Weatherby will soon be selling a line of Vanguard rifles which feature detachable magazines. Currently Weatherby Vanguards use internal magazines.
Hunters often argue the benefits of internal vs. detachable magazines. I personally prefer internal, but there are obvious advantages of removable magazines.
As a predator hunter I have grown to love rifles with detachable magazines. Because the law here requires any rifle in a vehicle to be unloaded I must load and unload my rifle each time I setup to call for coyotes. On a full day of hunting I can make 15 or more stands.
The magazine really improves my quality of life at night. I have dropped more than a few rounds in the dirt when opening the floor plate on my Remington BDLs.
I can likely count on 1 hand the number of times, other than over a prairie dog village, where I have had the opportunity to get off more than 2 or 3 rounds. The decrease in 2 rounds for the DBM is unfortunate, but if you’re careful with your shots it shouldn’t ruin the hunt. Of course you can always hand feed a single round before inserting the magazine and have 4 rounds available.
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0Good point about the getting in and out of the car heath. The regulations here pretty much eliminate the possibility of you jumping out of your truck and popping one off so I didn’t even though about it.
0 0Here in Washington State we don’t use tree stands. You can wait around all day and not see a deer, you have to go to them. We do a lot of truck hunting popping in and out of the truck. A detachable clip means you can have a full mag in the same time as loading a round. It just makes bore sense.
0 0The internal/external question seems quite moot for all hunting applications, which is what most of these rifles will be used for.
0 0Oh Steve, I was wondering what the advantage of the more expensive low capacity removable magazine was. I thought perhaps some state required you to load only right before taking the shot on an animal or something.
0 0What advantages are there to an internal magazine besides getting around legal issues or removing the possibility of a branch snagging on a tree?
@ Get a Gun
I totally agree that $110 is too much for a small upgrade like that.
0 0Advantage is that you cannot lose it (a pretty big issue when you are in the middle of nowhere) and that it cannot be damaged because it is inside the gun (and usually made stronger than an external magazine). Also there is less chance of feeding problems.
This disadvantage of interal mags is that reloads are slower (although military surplus rifle which internal magazines can be loaded quickly from stringer clips, eg. Mauser, SKS, Garand … etc.).
0 0The Vanguard Sporter’s MSRP starts at $689, the DBM model at $799. That seems excessive, especially considering you lose two rounds (66%!) of the capacity. The IBM holds 5 the DBM holds 3. So for an extra $110 you get to reload nearly twice as often.
Is there something else different about them, or an advantage in some legal or regulatory context because it seems like a bad deal to me?
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Here in Washington State we don’t use tree stands. You can wait around all day and not see a deer, you have to go to them. We do a lot of truck hunting popping in and out of the truck. A detachable clip means you can have a full mag in the same time as loading a round. It just makes bore sense.
Good point about the getting in and out of the car heath. The regulations here pretty much eliminate the possibility of you jumping out of your truck and popping one off so I didn’t even though about it.
As a predator hunter I have grown to love rifles with detachable magazines. Because the law here requires any rifle in a vehicle to be unloaded I must load and unload my rifle each time I setup to call for coyotes. On a full day of hunting I can make 15 or more stands.
The magazine really improves my quality of life at night. I have dropped more than a few rounds in the dirt when opening the floor plate on my Remington BDLs.
I can likely count on 1 hand the number of times, other than over a prairie dog village, where I have had the opportunity to get off more than 2 or 3 rounds. The decrease in 2 rounds for the DBM is unfortunate, but if you’re careful with your shots it shouldn’t ruin the hunt. Of course you can always hand feed a single round before inserting the magazine and have 4 rounds available.
The internal/external question seems quite moot for all hunting applications, which is what most of these rifles will be used for.
Oh Steve, I was wondering what the advantage of the more expensive low capacity removable magazine was. I thought perhaps some state required you to load only right before taking the shot on an animal or something.
What advantages are there to an internal magazine besides getting around legal issues or removing the possibility of a branch snagging on a tree?
@ Get a Gun
I totally agree that $110 is too much for a small upgrade like that.
Advantage is that you cannot lose it (a pretty big issue when you are in the middle of nowhere) and that it cannot be damaged because it is inside the gun (and usually made stronger than an external magazine). Also there is less chance of feeding problems.
This disadvantage of interal mags is that reloads are slower (although military surplus rifle which internal magazines can be loaded quickly from stringer clips, eg. Mauser, SKS, Garand … etc.).
The Vanguard Sporter’s MSRP starts at $689, the DBM model at $799. That seems excessive, especially considering you lose two rounds (66%!) of the capacity. The IBM holds 5 the DBM holds 3. So for an extra $110 you get to reload nearly twice as often.
Is there something else different about them, or an advantage in some legal or regulatory context because it seems like a bad deal to me?