Weatherby
| Founded | 1945 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Roy Weatherby |
| Headquarters | Paso Robles, California, United States |
|
Key people
|
Ed Weatherby, Adam Weatherby |
| Products | Firearms, Ammunition, Shooting accessories |
| Website | weatherby.com |
Weatherby, Inc. is an American gun manufacturer founded in 1945 by Roy Weatherby. The company is best known for its high-powered magnum cartridges, such as the .257 Weatherby Magnum, 270 Weatherby Magnum, .300 Weatherby Magnum, .340 Weatherby Magnum and the .460 Weatherby Magnum. Company headquarters is in the northern San Luis Obispo County town of Paso Robles, California.
The original production rifles by Roy Weatherby were built on commercial Mauser actions by FN, Brevex (magnum), and Mathieu (left hand). For bespoke rifles, Weatherby would build to a customer's specifications, using any action the customer wanted, provided it was strong enough for the desired cartridge. For many years, Weatherby manufactured his rifles at his small facility in South Gate, California. But in 1956, he contracted with Sako to build his production rifles on Weatherby-FN Mauser actions. Custom rifles were still produced in South Gate, however.
Weatherby's first break with Mauser actions came in 1956 when he commissioned the Danish firm of Schultz & Larsen to build 378 Weatherby Magnums utilizing their Model 54 bolt action. This action was very stout and featured four rear locking lugs. Many of its features (such as the low bolt lift and triple gas escape ports in the bolt) would find their way into Weatherby's proprietary bolt action, which would make its debut two years later.
In 1958, after several years of development, Roy Weatherby introduced the Mark V bolt action, his first proprietary design developed totally in-house by Weatherby himself and his head engineer, Fred Jennie. Built to withstand the hottest of Weatherby's experimental cartridges (which were exceeding 100,000 psi). The first Weatherby Mark V actions were manufactured in the U.S. by Pacific Founders, Inc. and the rifles were assembled and finished at the Weatherby facility in South Gate. Demand for the Mark V quickly exceeded Weatherby's manufacturing capability, so the company contracted with J. P. Sauer in West Germany to build production Mark V rifles. Manufacturing of the Mark V remained there until the early 1970s when material and labour costs led Weatherby to move production to Howa in Japan. Some say the machining and finishing of the Howa made Mark Vs was actually better than the Sauer made guns. In 1995, manufacturing of the Mark V was moved back to the United States, where the Mark V has been built under contract by both Saco Defense and Acrometal/ATEK.
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