I have a friend down in NM with a couple of OM 70's for sale.

Anyway, his Uncle Allie bought a Model 70 back in the 1930's chambered in 300 H&H. First year rifle he says. In the early days of Roy Weatherby's career, he worked out of his garage. Uncle Allie sent the rifle off to Wby, and had it rechambered to the 300Wby. A lot of these suffered this fate.

My friend has had these rifles (the other one was rebarreled to 25-06) since 1963 when his uncle died.

He wants to sell the 300. The pictures of the rifle show it to be in very clean condition.

Anybody want to venture a guess as to value of the rifle?
I understand that we need pictures, but just say that the rifle is 85-90% in the original stock.

thanks,

Rich

I'd venture to say this is the one case where provenance would help. If there was documentation of Roy himself doing the work, it'd add value to the rifle. Exactly what that value is would be determined by the specific market ie that niche in which a Wby aficionado would be willing to pay. Otherwise it's simply a shooter. The only enticing thing for the common person would be the '36 first year production.

I've had a '36 .270 Win for over 12 years in my safe- I bought it as a set of 3 refurbed to use as a donor (other 2 are now a 340 WBy and 375 H&H). Still haven't parted it out. Does the 1936 add any value at all or offset the refurb? Or is it just a $750 refurbed Pre War?????????? <- all in the eye of the beholder/bidder

Its no longer a collector, just a shooter and probably a good one, so I would price it accordingly..In excellent shape and if its accurate it should fetch a $900 maybe a bit more or less..if 80% then probably $650 to $800..Thats what Ive seen over the years, then I have seen a lot of them sell for much less, like the price of a mod. 70 action, $400 to $500..Depends on what the buyer has in mind for the rifle. That's also what I have bought a couple for..

It's my understanding that the original 300 Weatherby's out of Roy's garage were basically a 300 H&H Improved and not the 300 Weatherby as known today. Also weren't the 300 H&H's considered barrel burners? Something to consider if you are looking to buy an 80 year old rifle to shoot w/o having it re-barreled.

Just my .02 cents

Joe

Hawkeye borescope thinks the bore is near mint.

The 300 Wby is not a barrel burner, any more than any other high velocity round, most barrel burners get that rep from the shooters who will run a lot of rounds through their gun in a hurry without allowing it to cool.

That said, a hunter seldom does such foolish things, he sights his gun in and goes and shoots his deer or elk or both, that takes only a few rounds and the gun will last forever, even the real barrel burners last a long time under such circumstances..but that is what the WBy are designed for, hunting.

The 300 Wby is an awesome killer of all sorts of game. It has always impressed me on that count, and it shoots flatter n a flitter. Love the caliber, but only owned one some many years ago, preferred the 300 H&H over the years. The WBY Monte Carlo stock design left me cold, but it worked as designed.