From what I've been told, the actions on the Howa and Weatherby rifles are the same, but the barrel, trigger and stocks are what makes the two different. The Howa rifles I've seen have been nice looking rifles and shot well for the owners.
From what I have seen,except for the sub moa vanguard,the barreled actions including triggers are the same on both rifles.The synthetic stocks also looked the same with some vanguards having a fancier wooden stock.