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Michael Roach

Hey everybody, my apologies for the long rant however your thoughts please.
My father (after I asked him if I could borrow his 223 X bolt, to thin and eat some of the wild goats that exist on our property ) took it upon himself to purchase (on my behalf) a 2nd hand 223 Weatherby Vanguard at a gun show he visited. I think he just had to buy something to be honest.. when I received said rifle it looked near new, it came with an old Bushnell banner 3-9 scope and an overbarrel suppressor that lies within 1 cm of forend, it felt short /chunky almost tactical and at 900$ (NZ) all up, I thought ok, so I happily paid him back the money and took it home.
. When I removed the suppressor I found the crown/threading covered in carbon/light surface rust and the barrel had been shortened to 18 inches.(2 major red flags I thought).I cleaned the rifle and touched up the muzzle with a toothbrush and then tried to sight it in with cheap PMC 55 grain ammunition. Results were dismal, 70 metres 'prone and sandbagged' my best group was 1 1.5 inch (3 shots). 40 rounds down range with and without suppressor that day. Sometimes I would get 2 shots within an inch or closer and then the 3rd would fly off by an inch or more
In the end I decided she was kinda sighted in and gave her a good clean and decided to focus on some fun offhand shooting practice over the next week or so. After killing 50+ beer cans at ranges between 20-50 metres my confidence was renewed, I trekked up the hill, crawled within 30m of a mob of goats and let fly. Rifle performed well I shot 3 small goats all dropped instantly with either head or shoulder shots with forementioned PMC ammo but I cant help but think "could that calibre/ rifle configuration have done the same at 60-100m with better accuracy and ammunition

I then decided I would start taking the rifle a little bit more seriously, I purchased 20 rounds of Hornady V max 60 grain from the local store, soaked the rifle barrel in Eliminator for half a day then bore brushed/patched though/bore snaked until the barrel and crown was as spotless (for want of a bore scope) as possible. I worked on the trigger until it was as light and crisp as it would allow and then went back to shooting on paper at 15m and the groups where worse than at 70m?!?... shots all over the place 'scope adjustments didn't seem to make much difference either'.

So I guess my questions are 1, Is this rifle even worth working on? Is a 223 with an 18 inch barrel even a viable option ( if I can salvage it) for hunting goats and cans? or did the previous owner retard this rifle so much that rebarrelling is the only sane option.


2.Is the Weatherby Vanguard action, with time and money spent going to give me a potentially better result than say just selling it to my friend who thinks its the bees knees(his standards are low, however he only hunts beer cans ) and putting the money on a new Bergara or dare I say a Tikka that would probably suit my needs right out of the box?

3. should I consider this a blessing, or a learning opportunity and try and DIY problem solve/accurise/bed the whole rifle on a very limited budget (keeping in mind safety considerations of course) I have a very nice remington 270 that is near completion but I am hesitant to start bedding process as I have never done it before, I could practice on this one. I could also swap out the scopes as to rule out the possible optics factor. I seems to me that I dont really have much to lose based on the performance I have seen so far..