The first Weatherby I purchased was made in Germany. I bought it used back in 1980 or thereabouts. It was chambered in .300 Weatherby Magnum. Some years later, I bought a Weatherby Vanguard VGX in .243 Winchester. It was manufactured by Howa in Japan. A few years ago, Howa stopped making guns for Weatherby. They are now made at the Bath Iron Works in Maine.
The German made rifles were very well made, but when Howa made them, they might actually have been a bit better. The first few years they were made in Maine they had a few quality control problems but from what I understand they have them cleared up now.
Most of the Weatherby magnums are way too hot for normal hunting, say like for whitetail deer. For a western hunt, they are the cat's meow; flat shooting and hard hitting at very long ranges. On an elk hunt in 1998 in Colorado, I shot a nice bull elk at a distance of 540 yards. The bull was at the bottom of a canyon, so the shot was downhill at about a forty degree angle. My first and only shot hit him between the shoulder blades about two inches or so from my aiming point. He went down like a loaf of bread.
Before anyone says my taking a shot like that was unethical, it might be for some, but I practice routinely at distances up to 500 Meters. We do a thing we call "groundhog shoots" here in Pennsylvania. The targest are in the shape of a groundhog. Distances are 200, 300, and 400 yards. For one club's shoots, the longest distance is 500 Meters. Guys come to shoots with specialized target rifles with bull barrels and 6-24 X scopes. It is extremely competetive to say the least. I usually score somewhere around 125 out of a possible 150. You take five shots at each distance with a perfect score being 50 for the five shots and 150 for the total of three targets. Last year, the best score at our local club was 148/150.
I am anxious to try this new 7mm on these shoots this year.
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