Is the Weatherby Vanguard action made by Sako? Are they any good for a custom project gun? I have a chance to purchase NIB 270 Vanguard synthetic for under $200 American.

I don't believe they are made by Sako (I may be wrong - just never heard this connection) - regardless I would buy the rifle - 200 ain't a lot of loot for NIB and you could always have her rebarreled by say Pac-nor for another 400-500 and have exactly what you want (if the 270 don't trip your trigger) for about the price of a Remmy and have a custom tube to boot.

olcrip

No. the Vanguard is a Howa made in Japan. Pretty good action though. A steal for $200 NIB.

Shawn

The Weatherby Vanguard rifles are made by Howa. They are very good actions. I would not hesitate to build a custom using one. I have one in .300 Weatherby and 3 of the Howa 1500's.

A decent action, but I have never heard of one being customized. Their triggers will require some work to adjust, because the safety will not work if to much creep is taken up. I personally would wait for a better action to work with, but the price is good.

My gunsmith did a lot of work on my new Vanguard trigger. He said it was the worst new trigger he has seen and that in hindsight it would have been better going for a Timney. He also did some work on the saftey as it sometimes stopped you from firing unless you pushed it very positively to fire position. That said ,it works great now.
I am ordering a new barrel for my Vanguard as I want a longer 27" one in 300 WBY. Overall ,I like the Vanguard (or Fiberguard as the new ones are called in Australia).