Would you rather have a stainless Vanguard or a T3? I have a Tikka 695 in 300 Mag. and love it, but I've never shot a Weatherby. The Vanguard is guaranteed to shoot 1.5" groups but I can do that with a Mossberg 12 gauge. I'm looking at a .257 in the Weatherby and 25-06 in the Tikka. Your opinions are appreciated.

Personally I'm a fan of neither but of the two the Vanguard (Howa) would be my choice.

I have a bad taste in my mouth for the failure of Sako/beretta/(tikka) to own up to their problem with stainless rifles splitting open last year. Had they owned up to the problem and issued a public notice I'd have felt different.....

Howa is actually pretty good stuff and they make the Vanguard for weatherby.

What kind of failures were they having? Barrels, receivers...? Were are you in WI?

Hello Rich Cale, I have a Tikka T3 SS 25:06 and love it, very accurate & Lite, I shoot Hornady 117gr BTSP and 75gr v-max. For the price I could find nothing to compare. Some people gave me flack over Tikka having plastic 3 round clip so I did purchase extra 5 round clip but have not had any problems with clips even when dropped. Action very smooth. If you do your part you should group under 1/2" @ 100yds, my best group last before dear season with 117gr was .317" 3 shot group & avg. .485". Have also shot factory Winchester 90gr and Remington 120gr
with good sucess.

Never owned Weatherby but my friend bought magnum last year and on second shot the stock broke in half at the comb but none the less their is a lemon somewhere no matter what you choose.

I'd take the Weatherby . The Howa action is forged steel. The Tikka receiver looks to me like it is cast . I could be wrong about that , but for sure there is alot of plastic in that T3 action .

I have both, kind of. I have two TIkkas, a M695,
in .25-06 Rem, a T-3, in .223 Rem, and a Howa,
in 300 WSM, which is basically the Vanguard.
Without a doubt, I would buy the Tikka, if for
nothing else, for the difference in the trigger,
but both of these Tikkas, have an edge over the
Howa(Vanguard), accuracy wise. The Tikkas are
sub MOA rifles, easily. The Howa has taken a little
more work, and is pretty selective about the loads
that go just under 1 MOA. The action on
both of the Tikkas, are silky smooth. The
action on the Howa, isn't bad, but it does not
compare with the Tikka action. As for plastic,
on firearms, ever take a look at a Glock.
I have a steel magazine on the M695, and a
plastic mag, on the T-3. Neither have been
a problem, but the T-3 mag is the one I don't
have to worry about snow turning into moisture,
and pitting the magazine. That is another feature
that I prefer over the Vanguard...The Tikkas have
magazines. So if you prefer a blind magazine,
then there is one advantage of the Vanguard
over the Tikka.

For the person that wants to just go out and
buy a rifle, that is accurate out of the box,
has a great trigger, already on the rifle, and
has some pride in ownership, the Tikka is
the rifle to beat, in the market. I have project
rifles that I can practice bedding actions, trigger
replacement, barrel floating, etc. but in two
cases I wanted a rifle that just plain shot like
a house afire, with no effort beyond mounting
the scope, and they both were Tikkas. Even
my Savages needed trigger work, and some
barrel floating, to get to peak performance.
The Tikkas needed nothing but a scope, and
ammo.

Squeeze

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Cale:
What kind of failures were they having? Barrels, receivers...? Were are you in WI?

There was a few guns (world wide) literally blowing up...barrels splitting down the middle and actions as well in many cases. I'm not sure the injuries but there was little doubt that there was a problem with the metallurgy at Sako.

I wish I could find the thread on the incident.....it went dozens of pages as the fuel kept being added on and still no public announcement from the responsible party.....clearly IMO the manufacturer.

here's some places to look
I'm just east a few miles of St Croix Falls

Personally I would not buy either one. Get you a good Remington 700 in either caliber and never look back. Better yet get both. Buy American!!

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Cale:
What kind of failures were they having? Barrels, receivers...? Were are you in WI?

There was a few guns (world wide) literally blowing up...barrels splitting down the middle and actions as well in many cases. I'm not sure the injuries but there was little doubt that there was a problem with the metallurgy at Sako.

I wish I could find the thread on the incident.....it went dozens of pages as the fuel kept being added on and still no public announcement from the responsible party.....clearly IMO the manufacturer.

here's some places to look
I'm just east a few miles of St Croix Falls

The thread is called "Sako Blow-up" and it is in the gunsmithing section. Run a search for "sako blow-up" and you will find it. There are actually a couple, but the one in gunsmithing tells all the details with pictures. I know this because that thread is wht brought me to this site!!

And to answer the question on which rifle, neither........buy a Howa. They make the Weatherby's anyway, and I have never heard a bad thing about them and own one myself. They have sort of the same reputation as savage, cheap, but very accurate.

quote:

Personally I would not buy either one. Get you a good Remington 700 in either caliber and never look back. Better yet get both. Buy American!!

While I agree with the buy American thing, I bought a 700 LVSF non-catalog .308 last spring and you couldn't pull the trigger with a pry bar. Special order I paid $800 for it and it went to the gunsmith before I even mounted the scope. Other than that, it is a great weapon.

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Cale:
While I agree with the buy American thing, I bought a 700 LVSF non-catalog .308 last spring and you couldn't pull the trigger with a pry bar. Special order I paid $800 for it and it went to the gunsmith before I even mounted the scope. Other than that, it is a great weapon.

If you wish to blame someone for that

Don't blame Remington.

Blame stupid people.
Then Blame personal injury lawyers.

Remington is only reacting to reality in the
american market place.

AllanD

I got on the weatherby band wagon a few years ago, But have sinced purged my gun safe of all of them since i found them to be overpriced and overrated, I has 257 weatherby and I traded it for a 308 savage and went well uphill on the deal. I found my weatherbys to have good actions both the mark series and vanguard action, But niether one was a great shooter. Very marginal at best. I like to purchase a great product for a fair price. I wast to remington for a short time but got tired of loosing ammo walking thru the woods since the bolt doesnt lock when the safety is on. Its a bummer to see your prey and realize your magazine is empty. I have alomost gotten rid of all my remigtons as well. Have a couple rugers that have been good rifles, But have several savages and never had a complaint.