Weatherby
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Weatherby, Inc. is an American gun manufacturer founded in 1945 by Roy Weatherby. The company is best known for its high-powered magnum cartridges, such as the .257 Weatherby Magnum and the .460 Weatherby Magnum. Company headquarters is in the northern San Luis Obispo County town of Paso Robles, CA.
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[edit] Rifles
The original rifles by Roy Weatherby were originally built on FN Mauser actions, or other actions deemed strong enough, though it was primarily the FN. The first Weatherby Mark V rifles were manufactured in West Germany. Material and labour costs eventually led production to Japan, where some say the machining was actually better. In 1995 Manufacturing was moved back to the United States, where they have been manufactured under contract by both Saco Defense and Acrometal/ATEK.[citation needed]
The design of the Weatherby Mark V rifle is said by many experts to be the most widely mimicked in the world. Weatherby rifles are some of the only rifles in the world to guarantee sub-MOA accuracy from a cold barrel. While generally contended to be of higher quality than Remington or Winchester rifles, Weatherby rifles are consequently considerably more expensive in terms of both the rifle and ammunition.
Weatherby currently offers two lines of rifles: the Mark V and the Vanguard. The Mark V is manufacted by ATEK in Brainerd, MN while the barrel and action for the vanguard are manufactured by Howa in Japan. Final assembly of the Vanguard is performed at Weatherby's company headquarters in Paso Robles, CA. The Mark V sports Weatherby's 9-lug bolt, which is reportedly the strongest bolt action available. Both the Mark V and Vanguard are available as sub-MOA rifles in various models (ranging from blued to stainless steel metal and kevlar to wood stocks) and calibers .223 through .300 Weatherby Magnum. Calibers .340 through .460 are only available on the Mark V platform due to the stronger bolt.
[edit] Shotguns
Weatherby offers a wide line of exotic double-barrel shotguns for bird hunting, and trap/skeet shooting. Weatherby produces three types (each with two models) of shotgun: over-under double barrel, side-by-side double barrel, and semi-automatic.
[edit] Calibers
It was with Weatherby that the modern trend of high velocity hunting calibers was developed. From there Weatherby has constantly moved in to build the most power cartridge of a common caliber range. Only in recent years has a competitor in the form of Remington's UltraMag series given Weatherby real competition for commercially available power. However Weatherby still holds the title of most powerful commercially available hunting cartridge in the world with its .460 Weatherby. While the company's .30-378 holds over a dozen velocity records.
According to Weatherby's website, the company's full line up of calibers consists of the:
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Weatherby also offers rifles chambered in:
Another cartridge of note designed by Roy Weatherby was the .220 Weatherby Rocket. It has the traditional double-radius shoulder, but unlike the rest of the Weatherby calibers, it is not a belted magnum. It is an "improved" version of the .220 Swift.
While other companies offer rifles chambered in Weatherby calibers, the instruction manuals of these rifles warn against using actual Weatherby ammunition in these rifles as opposed to ammunition developed by the maker of the rifle. The reason for this is that Weatherby's own ammunition is often loaded to a considerably more powerful level and could easily rupture a rifle not designed to handle it.
Weatherby shotguns cover the spectrum of available cartridges from the .410 Bore up to the 12 Gauge.
