Fellow Weathbyterians,
I get accused of being a fossil, but it is sad to see the downfall of W------, our great American gun company.
Of course, I am talking about Winchester. The company starting cheaping up their lineup in the middle sixties. Then like a mad dog spinning around in a circle biting itself to death, they lost their minds in 1964. America's Rifle, the legendary Model 70 was turned into one of the ugliest rifles on the market. Everybody understood that it was cost-cutting. Then they would swear. The same thing happened with their shotgun line and their 22s.
The company limped along (with enthusiasts and former customers swearing all the way) as they came out with one cheap clunker after another. Lots of plastic parts too. Carefully engineered from the finest resins, or not. The company failed several times, and somehow would get an injection of money and limp along a while longer. Some of the later rifles were good guns too. The 94-22 was always a good rifle.
But some how everybody still looked sideways at Winchesters. They still thought of them as cheap. It's hard to get your reputation back after you get caught singing drunk and nekkid on the court house steps. Might just be one wild night, but things will never be the same.
The Winchester rifles and shotguns themselves became part of a two tier pricing anomaly. The old ones sold high. Couldn't give away the new ones. I saw a couple of Winchester 94-22s priced at $750 each the other day. Also a Winchester 190 that nobody would even look at for $100.
Vanguard is a low-cost rifle. I get that. I don't have a problem with that. If you want a nicer Vanguard you can buy a walnut stocked one. Good. However, the Vanguard never was a cheap gun. The rifle was solid. It didn't need anything replaced by aftermarket parts. Sure, they are heavy. They don't have to be, but how much weight is saved by a plastic follower? Let's see.
I whipped the steel follower off a rifle and weighed it. It weighed 348.6 grains, let's round it off and call it 3/4 oz. I didn't have a plastic follower, but even if it weighed nothing which is impossible, all the weight saved is 3/4 oz. One round of 30-06 ammo (150gr Nosler) weighed 411.2 grains or almost an ounce. Since the rifle with scope weighs in at 9-1/2 pounds (152 ounces), the significance of saving 3/4 ounce (at most) is nonsense. If some of you feel like it, take a plastic follower off and plunk it down on your reloading scale and report the weight.
The plastic part that works fine today, may not be so robust in 20 years. Vanguards are not disposable. The rifle bought today should serve for your grandchildren who are today playing with Annoy-Me Elmo. I know the steel parts will be just as good in a hundred years as they are today.
Some of you may remember when Brad Ruddell was taking heat for the new trigger system on the S2. Members wanted to know why Weatherby was wasting money putting a more expensive trigger with a 2 stage pull on the Vannie. Brad said the price was only a matter of pennies more. I refuse to believe there are more than pennies difference between the fabricated steel follower and a plastic one. If you buy many gun parts, you may find out as I did, that the plastic replacement parts are often MORE expensive than metal ones.
Glocks and ARs. I have owned both. I knew what they were when I bought em. Magazines fail, you chuck them. The parts in a bolt gun will be there as long as the rifle lasts. I also will not accept plastic parts on a Weatherby. I accept the plastic stock. Walnut is available if I want it. I tried and failed to locate a steel follower for a Canadian member who knew what plastic did in sub-zero weather. None out there that I could locate.
It is time to rethink this thing before the Vanguard just becomes another cheap piece of ordnance like the 1965 Winchesters, Savage Axis (Edge), Remington 770, Marlin XL7, etc. Plastic followers are just the beginning. If you like those, get ready for a nice plastic triggerguard housing, or a poly trigger assembly.
imr4198