits you, not the favorite from whichever gun magazine that you read. Both these rifles have a good selection of chamberings. Something that spans your shooting/hunting needs and is practical. Up here in Canada we don't have the readily availible supply for the WSM, WSSM & Weatherby calibers, so we have to consider that up here or reload our own. Find one that you like, put a good scope on it. And shoot it until you trust it. If you can't get it to that point sell it and try something else.

Jason Toews