Although I only owned one Weatherby, a very early 257 built on an FN action, I have shot literally hundreds of them. I worked for a gun shop in Austin that was a high-volume Weatherby dealer just after college, and I did all of the sight-ins for around 4 years. This amounted to between 25-40 guns per week, with a high percentage of those being Weatherbys. I guess the type of guys that wanted a Weatherby were also more frequently the type of people that paid others to go sight their guns in. I used to spend every Friday at that old range out on FM2222, the company van loaded to the gills with guns and ammo! I shot everything from the 224 Weatherby up to the 460 Weatherby (ouch!!), and frankly they almost always shot well. It was pretty rare that I could not get them to put three shots into 1 1/2" or better at 100yds. Some of this I credit to the ammo Weatherby had at the time (made by Norma if I recall correctly, although I could be wrong...it's been a LONG time, as in early '80s). Only on occassion would one act up, and more often than not the culprit was either a loose action screw or a loose scope mount...easily fixed in the field. Unfortunately it was often one of the harder-kicking chamberings that this happened on, necessitating my having to start over and endure the recoil all over again. I developed a true hatred for the 378, which was for some reason more punishing than even the 460. I also hated the LaserMark models with their deep-cut engraved stocks. These just chewed up your hands with anything from 300 Weatherby and up.
As for field use, the Weatherby chamberings were incredible. The rifles not so much. They shot well from the bench, but I found their handling less than satisfactory in actual hunting conditions. I also felt, as others have said, that the Mark Vs were just too shiny and pretty to take into the elements. The Vanguard, while not as fancy, just never appealed to me either. Part of it was aesthetics, but the rest was the simple fact that I just know more about tweeking more performance from Remingtons, Winchesters, Rugers, Mausers and others.
So, to sum it up, even though just about every Weatherby I have ever sat behind would shoot pretty dang well, I just never developed much love for them. The Mark V was like a beauty queen, maybe good in the sack and nice to be seen with, but too high maintenance to form a serious relationship. The Vanguard? Kind of like that butter-face girl....all good but her face.
