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Weatherby - new rifle under 5lbs

JJEH

JJEH

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I like what Mr. Roy Weatherby sr. started in 1945. A firm believer in high-velocity and light weight bullet, standing by it, testing it on his own no matter what other people thought. Well, it had become the industry standard...

Mr. Adam Weatherby (3rd gen owner and president) did not only introduce the 6.5-300WBY Magnum, he now has introduced a rifle less than 5lbs and another 6.5mm high velocity cartridge made especially for the 6-lug action - the Backcountry Ti in 6.5WBY RPM.

I'll probably never own a 6.5mm rifle but it shows that innovation and ingenuity is still alive here in the USA when it comes to firearms. I hate that they cut off their iconic MC stock but he replied to my Instagram post saying it was all for saving on weight.

Well, here it is. If you are in the market for a super light weight rifle that pushes around 3,000fps this might be it. All made in the U.S. of course.

Mark V(R) Backcountry Ti - Weatherby, Inc.

6.5 WBY RPM - Weatherby, Inc.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXxyaGt20O4[/ame]
 
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A superlight (hard to hold steady) rifle chambered in an expensive and hard to find ammo. Not my cup of tea, but will probably be popular with the Weatherby diehards.
 
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years ago when I lived in Colorado I went elk hunting with a friend. I had a Ruger #1A in 270 Winchester with a Redfield 4x scope. it wasn't a heavy rifle by any means. after going up and down the mountains several times I decided that the next rifle was going to be a LOT lighter compared to the Ruger #1A. I probably would never be able to afford a Weatherby but that is the type of light rifle I would be looking for.

I know that the farther away we got from camp the bigger the elk had to be before I shot.

I was told that elk hunting was like riding a horse into the mountains a few miles and then shoot the horse and pack it back out. I think they were probably right
 
That barrel should last at lease a couple hundred rounds. :D I Love the 6.5mm bore, but that's just too much of a good thing.

I still own a few WBY rifles, none of which weigh close to 5 pounds. FWIW, my favorite WBY cartridges are the .257 and .340 and models are the Fibermark and Lazermark.
 
Light Weights

There is life outside California. Way to celebrate,
Weatherby with something new. With no concern
that Rifle is outstanding!

Thanks Sheridan Wyoming for taking on Weatherby.
If California doesn't want your Money we'll take it!

I walk a lot when Hunting, so I knew right from
the get go to have Light Weight Rifles and Shot
Gun. Never have experienced Heavy Weight Guns.

I probably will never have one of Weatherby's Light
Weights but my Remington's unsung hero Model 7
308 basically a scaled down Model 700 will have to do.

The best to you Weatherby and your Endeavors.
Welcome to a better way of Life.

A Model 7 in the back ground
 

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s&wchad said:
Jorge,
Awesome video!

I know it’s promotional and I don’t need a new rifle chambered for another cartridge, but I can appreciate the effort involved.
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Same here, I'm not buying this particular rifle ever... but luckily Weatherby offers most of their rifles in more common chamberings. And I'll buy a Mark V for sure. What I also want is an old-school Mk V deluxe in .257.... just to have one. Sometimes they do pop up on Rock Island Auctions...


vonn said:
Light rifles are heaven sent when you are humping in the mountains. Wish I was still young enough to need one of those!
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I usually put my rifle down when humping... ;)
 
My Weatherby rifles will do the job -- Vanguard .308 and Vanguard in 30-06. Old still does the job. I'm still working on whitetail #1. I understand that in the cold weather you go deer hunting. I'll try again this year, my third attempt in Georgia.
 
Weatherby has always presented very fine equipment. I have no doubt that this rifle is of top quality, but at that weight,(or lack of), for the power of the cartridge all I can think is a big OUCH!!This will be a real kicker.
I know that many magazine writers are touting the new 6.5s as a revelation and it seems to be the flavor of the month now, but for the hunting I used to do I cannot think of any circumstances that my old 270 cannot do just as well as any of the new 6.5's. But then again these new offerings are commercial decisions rather than solutions for needs.
I wish Weatherby nothing but the very best. I have had many of their rifles in the '50-'70 era and recall the wonderful Christmas cards Mr. Roy Weatherby would personally sign send to his customers.
 
ruger 22 said:
I have had many of their rifles in the '50-'70 era and recall the wonderful Christmas cards Mr. Roy Weatherby would personally sign send to his customers.
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That's really nice and not something you see a lot of.

I got my Vanguard out today and handled it a little bit... it's really nice for an entry level gun.

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I haven't thought of Weatherby in years. Then, this AM, I saw a YouTube movie about a giant bird that was a menace to Earth. The couple who starred went after it with .378 Weatherby rifles! I was amazed that a producer of horror movies in 1959 would know about a .378 Weatherby!

They finally killed the huge bird with some device firing a beam that contained antimatter, then a B-25 (!) fired some rockets to finish it

But the couple with the .378's did kill one one of its eggs!

My taste in rifles mirrors that of Jack O'Connor, the longtime rifle writer at, Outdoor Life and, Petersen's Hunting. He favored the Classic look, quite different from Weatherby.

Most Weatherby cartridges are badly over bore capacity, and this new one seems among the worst.
 
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Thanks for that. I didn’t know about the rifle or new cartridge. New products are great, and I am thrilled just to know the Weatherby company is still with us, doing what they do. It’s a great company with a great heritage. I’ve been fortunate to have had some very nice rifles in my life, and still have a few that are not Weatherbys, but the Mark V has always been my favorite. Yes, no Mauser extractor blah blah blah. No 90-degree camming power. No three position safety. Etc. Etc. I know all that. It’s what I like and feel most comfortable with.
 
If there is a long journey ahead, I'll cull gear I don't use rather than take weight out of things that are better off heavy. A heavy rifle is stable, a heavy rifle kills recoil. A heavy rifle is better for what it is designed to do: shoot. In many ways I admire and support lightening efforts for technology, which is absolutely necessary if we ever wish to reach the stars. Yet, every rifle I carry is heavy, heavy tools get work done light tools cannot. There is a place and time for weight savings, there are times and places where weight is your good and dear friend.

I remember talking to my gun dealer who said his wife got a Ruger 70 in 300 Win Mag that was awful light. Shot it a few times and then kinda quit shooting it, because without the weight to anchor it and "soak" recoil, it just wasn't fun to shoot. Nice to carry, miserable to shoot. My CZ 550 American Safari is soft enough for me to never mind shooting it, the cringe of paying for bullets and big powder charges hurt more than the recoil with all that weight and nice comb. If you like light rifles in magnum loads, more power to you. Not for me.

As for the overbore cartridges, I admire them too. But Nosler's calibers and works like this new cartridge seem to be hitting the breaks on limits and diminishing gains. At some point you are pouring endless amounts of powder down the barrel to very little extra effect. Short barrel life, expensive handloading, and ballistics that finally reach the limitations of the barrel diameter. Impressive on one hand, they are triumphs of science in internal ballistics and men safely pushing envelopes, but cartridges that seem to have limited real world results. They answer themselves, at some point, "is this worth it?"

Some guy with an old wooden stocked, 60 year old Winchester 70 in 30-06 might be able to lug a few extra pounds with little difficulty, and kill an elk just as good. OP's subject is very interesting and a tour de force of engineering. Just a tl;dr on why it t'aint no revolution.
 
There was a time when I thought a light rifle would be nice ( 1985). This was before everybody began making them. I had a Rem. 700 BDL in 30-06 lying around so I sent it off to Brown Precision. I had the barrel cut to 19 1/2 inches and turned to a #1 pencil taper. Then a Kevlar stock with glass bedding. Had the bolt swiss cheesed for weight, and a 1/2 in Charles Young rifle pad put on it plus conterol scope mounts, and had it all plated in dull electroless nickel. I put a lightweight nylon sling on it, and a 3X wideview Weaver scope I had. Well all dressed out, it weighed just over 5 lbs. Oh, and it was painted 1969 dark metallic green, just like the Camaro Z/28 of the day

What a rude awakening I got when I touched that off with a 180 grain slug. I never put more than 6 shots through it, and gave it to one of my sons who likes being pounded.

I am old school relative to walnut, steel, and the idea that we have way too many redundant cartridges out there, and too much expensive boutique ammunition that costs an arm and a leg to shoot.

Blued steel and walnut in 22LR, 222 REM, 270Win, 308/30-06, and for big game 375 H&H is just about all one would ever need to hunt anything on the planet. Old and proven cartridges. Just my .02
 
Narragansett said:
...I am old school relative to walnut, steel, and the idea that we have way too many redundant cartridges out there, and too much expensive boutique ammunition that costs an arm and a leg to shoot.

Blued steel and walnut in 22LR, 222 REM, 270Win, 308/30-06, and for big game 375 H&H is just about all one would ever need to hunt anything on the planet. Old and proven cartridges. Just my .02
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I suppose no logical argument can be made against this position, but if universally accepted, it would probably destroy the firearms industry. :)
 
M29since14 said:
I suppose no logical argument can be made against this position, but if universally accepted, it would probably destroy the firearms industry. :)
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I'd be interested in seeing those statistics, namely the firearms sold by caliber. Even harder to get would be the number of guns gunsmiths rebarrel into various calibers. But, just how important are new calibers hitting the market to the various gun makers and the business as a whole? Certainly, the manufacturers do expand sales with cartridges, but to what extent?

There are new good cartridges that do come out, but how many fail and sell very few guns anyway? I'd imagine 30-06 and in Europe 8mm JS or 6.5 Swede still might outsell in terms of new rifles some of these new "onto the shelves and into the obsolescence bin" cartridges.

Are all the new shells hitting the shelves that big a deal to the industry? Asking openly.
 
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