I am about to take another stab at the .308 Winchester, after years of disappointing results from the .308 rifles that I have owned.

It's all my fault of course. There's nothing wrong with the cartridge, but a combination of bad luck and poor judgement has landed me with one poorly-performing .308 after another, over the years. - I've never really had what I would call a good one.

First I had a really cherry Winchester model 100 autoloader. It looked great, handled well and and functioned reliably - but the accuracy was just not there. I ran across a fellow who was crazy about the model 100 and was not so fastidious about accuracy - and sold it to him for what I paid for it.

Then I bought a Ruger American in .308 - And you would think that this one would be a no-brainer but no... The gun was an early model and Ruger managed to drill and tap the scope mounts wrong, so that it shot over three feet down and to the right at 25 yards. I did eventually get this corrected - but by that point I was disgusted with the thing and it wound up in the safe until the next gun show came along. It might have been a shooter - but by that point I didn't really want to know, I was disgusted with it. This is the danger inherent in buying anything that has just hit the market.

My next try with .308 Winchester was a M1A Scout Squad. - A nice gun but no more accurate than my son's SKS. Doing some research on accurizing the M1A, I discovered that due to the weapon's Rube Goldberg design, accurizing it is an expensive and complicated process that does not give you lasting results. Every now and then it has to be re-done, all over again. My son kept kicking my $1500.00 M1A's butt with his two hundred dollar SKS - so the M1A wound up being a safe queen that very seldom makes it out to the range.

That was a while back. Recently though, knowing for a fact that the .308 is capable of fine accuracy I decided to give it another whirl, this time with a Weatherby Vanguard II in stainless, that will be delivered some time tomorrow. This one comes with an actual guarantee that it will shoot well, within 1 MOA at 100 yards with quality ammo.

I have a feeling that this time, I will be satisfied at long last. - But I remember my bad luck of the draw with my Ruger American, so I'm keeping the champagne on ice until this Weatherby has proven itself.

Every cloud has a silver lining... Because I have owned several .308's in the past, I'm already fixed up with reloading dies, brass and components. I'll have to buy a scope for the new rifle, but that's about it.

Wish me luck! - Better luck, anyways...

Weatherby Vanguard Stainless Synthetic

I like that rifle, seems like a lot of rifle for the price.

I'm a bit confused Charles. As a gunsmith, why wouldn't you put in the effort to ply your trade and accurize your previous guns? Fot all we know the Ruger was a one hole shooter that you could have re-drilled and tapped the mounts. Seems to me that accurizing your previous guns could have been a good before/after advertisement for you. P_102

The Winchester 100 is a collectable firearm, and is best left as it comes from the factory. Booger around with it - and half of the guns value goes down the toilet right then and there.

I was disgusted with the Ruger American. I fixed the problem with the scope mounting holes, but at that point my enthusiasm for the firearm had waned. The first few runs of the Ruger American were butt-ugly, and the one that I had was no exception.

After reviewing the hoops that you have to jump through to accurize the M1A, I decided to take a pass on all of that BS. The more I learned about that firearm's design, the less impressed I found myself to be with it.

You have a weird idea about gunsmiths... Have you ever driven a mechanic's car, or used the toilet at a plumbers house? The things that I will do to fix a customers gun and what I will do on one of my own are two different stories.

I will put a lot of effort into one of my own guns - but only AFTER it has proven itself to be worthy of the effort. My model 70 Winchester is a good example... After it proved to be accurate with its ugly synthetic stock, I felt justified in putting a little lipstick on it with a Winchester "sporter" stock of walnut, with wrap-around checkering. Now it shoots good - and it's purdy, too.

With a customer, his gun might be an ugly POS, but he might have a strong emotional attachment for it, because it belonged to his dignified Aunt Flo or something... That's the customers look-out, it's not my place to judge that kind of thing for him, I'm just the gunsmith.

Customers very seldom get to see any of my personal firearms, as the ATF inspectors warned me against keeping any of my own guns in the shop. It is the customers gun that serves as my advertisement, and this has worked out well enough for me. The word gets around.

Charles, are you going to load for it or just feed it factory ammo?

Well, I have purchased my mechanics personal truck in the past and my brother is a plumber, I can say for a fact that his toilets work just fine....as did the truck. I simply find it odd when a professional of any kind does not apply their trade on their own stuff, be it guns, vehicles or toilets and I certainly wouldn't hire them to work on mine. P_102

I understand your point, I inherited my Dad's Mossberg 308 it looks ugly but is accurate and I won't change it at all.

I don't really see the issue. He didn't want to alter the first one, he fixed the second one, but decided not to keep it, and he decided the third wasn't worth investing his time or money in.

I've got a few brands of factory ammo on hand, but I also have a few hundred pieces of once-fired brass, and a set of .308 dies. I thought that I had thirty caliber bullets, but when I looked I only found a dozen or so. My favorites are the Hornady interlocks, I'll buy a box of those in 150 and 165 grain to get started with.

This is weird, but I enjoy loading rounds as much as I enjoy shooting them.

It is very exciting to think that I might finally get my act together with the .308 Winchester, a round that I have great respect for but have never done very well with.

Well gee whizz. - A lost customer from across the state... Hope I can stay in business in spite of this terrible setback!

The last two 308s I've bought have been some of the most accurate rifles I own. My recent purchases are a Savage Lightweight and a Tikka CTR. I also have a 308 Ruger International that is very accurate but it took some investment in bedding the Mannlicher stock.

I've had a renewed interest in the 308 lately after spending a lot of time with less popular calibers.

Good luck Charles and keep us updated.

Very well stated. A failing here is that I never use a sentence when a paragraph will do. You'd think I was being paid by the word or something.

I believe they are closing the interlocks out. I remember reading that a while back. I'd buy a big ole stockpile.

Inline with the analogy...
If you had one of those terrible early 2000's f150's that just crapped out and realized it was gonna cost twice the blue book price in parts alone to fix then why bother? In fact, a good truck mechanic would say, "forget that I'm going to take that money and buy me an early 90's f150 because my experience as a good mechanic taught me that one is worth fixing."

Good luck with the 308. I'm not too experienced so I followed convential wisdom and got a 308 for my first long range rifle and I love it. I'm firmly convinced that it will be a long time before I feel I need a "better" caliber.

Good luck with the Weatherby. I read up on them a bit after seeing this post earlier this morning. It actually looks like it might be a pretty good bargain considering the CHF barrel 2 stage trigger.

I was sold on getting a Scout Squad. Then I kept reading reports like yours concerning accuracy. I decided to give up on it and find something else. The .308 round is a little too pricey for me to not hit what I'm aiming at.

The Vanguard I could shoot...our 30-06 and 22-250 are testament to that, over a decade later. All that I've read about the Vanguard II is that it's better than the I; I'm confident that you will be happy with it. The lower-end Weatherbys (all Weatherbys when you think about it) have a much smaller following than the Tikka/Sako or the cult of the R700, but it is a very satisfied and loyal following. Best of luck and congrats on a great new gun!

My experience with the vanguards has always been positive. Same action as the HOWA line too and they have decent quality control.

All it takes is the right rifle. The .308 round is outstanding. I've had three and they've all been shooters. My current one is a Tikka T3 Lite and it is very accurate. I've only shot factory ammo through it so far but I have some hand loads ready to go, I just need to get to the range. I'm confident that Weatherby is going to be a winner.

I'll be able to fire a few rounds through the new rifle some time tomorrow. The rifle will be here today, but the bases for the Leupold double-dovetail scope mounts will not be here until tomorrow.

When it shows up this afternoon, I'll run a few dry patches through the barrel, then inspect it with the bore-scope, taking a few pictures of the throat area and lands for future reference. Then I can adjust the trigger, but after that there will be nothing to do but fondle and gloat until I can get the scope mounted tomorrow afternoon.

I have not bought a scope for the rifle yet, but I have a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 that I keep around the shop for general purposes that will do for breaking the barrel in and doing some load development. The plan at this point is for a Burris 3-9x40 in silver, to match the rifle and mounts. - I may go for a Leupold VX-2 though instead, like I have on my model 70.

Some rifles do not settle down until they've had a certain number of rounds down the bore, so when I get to shoot it, I'll just be doing the barrel break-in routine. Maybe it will show what it can do right off the bat, and maybe not. You never know.

I am optimistic that my bad luck streak with the .308 Winchester is about to be history. The thing has an accuracy guarantee so one way or another, sooner or later I expect to wind up being happy with it, if it hare-lips the devil.

Good shooters, at least the ones I have used.
http://tacticalgunreview.com/weatherby-vanguard-ii-308-suppressor-ready-project/#more-20854

this is exactly why i bought a RA PREDATOR in 308, hits any thing i can point it at, every time.

I'm sorry, I didn't know ruger improved the looks of the Americans at all?

Everyone I've seen has been butt ugly.


I'm a huge M77 fan but the American center fire line is dissapointing. They may be accurate but that's about all they are

what else is their? I buy gun to hunt with what is disappointing about a gun costing $400 or less and very accurate. I don't enter any gun beauty contest

I have to have good-looking guns, otherwise they seem out of place when I am seen carrying them.

LOL
i have to have accurate guns, so people will say " i knew their was some thing about him other than his good looks"
some times i make myself laugh.