By staff writer: Charles Coker

Weatherby Vangaurd II 7mm08 Hog Reaper arrived and we take a quick look at it for you..

 

I have heard good things about the Vanguard II from Weatherby and decided to get one in.  I liked the specs of the Hog Reaper:

  • 20″ barrel
  • 7mm08 (other calibers available as well)
  • short action
  • 6.75lbs
  • Hog skull camo stock finish
  • 2 stage trigger

I saw this gun at NRA in Houston and just had to get one.  It just has a nice feel to it, well balanced, stock feels good and it’s light.

Weatherby uses Talley lightweight rings on the Vanguard II and I got a set of 1″ and 30mm rings.  I installed a Trijicon Accupoint in 3-90×40 with a mildot / green dot.

My son Sean (16) will be the primary user of this rifle for the upcoming season now that he has outgrown his youth rifle which is being taken over by his younger brother.

Quick impressions are positive, the trigger breaks clean at 2.5 lbs with no creep, the bolt cycles smoothly and there is a 3 position safety.

We will start testing with the Barnes Vortex load of 120g TTSX.  They list 3005 FPS which I am assuming is out of a 24″ barrel.  I expect to loose around 100 FPS wth the 24″ barrel.

This should be a great Texas deer and hog rifle!

Stay tuned for more!

Weatherby Hog Reaper 7mm08 Weatherby Hog Reaper 7mm08 right Weatherby Hog Reaper 7mm08 left sideU

UPDATE 7/15/2013

The 120g TTSX load from Barnes was the first thing I wanted to try in it.  For Texas hogs and deer it would make an ideal round out to 300 yards with just a basic duplex reticle and no dialing running a 200 yard zero.

Well, that is of course if the gun likes it…

Well, my first two shots at 50 yards dialing in the scope were touching, that’s a good sign!

I moved out to 100 and a few adjustments later I was getting what looked like about an inch group at a quick glance with not much effort on my part.  Looking good.

I dialed in 1.5″ high at 100 and rattled off 3 quick shots on steel, I could see the impact all basically making one hit on the target.  I walked down and said “pretty good, probably a 1/2″ group”  My buddy Chad said he thought it was better than that..

I checked it with a caliber and it was under .5, center to center avearge was .4 and a nickely covered the group easily.

Not bad for a rifle with about a dozen rounds through it and I am sure they can be made even tighter.

Very impressed with the ammo and the gun.  I know I got lucky finding a load this gun liked right off the bat.. But my experience with the Vortex loads in the 243 and two 25-06s has earned my respect and makes them the first choice I go to in factory ammo.

Barnes 7mm08 120g TTSX group as fired from Weatherby Vangaurd Mark 2 with Trijicon Accupoint 3-9 mildot greendot

UPDATE 1/27/2014

Did some hunting with this rifle and it is a hammer on deer!

Here is a video of some steel banging with me and my son Sean

Sean nails a nice deer on video with it!
https://tacticalgunreview.com/blog/2014/01/sean-shoots-nice-doe-weatherby-hog-reaper-7mm08/#more-20172

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ccoker

Founding staff member, avid shooter, hunter, reloader and all around gun geek with an obsession for perfection