>The "Meister Brau Devil Gun", Kolpin and Butler Creek

The “Devil Gun”, my 9999 serial number Weatherby Vanguard just wasn’t shooting for me. I’m getting flyers like a bad habit. The stock was contacting the left side of the forearm when it arrived, but since it’s a sub-MOA rifle with a test target I disregarded it. Then the bedding broke off so I rebedded it. Still large groups and flyers. Spoke to Weatherby a couple times, and they’re great, but I didn’t have time to send it in. The gun is tested for accuracy potential, then threaded for a brake if one is requested, which I did. Works great but it’s so obnoxious it’s not worth it to me to use. Noisy bugger. Then it’s stocked and bedded but not shot again. It never did shoot well enough for me to live with. I gave it some more upward pressure with an old Meister Brau beer coaster, trying for even pressure on the barrel, and it helped a bit, but not enough. Then I pulled out the stops and hogged the stock out to float it. I’m got an inch or so with the ammo I had, so I guess I fixed it, but not before shooting lots of expensive ammo. Federal Premium Nosler Accubond 180s, Federal Premium Nosler Partition 180s, Winchester Supreme XP3 180s, and Federal Premium Barnes Triple Shock 165s. None worth a darn from the gun the way it was. I’m about out of time. My local store had some Winchester Power Points 180s in the same lot number. I bought three boxes and this was the last chance for this gun. If it didn’t work well enough for me during this last range session I would use a different gun. The floating worked. I bought two more boxes of the same lot number, so I have enough to use for both upcoming elk hunts. I wanted to use premium bullets, but I have what I have, and they should be fine. This is one of the only times I haven’t used the best bullets available. We’ll see what the cheapos do.

Instead of cutting the foam for my Pelican 1750 gun case, I think I may remove the middle piece of foam and insert a soft gun case, since a hard gun case doesn’t travel well besides in airports. The Kolpin case I may use is one of the nicer padded soft cases I have been using lately. I also have a Butler creek rubberized sling, which won’t slip off my shoulder, especially over backpack straps. I’ll get another chance or two to do some more testing before I go, so I hope all goes well.