Lessons from rifle break in and shooting groups to test ammo- Weatherby Vanguard Meateater 300 WBY 

Public service announcement on this rifle: I've tried a few different types of ammo out of mine and what i've found groups the best is Winchester. Specifically their Deer season XP load but i would guess other Winchesters would group fine as well. I'm grouping a 1/2 MOA with them. It's a little tough to come by, like everything right now but not to bad. also, mine is chambered in 300 Win mag

Good video. Exactly what are you doing when you state that you are “cleaning” your barrel are each three shot group. Just a simple clean patch, solvent? Thank you sir

Can you do another video on this rifle please mate? More in depth look at it and it shooting

I think the 180 Accuobonds could very well be the load for that rifle. If you get 3/4" or better from that rifle with that load I would use it and not look back. Of course I'm assuming you get 300 Weatherby type velocity or otherwise what's the point? As an aside, I have found 180 Accubonds from a 300 WM and 160 Accubonds from a 7MM Rem Mag to perform very well on bull elk.

Id be sending this video to weatherby

Love this gun vise

Wondering, do you think that it is really needed to use the westherby breakin? I bought a vanguard 6.5-300 , i did not do the break in but it seems to shoot just fine. Just curious as to if you think it is necessary. I am buying another weatherby soon.

thanks for the video. I had a remington 700 that handled most ammo just fine but my weatherby backcountry mark v is very picky on ammo, mine is 6.5 creedmore Weatherby has some ammo recommendations on their site for each gun/caliber but obviously it’s not always possible to find those. I found one that works for me outside the ones weatherby recommended. I do think they meet their accuracy standards but a really picky eater on ammo. So much so that one ammo brand will be 2.5” groups at 200 yards and another will have one hit on the target with 2 total misses not even on the paper.

I have been shooting 3 shots & letting it cool . It seemed to work on my 17 wmr.

Is the rifle barrel 26 inches plus the muzzle break or 26 inches including the muzzle brake? Great group for the accubond. Looking for the same rifle in 300 win mag or 7mm Rem mag.

Each rifle has a favorite ammo or round that it will like best, seems accubonds are the ones for this rifle. I've got boxes and boxes of ammo that I'll never use after running some test groups, probably 3/4 or better of my ammo won't be used for anything other than fouling shots.

Stick with the 180 gr and add a EC tunner. You can cut that three quarter to one quarter.

Thinking about picking one up in .300win mag. How has yours held up?

Thank you

I have several rifles that love the Accubonds over any other projectile.

Hey mate, I have just purchased this rifle, and I have a couple of questions about how you have set up yours. What size Leupold did you mount/ what height mounts did you use and do you have any issues with the bolt being to close to the optic? Just checking to see if the optic I plan to purchase will sit nice and low with out any issues.

Until recently you could buy 150 gr loads for the .300wby. 3500 fps out of the box. There is handload data. Super flat shooting and more than any deer or elk can stand up to. Just a suggestion. Also does cut recoil a little for some people that might help.

I'm been thinking about 6.5 300 weatherby I shoot a 300 win mag just curious if you shoot a 300 win mag if the recoil is the same of the 30 weatherby or if you no heard they have a. Bad recoil just wondering

please comment back: does the meateater only use weatherby bullets, or can you use hornedys?

Hey Roger, look up some of Eric Cortina’s videos. He tells in there that you can run those factory shells through the chronograph and find the ones with the lowest es and sd. Once you find the lowest ones, then you take a die and start pushing the bullets .003 deeper than they came and shoot a 3 shot group. Then go another .003 deeper making them a total of .006, then another .003 making them .009 deeper than the factory and so forth until you find the group that will tune the best out of them. You might find an accuracy node in some of the factory rounds that could work well for hunting. Be sure to record the oal or base to ogive on the depth that works best so you know where to set them when you buy more.

I have this exact same rifle in 308 that I just got last month. I have tried a few loads and so far, it does not like 165 GMX bullets, or 165 grain accubonds. It’s super allergic to those. Which is a huge disappointment. 150 grain loads I tried are not bad and I tried one load of the 178 grain Hornady precision hunter and it did not too bad with that. But so far I’m not really impressed with it. Idk what’s going on there.

Read my comment about my experience with those Talley scope rings in the video you posted earlier when you refer to mounting the rings . Your scope may be in a bad bind and not able to function correctly

I had a set of Talley rings on a Savage 110. They were milled badly and needed a precision lapping job to fix it. Then one side of the clamshell arms were not level with the other clamshell when compared [front mount versus rear mount]. I would not waste any money on Talley stuff. For me I like the Weaver bases with their Weaver Grand Slam steel rings. Much better stuff.

I found it take about 100 rounds of barrel break in to get it settled In. But I would be looking at all the bolts and screws making sure everything is torqued and blue lock tighten.

What size scope

👍👍💯

That’s the way to do it…

What calibers are available in this rifle

I have this gun in 6.5-300 wby mag and it took about 100 rounds to get it broke in I love it now tho killed a Couse deer at 550 with it

Kinda silly to recognize the bumper sticker on your truck...is that Keezletown School. If so my kids don't go there but know some that do or have.

I’ve had bad experiences with heavy hitting calibers on light weight polymer stocks like this just because the flex from the recoil it can cause. I had a howa 300 win mag that would not shout groups. I have this meat eater in a 6.5 CM and it shoots sub MOA with three different types of ammunition. Also weatherby says to torque your action to spec upon pulling it out of the box. Also some barrels come ready to shoot and groups nice and some just don’t from my experience with rifles

I think fluted barrels might heat up faster.

I handled this rifle today! It is heavy

Wonder if in part it’s because they do not have free floated barrels.

Moa guarantees are really worthless. All manufacturers. Kimber in particular, does not say what ammunition they used. I spent over three hundred bucks and best three shot group was just under two inches. Always cool down between shots. My handloads group at 1/2”. Not any factory ammunition. 👎

Beautiful rifle… How’s the recoil?

If you have some reloading gear, try simply pulling the bullets with a hornady collet bullet puller, leave the powder in the case & everything as is, chamfer the neck ID & reseat the bullets to 0.020 from the lands or, as close as you can get to the lands & still fit the cartridge in the magazine. 0.020 should be about minimum in a hunting rifle. I've had some success with doing this as, pulling & reseating greatly reduces the neck tension &, seating closer to the lands reduces combustion chamber inconsistencies.

If it wasn't for their sub moa guarantee, I wouldn't consider a long range hunting rifle that shot like that. Should all be under an inch.

If it's made in Japan, then it's more expensive to be constructed than American Made

The break in barrel controversy is very broad no “fouling shot” necessary... clean the rifle when you buy it shoot 20 rounds get it close to the bullseye then clean it go back the next day and shoot to zero after that it shouldn’t move anymore ..weather the rifles cold or warm or hot shouldn’t change the point of impact or the tightness of the group whatsoever I shoot norma match Ammo and go out with a cold barrel shot 3 it’s sub Moa, and after it’s hot and the barrels nice and dirty still shoots sun moa exactly where it was when I started..your shot results look very inconsistent and it’s not the Ammo.. now you could have shot a very tight group with a certain round but it’s just coincidence.. all modern Ammo shouldn’t move the point of impact or tightness whatsoever only variable being one grain will drop faster than another.. but the inconsistency has to be you ..being up down left right of bullseye by inches do you have a shooting bag in front and back of the gun using tip of your finger exhale being dead still slowly squeezing the trigger you should be so relaxed and so calm that when the gun finally goes off from the trigger pull it surprises you.. bad scope or mounts could be and issue to..or worse yet make sure the two set screws to the stock to the receiver are nice and tight if those are loose the results are about the same as a loose scope.

I can't get my 300 WinMag to zero. I've tried Luepold scopes, Vortex scopes. Winchester, Hornady ammo. Im I've gone through 4 boxes of shells and it hits all over the place. Tried sand bags, LedSleds. I'm selling it to some unsuspecting sucker. My first Weatherby purchase turns out to be a pos.

Sell it and by an x bolt or tikka your groups will be half that

The 300 Weatherby is too much gun for most game.

Talley mounts you have to lap them they suck I try about 3 sets of Talley rings and they dint not aligned right . stay away from them

Barrel breakin is BS

Made in Japan? It’s made in Sheridan, WY, it says so right on the receiver.

Rifle "break-in" lol