I have been planning my next rifle for some time. But keep changing my mind. I first looked at the Finnlight, then looked model 7's. but then came along this Weatherby Ultra light. 5 3/4 lbs. Very cool. So I am trying to decide to shell out over $1100.00 for a 7mm-08 weatherby ultralight or just build a custom one out of a krieger #0 contour, maybe flute, and model 7 action and some light strong stock. I beleive the custom will run me 1200 or more if I think lowball on fine tuning. I have never had a Weatherby, a little rich for my blood. Has anybody ever evaluated one of these?

I had one in 240 Wby, I hated it. Couldn't get it to shoot. This is only based on one rifle, so take it for what it's worth.

I would build a custom rifle. The cost should be the same:

Used Remington Model 7 Stainless: $475
Pac Nor Super Match Barrel with installation and truing and lapping the action by Pac Nor: $440

New Stock (H-S Precision)(if wanted): $249

Trigger Job (if needed): $25

Total: $1189

Just my opinion.

Jim

I have owned two weatherby's and was disapointed in they accuracy.They were not any better than my 700's and not as good as some.I will not spend the extra money for a rifle that won't shoot better.I now only use custom rifles that provide much better accuracy for the extra money they cost.

I currently have four Weatherbys three are the Ultra Light and one is a varmint weight. All of them are very accurate rifles. I have the rifle you are contemplateing and will be takeing the 7mm/08 & 257Wby out west in a couple of weeks. I bought mine through gunlist and never paid more than $1000 for one. I have several custom rifles and can't come close to the price of the Wby for a custom built rifle. My next rifle will be a Weatherby light weight in 308.

[ 09-13-2002, 19:23: Message edited by: Rich Anderson ]

I should qualify my earlier post. As I said in my ealier post I have had only one UL. I have had many Weatherbys from an old southgate built on a mauser action in 300 wby (wish I never would have gotten rid of it) to the new american made rifles. Most have been accurate. My accuracy standards are little more strict than most, so maybe I would not be the best one to go by. My 240 would shoot 1.5 - 2 inches, I just expected better. I had a Japanese Weatherby in 340 that we called "Dr. Death". It was a fibermark that was recrowned and had a matte finish put on, it would clover leaf 5 shots. Weatherby's can be accurate, but I just haven't had much luck with the new USA made ones. Maybe I have just gotten bad ones, I have only had three of the new ones, the UL, a Stainless Synthetic and an Accumark. The Accumark being the best of the three.

I just think for an extra $100-200 I would build a custom gun. But that's just the kick I am on right now. I get exactly what I want and the accuracy is always there.

My opinion.

Jim

I am very new here... but this thread cought my eye because I am concidering a semi/custom around a Remington Model Seven as well...
I am a little shy about the remington's ...due to lack of exposure to them, but I have allways thought the Model 7 was a very attractive little endevor and now with the out pouring of "short magnums" I might just buy my first Remington and work it over.
I am in the debate now over the remington short mag Vs. the winchester offering, either in .30Cal.. Im leaning towards the Winchester ...It seems to have taken off better and might have the staying power.
In any event... If i was concidering buying a rifle off the shelf Vs. having one put together ... Id take the custom any day.. You will probably end up spending more, because you will find a little of this and a little of that you have allways liked (such as banded\hooded Ft. sight, and or quarter rib rear sights or fluted bolt or Jewel trigger.. what ever...) but you will be absolutly in love with the finished product and it will be a rifle you will be leaving to your kids some day.

BC

I might have mentioned this on the finnlight thread if so, I apologize for the duplication. My 7-08 is a Rem Ti. It weighs 6 lb. scoped, and shoots about 1 1/4" with two different hunting loads. They are about $950 "street price"

I have a W'by U-Lite in 7-08 (last year's model), and when I think that I could have had two of just about any other standard factory rifle for the $1100 I paid for it, I get rather ill. Grossly over-rated.

I have a Rem 700 (the stainless, laminated stock Mtn Rifle - now THAT's a sweet piece) and a Model 7, both 7-08's, that will shoot rings around it. I complained to W'by, and they basically said, "if it will keep three shots in 1-1/2", that's all you get". Well, any of the Remingtons will keep FIVE shots UNDER 1-1/2", for about half the price.

On top of that, the darn thing's throated so short that factory R-P 140 grainers get jammed in the rifling. Boy, was that fun to discover on the first trip to the range

Live/learn, I guess.

R-WEST

I had a 240WBY Ultra Light weight Accumark,it would consistantly shoot 3 shot groups under an inch,I really liked it and it had excellent balance.

I have used several Remington model 7 rifles and even though they are fairly light the stock does not fit me at all and the balance is terrible with the short thin barrel.

The best of the light weight rifles I have seen are the New Ultra light arms rifles.
www.newultralight.com

Good luck,
Charlie

I traded into an Ultra Lt Weight a few years ago in .280 Rem and ended up really liking it. I've been a .280 fan for several years so decided to give the gun a try at the bench. I mounted a 2.5-8X leupold and grabbed a box of Federal 150 NP Premiums. Imagine my surprise when it consistently shot under an inch for three shots at 100 yds and just barely over an inch at 200 yds.
My normal test procedure is three or four shot groups for big game rifles and five shot groups for varmint guns. Considering the light barrel I felt three shot groups were going to be more representative of what I'd ask from this rifle.

It has become one of my favorite light rifles and I am NOT a fan of weatherby's. It consistently shoots under and inch at 100 yds. With the scope, four rds of ammo and a light sling it weighs in an ounce under seven pounds. What more can a guy want.

Maybe I am one of the few happy ULW owners, blessed with an accurate rifle? Whatever happened I'm not complaining.
FN in MT

Frank you're the 3rd person I know that has a 280 that shoots so well in this rifle.

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dog

Well, I do not own any Weatherby rifles at all, but my dad has Ultra Light chambered in 25-06 and that is one nice piece of equipment.

My dad's rifle is stock except for some trigger work and wears a 4.5 X 14 Leupold scope. I swear when I pick that thing up I think I am carrying one of my old BB guns (Yeah, I know, that was 40 some years ago).

Seriously, I have a custom made 25-06 that I just love, and that shoots like crazy. BUT, everytime my dad lets me pick up that Ulta Light I get tempted. That rifle will shoot well under an inch so long as you do not shoot it too fast and get the barrel heated up. For the first three shots it is outstanding!

Let me tell you, the marmots, coyotes, wild hogs, and deer here in central California wish Weatherby had never made such a rifle.

R F

Hey Jim....whats the contact info for PAC NOR?
Thanks

www.pac-nor.com

I got my barreled action back just yesterday. Very nice work, going to shoot it this weekend.

Jim

Two things

First off R-West how does your rifle (Wby) shoot?

Secondly I am working with a fellow how bought a 338/06. It shot pretty poorly as it came from the factory (eveen thought this is the first Ultra I have heard of that didn't shoot). The rifles come awfully tight and not floated, once we opened up the barrel channel and gave it some relief it is now shooting under an inch with no problem.

As we all know if you keep those tubes clean and cool they will shoot the best. Tiny wasp like tubes are not very forgiving of either fouling or
heat.

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dog

(fyi I sure do hope my 25/06 Ultra L gets here b4 our antelope opener. Between me and my wife we have 6 permits)

Hey Dog -

Just got around to looking in here, again. Didn't see your post.

My U-Lite hasn't found a load it likes, yet. Maybe I'm spoiled by the fact that every other 7-08 I've ever used seems to love my pet load of 47 - 49 H4350 and 145 Speers. A few of the guys have recommended some loads with 4064, R15 and Varget, so, I've got some playing around to do.

It also appears that the general consensus of U-lite owners is that they are nice shooters, so, I just need to get the elbow grease working.

W'by sent me some instructions on tightening sequence and torque readings to use when installing the stock. While the stock was off, I noticed there are some definite bedding issues to deal with. I'll try floating the barrel and see what that does.

The rifle will put two shots touching, then the next two touching again, but about 1" away from the first two. One guy said it might be a scope or mount problem.

Good luck with the 25-06/antelope situation. Wow, 6 permits - should be lots of antelope steak at your house?

R-WEST

R-West,

I reread this thread and just wanted to add a few items. I recently spoke with two other guys who had ULW's and they were about as happy as I am. One a .30-06 and the other a .338-06, and both shot sub 1" at 100 yds and sub 2" at 200 yds consistently. Both were happy with theirs.

They had their triggers lightened and the bedding checked out and remedied where needed. Both freefloated their barrels.

I shot mine last week at 200 yds as I'm trying to find a handload with Scirrocos that will shoot as well as my partition loads do. One really needs to keep the barrel CLEAN on these guys. As soon as I had 20-30 shots I had to clean to bare metal or groups opened up.The SS barrels are easy to clean though, must be a good barrel.

Again.....maybe I'm just one lucky guy ,but my .280 ULW REALLY shoots for a light rifle.

FN in MT

I love this Weatherby rifle in the standard cartridge size action. It is a great rifle, and have never seen anyone that didn't appreciate it's many virtues.

I have had 2 ULWs, 2 SBGMs (same as the ULW with a different crown and color stock) and a SPM (more of the same). ALL of them do three rounds under 1 MOA easily. The .270 Win SBGM puts three rounds into into one ragged hole. The SPM in .223 Rem is under 1/2 MOA. The .30-06 ULW shot 1 MOA. The .25-06 ULW does under 3/4 MOA. The .338-06 SBGM, although finicky, does under 3/4 MOA with 2 different loads.

The only ULW I have seen that didn't shoot was a 7mm WBY on the Magnum action that some idiot decided to "free-float" the barrel on. Absolutely do not change the barrel bedding. It requires SIXTY-FIVE (65) pounds of torque on both the front and rear action screws, and the result is very solid contact at a bedding point in the forend channel. This is more pressure than most folks can apply by hand. If the action has been out of the stock, a proper torque wrench is needed accurately set it up.

Every manufacturer has a torque spec for the action screws. Most don't tell you what it is, unless you are an armorer or a service center. Weatherby tells every customer, right in the literature with the rifle.

Forget your old standby handloads, developed for another rifle. Every rifle is different., you have to start from a clean slate. You wouldn't want to be using the same cases in more than one rifle anyway.

[ 09-15-2003, 03:43: Message edited by: KuduKing ]

You had better make that inch pounds.Pounds by itself is not a torque and as ridiculous as it sounds, some fool may be thinking foot pounds.

My uncle has a weatherby celuxe in 270 mag. Rifle looks great and the actoin is nice aswell. He hasnt used it in 3 years! Why you ask b/c its too heavy and you dont need all that power for 100 yard whitetails. He has used it in CO. On mulies though. His is also consistently accurate with a dirty barrel not a clean one. I used tow ant a weatherby just so that I could take advantage of the suprcharged 257. Alas maybe my dream will still come.

I had two but got rid of one. I kept one that started life as a 7-08 and got rechambered to 284 Winchester. That one shoots really well if I seat the bullets out far enough. I had another in 25-06 that I couldn't get to shoot better than 1.5 at 100. I traded that on in on a Browning A bolt. I haven't played with that one yet.

Bob257

Well, I never got to see how my W'by UL shot. When I got it I put a scope mount on it and the reciever was machined wrong and the scope, when tightened in one ring, was about 3/32" off the other ring. I tried three different mounts with the same results. When I sent the gun and mounts to W'by, they didn't even bother to install the mounts. They said they measured the reciever and it was within specs. Well I've got digital pics and I defy anyone to tell me that ANY mount would fit that reciever.
Needless to say, no more W'by's for me.

Bobby,
I agree with you, no more Weatherbys for me either. The screw holes(for scope mounts) on the reciever of had torn threads. I sent the rifle to them and they said it was ok. So I installed leupold bases and mounted my scope. After about ten rounds, the scope flew off and hit me in the head. The torn threads on the reciever were completely stripped out. Needless to say I go a gunsmith to redrill and tap the holes to the next size up, then I promptly got rid of the gun.

Very sorry to hear about you guys with the scope base problems!! If Wby continues with THAT sort of customer "service" they will truly suffer.

I recently mounted rings,bases and a 2.5-8X on a buddies new .338-06 ULW. No problems, Thank God.

With handloads pushing 250's to 2450 fps it shot 7/8" at 100 yds. With 225 NP's at 2650 it put three shots into 7/8" at 100 yds but the same load did a bit less than 1 1/2" at 200 yds. Good enough for me.

I love my .280 ULW. One of the most enjoyable rifles I own to carry in the hills as its so light. And its just varmint gun accurate; I've shot several 200 yd groups (3 shots) right at or microscopically under an inch. Thats with 150 grain NP's at 3000 fps.
I would like to lighten the trigger a bit as I prefer a 3# pull on hunting rifles. Problem is I hate to take it out of the stock for FEAR of messing up the accuracy. Apparently I lucked out as mine is a real keeper.

FN in MT

[ 09-19-2003, 01:34: Message edited by: Frank Nowakowski ]

I shouldn't get so fired up at Weatherby. I've had about the same results with other gunmakers. Years ago, I bought a new Ruger MKII 22 pistol with the 10" barrel. When I went to sight it in, at 25 yards with the sight all the way to one side and driven in the dovetail all they way to the same side, I couldn't quite get on a sheet of typing paper. I called Ruger and they were very nice and said send the gun in and we'll fix it. I got it back fast, with a note saying everything was in spec. They even included a target with a very, very tiny group. That's nice but you still couldn't get it on target. So, they all have their moments of dumbass. In all fairness, I should have persued it more, but I just gave up and mounted a scope on this super shooter. They probably would have rebarreled it and screwed the accuracy up.
What's really unusual is, I always thought of Navy Arms/EMF as a cheap gunmaker. When I kept having trouble with the cylinder bolt breaking on my 45C Cattleman revolver, I sent it in for repair. They fixed it fast and returned it fast. It broke a few months later, and in a fit I sent a nasty email to them. I got a reply from the service dept manager requesting I send it back, explaining what he thought was the problem. I sent it, they fixed it fast. I have never had one minutes trouble with that revolver to this day. It will outshoot my original Colt 45 any day of the week. I use it rough and every once in a while I'll fan off some shots at a gallon jug for practice. That's as hard as you can be on a SA revolver and it just keeps on shooting. So, some manufacturers do care about customer service.

[ 09-19-2003, 03:32: Message edited by: Bobby ]

Weatherby has never been my cup of tea, mainly based on price. I am also not a big fan of the magnums of the world. Burn too much powder for what they give over standard cartridges ( at least under 30 cal, IMHO).

However they do make them in standard cartridges, and since they were actually Howas, I bought a couple of them at the Walmart price.
Both excellent shooters.

Then seeing the Ultra Light Weatherby. Well Southgate has finally baited my hook. Wish they had something in a 6.5 mm. However, a 7/08 and a 338/06, ( and maybe a 243, wishing for a 6mm Rem) can easily find their way into my gun safe, if I lost a bunch of the guns I already own.

Personally I think Weatherby really has a winner in the Ultra Light. I think it is truly a world class rifle. Even if it needs a little adjusting to make it a real shooter. Alot of other rifles need the same tweaking.

Remember as others complain about accuracy. Most rifle buyers are the Walmart shopping crowd. If it will do Minute of Moose at 50 yds, or get 3 shots on the paper at 50 yds for a cheap price, that is really the market that most of their clientele reside in.

On here, we probably represent the PICKY crowd they hate dealing with.

I have two Ultra Lites, a 25-06 and a .280 Rem. The 25-06 will consistently shoot 1/2" - 3/4" 3-shot groupes, and the .280 Rem consistently shoots under an inch. I also have Mark V in 7mm Wby Mag. The Mark V is my "go to" rifle; that is, the rifle that always goes on the hunting trip regardless of what other rifle I'm taking.

If the Weatherby Ultra Light is the plastic stocked rifle with the deep flutes in the barrel then we are on the same page. The rifle has a spectacular look to it with that barrel. The action is marked "made in the USA" also.

Since I don't like the Weatherby actions nor the Remington for hunting rifles I might just buy a Kimber someday for the fun of it. It would be chambered for a game cartridge so sub moa accuracy would not be required as long as it stayed sighted in.

Just got back from the range to sight in our rifles for an upcoming deer hunt.

My Winchester Pre-64 M70 in .270 printed the first three shots at 100 yards all touching dead center and about 1.5" high. At 200 the group was about .5 to .75" below the bullseye with a 3 shot group of just over 1 inch. This is with a 130 grain Nosler partition at 3,125 fps.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand. My friend brought his Sako M75 Finnlight in 30-06 (stainless/ synthetic w/ 20" fluted barrel) and installed a new Leupold 2.5-8x 36mm scope in Sako rings while we were at the range. We sighted in the rifle with just 3 shots. He then proceeded to shoot four seperate 3 shot groups using Remington factory ammo w/ 150 grain CoreLokt bulletes ($14.00 per box). Each group was 1" or less and an inch over the bullseye.

Later on, I shot a five shot group with the Sako Finnlight using some of my handloads with 150 grain Nosler Partitions. 3 of the shots were touching and the other two were just a hair away.

Very impressive from such a lightweight hunting rig.

I also have a Sako M75 in 375H&H (stainless/synthetic) and it is an honest 1/2 MOA rifle with multiple handloads that I have tried. I took it to Africa in 2001 because it would shoot 3 swift A-Frames and 3 Barnes solids at 100 yards with all six bullets touching.

I guess this is a long winded way of saying that I vote for the Sako Finnlight.

Tim