by Phil W. Johnston
Handgun Editor

Anyone with gray hair who hangs out with shooters is familiar with Weatherby firearms. To be quite honest, anyone who even pays attention is likely aware of the Weatherby name and the prestige that goes along with that name.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Roy Weatherby began looking at ways to improve rifle ballistics by moving lighter bullets faster. He was looking for supreme downrange power combined with a flat trajectory that would make long range shots easier to make. His initial work was on a cartridge named the .220 Rocket, which was based on a reshaped .220 Swift case.

His line of magnum rifle cartridges was soon to follow. The first of the Weatherby magnums consisted of the .257, .270, and .300 magnum-all three based on the .300 H&H case.

The Rifles
Along with his work on the hot rod cartridges, Weatherby quickly ended up in the gun business to boot. His first firearms were based on several commonly available actions, including FN Mauser, Schultz & Larson, Mathieu and others. The Mathieu action was used when a left-hand action was desired. The FN Mauser action was usually used in right-hand arms. In addition to building guns from scratch, Weatherby also offered to re-chamber customer firearms for his "magnum" cartridges.

As the 1950s waned, Weatherby added the .378 Weatherby and finally the "world's most powerful," the .460 Weatherby-a cartridge which generated nearly 8,000 foot pounds of energy (fpe) at the muzzle.

In 1957, Weatherby introduced the Mark V® Magnum Action to go along with his line of cartridges, and the rifles remain elegant to this day. I must admit that I always wanted a Weatherby, but the closest that I got is a copy of the 1969/1970 Weatherby catalog, which remains in nice shape to this day. There's a full-page color shot of John Wayne taking delivery of his new .300 Weatherby Magnum on page 82 of that issue. The "Duke" also supplied a photo of a lesser kudu taken on one of his African Safaris. He boasted, "This .300 W.M. really gets the job done!"

Throughout the years Weatherby firearms have been produced in Germany, Japan, and the United States. Weatherby began producing guns in the United States once again in 1995 and its current facility is located at 3100 El Camino Real, Dept. GWK, Atascadero, CA 93422. Phone: 805-466-1767; Fax: 805-466-2527; on-line: www.weatherby.com.

The Pistols
Weatherby didn't catalog handguns in 1969/70, but they did add a Silhouette pistol to the line in the late 1970s. The bolt action pistol was built in Japan and featured a 14°-inch barrel and was chambered for .22-250 or .308 Winchester. Weatherby produced only 50 .22-250s and 150 .308s before production was stopped in 1981.

The Mark V CFP (Center Fire Pistol) was added in 1997. It is based on a Mark V lightweight bolt action and can be ordered equipped with either a laminated wooden stock or an attractive composite stock from H-S Precision Inc., 1301 Turbine Drive, Dept. GWK, Rapid City, SD 57703; phone: 605-341-3006; Fax: 605-342-8964.

The CFP is chambered for .223 Remington, .22-250 Remington, .243 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington and .308 Winchester. The action is right handed and the fluted stainless steel barrels are 15 inches in length. Regardless of caliber, the CFP weighs about 5 pounds and measures 26° inches in length, overall.

The CFP is a magazine-fed repeater and the magazine holds 3 rounds. The safety is located on the right side of the receiver, at the rear of the bolt and rotates forward to fire the arm. The safety is not automatic and must be engaged and disengaged as the shooter wishes, fortunately.

Nice One!
The Accumark is one fine looking rig, out of the box. It is supplied without sights as one would expect and is shipped with a set of Talley bases and 1-inch rings. The rings are split vertically and install in a heartbeat.

When I was looking through my assortment of Burris high power scopes, I found several models that were too short to work with the ring spacing. The rings measure 5 inches from end to end, so you need a longer scope to use the supplied rings. My old Burris 3-9 variable was about a quarter of an inch too short, but my newer 10-power Burris with target turrets fits great. You'll want to keep this in mind when ordering a new scope for your new Accumark.

The sample Accumark was chambered for the .22-250 Remington cartridge, which started out as a wildcat, and is based on a necked-down .250 Savage case. The .22-250 is a hot-rod that often gives the .220 Swift a run for its money where velocity is considered, and the .22-250 also gives a good account of itself where accuracy is considered, as well.

I have a .22-250 rifle in my stable which is based on a Remington 700 receiver and sports a Shilen stainless steel match barrel that will routinely play around a half inch or so at 100 yards- even with factory loads once in a while. The Accumark .22-250 features a fluted stainless steel barrel from the Acrometal Co. of Brainerd, MN. The .22-250 barrel features a 1 in 14-inch twist and a recessed, target crown at the muzzle. The barrel is fully floating in the synthetic stock.

I had never worked with a .22-250 pistol and eagerly looked forward to this range session to be sure. It was simply a matter of waiting for the spring winds to quiet down as they always do-really they do, even in North Dakota.

The sample Accumark featured a 4-3/4-pound trigger that broke fairly clean but was heavy enough that I'd find a way to cut several pounds off the trigger if the gun were mine to keep. Keeping things tight at 100 yards is tough enough with a light trigger, much less one that causes fatigue after a dozen shots or so. Still, I suspect that we'll be darned lucky to see a trigger that weighs only 4 pounds in any factory arm in a few years. What a shame that we don't have shooters running things in Congress and the White House (or courts) these days!

Anyway, the trigger is adjustable to a certain degree by rotating an Allen screw in the base of the trigger, but I could only pull about half a pound out of it. I understand this, but would change things if it were mine.

Typical of Weatherby arms, the CFP features a bolt that rotates through less than 60 degrees to lock and unlock and features 6 locking lugs which lock things up like a vault. The bolt glides through the action smoothly and the action speaks quality all the way. The bolt is easily removed for cleaning by squeezing the trigger as the bolt is pulled to the rear.

My supply of .22-250 ammunition was limited to say the least, since I don't routinely work with the round. I had several boxes of Winchester 52-grain hollow point boat tail loads, a box of Winchester Supreme 40-grain spitzers, and a box of Norma Diamond Line 55-grain hollow points. It didn't take long to get the Accumark on target at 100 yards and we were off to the races.

How's It Rate?
The first 5-shot group at 100 yards was fired with the Winchester 52-grain BTHPs. These exited the Accumark doing 3,127 feet per second (fps) with an extreme spread of 28 fps and standard deviation of 38 fps. They slipped into a 2-1/8-inch group with two touching at 8 o'clock and three others off to the right. I called no flyers in the group, but had to limit my shooting to this one group plus sight-in rounds, because of limited ammunition supplies.

With 8 rounds down range, I decided to clean the Accumark using my best, benchrest cleaning procedures with Hoppe's #9BR and Sweets. Ten minutes later, the bore left dry patches clean as a whistle and it was time to fire two more 5-shot groups.

I ran two fouling shots into the dirt before the first string. The second lot of ammo consisted of Winchester's excellent Supreme 40-grain fodder-ammunition that features moly-coated Nosler 40-grain spitzer bullets. These hot rods managed to generate over 3,500 fps, even from the handgun barrel, and it looked like this rig liked the lighter bullets right off the bat. The first 5 shots went into 1-1/16 inches, center-to-center, doing 3,504 fps and the second 5-shot group went 1-5/8 inches, center-to-center, with a called flyer off to the left. Not bad for an out-of-the-box rig with factory ammo. Prairie dogs would be in big trouble out to several hundred yards with this combination!

I again cleaned the Accumark with Hoppe's #9BR and Sweets and worked the bore until patches came out perfectly clean. It was time to try the heavy Norma Diamond, moly-coated 55-grain HPs. As was the case with the 52-grain Winchesters, the Accumark seemed to punctuate the early work by managing only a 2-1/8-inch, and then a 2-3/8-inch, 5-shot group with the Norma HPs. Granted that's not bad for a handgun, but the last groups were almost twice as big as the groups fired with the 40-grain Supreme ammunition earlier.

High Quality 'Hifle'
The Weatherby Accumark is a high quality bolt action "hifle"-if you'll excuse my play on words. My daughter Vicki says that these long barreled bolt guns aren't handguns, but then she admits that they're darned difficult to shoot, just the same. In my book they are indeed handguns-aimed at specific, long-range work. like prairie dogs or called predators at long range. In this arena anyone toting a Weatherby Accumark CFP is well equipped.

I think I could get this rig under an inch with good neck-sized handloads. A 2°-pound trigger would help, to boot. Still, any handgun that will go near an inch at 100 yards with a factory load is a great place to start.

The current suggested retail price of the Accumark in either version is $1,099. These days quality like this is refreshing. I wouldn't mind keeping this rig.

Sixty years ago, Weatherby put his name on a line of guns that have always gained respect throughout the world. The Accumark lives up to his goal, well.