Weatherby

The original production rifles by Roy Weatherby were built on commercial Mauser actions manufactured by FN, Brevex (magnum), and Mathieu (left hand). Weatherby would build a custom rifle from a customer's specifications for bespoke rifles, using any action the customer requested - provided the action was strong enough to tolerate the pressures for their desired cartridge. Weatherby manufactured his rifles for a number of years at his facility in South Gate, California, until 1956, when he contracted with Sako to continue building his firearms based on the Weatherby-FN Mauser actions. Weatherby still produced some custom rifles in South Gate following this contract.

Weatherby's first break from designs based on Mauser actions came in 1956 when he commissioned the Danish firm of Schultz & Larsen to build the 378 Weatherby Magnums utilizing the Schultz & Larsen Model 54 bolt-action. This action was stout and had several features that Weatherby would integrate into future proprietary rifle designs, including a low bolt-lift and triple gas-escape ports in the bolt.

In 1958, after several years of development, Roy Weatherby introduced the Mark V bolt action, his first proprietary design developed in-house by Weatherby himself and with his head engineer, Fred Jennie. Weatherby had to build the newly designed rifle to withstand the higher pressures the experimental cartridges produced, which exceeded 100,000 pounds per square inch [psi] (690,000 kPa). Pacific Founders, Inc. manufactured the first Weatherby Mark V actions in the United States. Weatherby assembled and finished the rifles at the Weatherby facility in South Gate. The demand for the new Mark V rifles quickly exceeded Weatherby's manufacturing capacity, so the company contracted with J. P. Sauer in West Germany to produce the rifles. Manufacturing of the Mark V continued in West Germany until the early 1970s, when material and labor costs led Weatherby to shift production to Howa in Japan. Some say the machining and finishing of the Howa manufactured Mark Vs was an improvement over that of the quality of the Sauer-made guns. Weatherby moved Mark V manufacturing back to the United States in 1995, where the Mark V has been built under contract by both Saco Defense (acquired by General Dynamics in 1998) and Acrometal/ATEK ever since.

The Mark V action remained relatively unchanged during its first five years of production until manufacturing moved from PFI in the United States to J. P. Sauer in Germany. The Sauer-produced version differed from that manufactured in the United States. Weatherby moved the safety from the receiver to the bolt and replaced the smooth surface of the safety found on the U.S.-made versions with a fluted surface. The first major change to the Mark V came in 1963 when Weatherby shortened and trimmed the design of the action around its 224 Weatherby Magnum varmint round, designed in 1964. The bolt in the smaller Mark V action had six locking lugs, as opposed to the nine locking lugs found on the parent rifle chambered in the 378 Weatherby Magnum. Rifles chambered for the new 224 Weatherby Magnum cartridge were dubbed the "Varmintmaster." Weatherby later offered the Varmintmaster chambered for the 22-250 Remington, making this the first non-Weatherby cartridge offered in the Mark V rifle. A version of the Mark V rifle equipped with a nine-lug bolt and chambered in.30-06 was also made available in 1967. The 30-06 and 22-250 cartridges remained the only two non-Weatherby chamberings offered in production Mark V rifles until the mid-1990s. However, Weatherby would still build a custom Mark V to a customer's specifications in virtually any caliber. Weatherby equipped all Mark V rifles made after 1967 that Weatherby chambered for non-Weatherby standard calibers (not magnum cartridges) with the six-lug version of the bolt; this made versions with a nine-lug bolt chambered in 30-06 (whether made in Germany or Japan) somewhat rare.

In the late 1960s, Weatherby contracted with Howa to build a Weatherby rifle that would be more affordable for the average hunter. The result was the Vanguard which Weatherby introduced in 1970, the same year that production of the Mark V moved to Japan. The Vanguard was based on the Howa 1500 bolt action and was initially only offered in standard calibers, and it provided an attractive alternative for buyers in the market for a sporting bolt-action rifle like the Winchester Model 70 or Remington Model 700. Weatherby has since offered the Vanguard chambered for select Weatherby magnum calibers.

In January 2018, the company announced it was relocating from Paso Robles, California to Sheridan, Wyoming.

Rifles

Weatherby currently offers three lines of centerfire rifles: the Mark V, the Vanguard, and the Model 307. ATEK manufactures the Mark V barreled action in Brainerd, Minnesota; Howa still manufactures the barrel and action for the Vanguard. Weatherby performs the final assembly of the Mark V and Vanguard at its company headquarters in Sheridan, Wyoming. The Mark V has two action-size variants. Weatherby uses a larger nine-lug bolt-action for all larger Weatherby magnum calibers. Weatherby uses a smaller six-lug action (in two lengths) for the 240 Weatherby and all other non-Weatherby cartridges (as the 224 Weatherby Magnum is no longer a standard option). Both the Mark V and Vanguard are available as sub-MOA rifles which were replaced with "Range Certified" rifles in various models. These variants range from blued to stainless steel metal with kevlar or wooden stocks and are available in calibers, including the.223 Remington (Vanguard only) through to the.300 Weatherby Magnum. Rifles chambered in either the.340 Weatherby Magnum or the.460 Weatherby Magnum are only available on the Mark V as these cartridges require a stronger bolt.

In 2023, Weatherby began to produce a new model of rifle, the Model 307. The Model 307, positioned in price between the Vanguard and the Mark V, was designed to be compatible with the strong aftermarket for Remington 700 accessories. The name reflects the telephonic area code 307, which includes the current headquarters and factory in Sheridan, Wyoming. As with the Vanguard and Mark V models, the Model 307 is chambered for several currently-popular cartridges.

The Weatherby rifles come with a three-shot sub-MOA guarantee of accuracy from a cold bore on all models using Weatherby or premium ammunition. Generally regarded as of higher quality than Remington or Winchester rifles in the same class, Weatherby Mark V rifles are considerably more expensive in terms of unit cost and ammunition. However, Weatherby competitively prices the Vanguard models with other makes and models, while the Model 307 is somewhere in between the aforementioned two models.

Scopes

Weatherby no longer manufactures rifle scopes or other optical products. The company produced a Mark XXI Scope between 1964 and 1989. The company offered the Sightmaster Spotting Scope with magnification ranges of 20x-45x from 1972 to 1982 and 20x-60x from 1983 to 1989. Earlier optics also included the Imperial Scope and were produced for Weatherby by Hertel & Reuss and manufactured in West Germany between 1964 and 1973. Weatherby manufactured its Premier Scopes from 1973 to 1982 and its Supreme Scopes from 1983 to 1994.