A good friend of mine recently purchased a Weatherby .223 and was asking me if it was made by Miruko or Howa......

I had no idea...anyone one of you eagle eyed forum members know the answer to his question?

Randy

The big question is when was it made? Howa in Japan is making the vanguard barrels and actions now but was not always so.

If it's a Weatherby Vanguard, it was made by Howa. I believe Miroku only made Mark V's.

Yes, there were a few Super Varmintmasters in .223 made on the Mark V action. So, the question is, what model does he have? Most likely it’s a Vanguard (Howa), since they are more common. If an SVM, it would be a nice rifle to have, IMHO.

I had a Weatherby Vanguard .223 several years ago that was made by Howa and it was an outstanding rifle. It was very well made and had the 24" sporter weight barrel and with a VXI 4-12X Leupold it shot 3/4" groups with cheap Remington 50 round "value pack" ammo.

Varmintmasters are in Mark V actions and were mfg’d in Germany until 1972-73 and then in Japan (by either Howa or Miroku), Super Varmintmasters were/are US mfg’d guns. Your friends Vanguard would be a Howa mfg’d gun, likely mfg’d in the last 15 years or so.

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