RE: Howa or Weatherby Vanguard Stainless?
Yes, it does come with a shot target which I thought was pretty nifty.
stubblejumper, I think you're missing my point. I have no loyalty whatsoever to any particular rifle manufacturer. What I do see is that the Howa, by means of simply slapping on the Weatherby name all of a sudden has a much better support structure. If I were to have issues with the Howa I wouldn't even know where to start, other than contacting the company that imports them (Legacy Sports International, if not mistaken). I tried tracking down the Howa company and found a badly made website with no info at all, not very confidence inspiring.
I'm starting to see it this way: I get DSL from Earthlink whom subleases their lines from BellSouth. When I had BellSouth they never helped me with issues. Because I now have Earthlink, BellSouth has a SLA (Service Level Agreement) with Earthlink so they respond to their calls and actually get things done. All I have to do is call Earthlink.
So...even though I realize it's the same rifle made by Howa, if I call Weatherby they'll take care of it much sooner (most likely). I think that's worth $50-100 for the peace of mind. It's not about "I have a such and such". I could care less as long as the quality is good and I can put my hits where I want them.
If you think I'm after a name, realize that I first came on here looking at a Remington Model 710 and after reading all the reviews/threads is when I decided against that and started looking at the Howa/Weatherby.
I do appreciate everyone's input though, thanks!