The original production rifles by Roy Weatherby were built on commercial Mauser actions manufactured by FN, Brevex (magnum), and Mathieu (left hand).

Weatherby manufactured his rifles for many years at his small facility in South Gate, California, until 1956, when he contracted with Sako to continue building his firearms based on the Weatherby-FN Mauser actions.

This action was very stout and had several features that Weatherby would integrate into future proprietary rifle designs, including a low bolt-lift and triple gas-escape ports in the bolt.

Weatherby had to build the newly designed rifle to withstand the higher pressures the experimental cartridges produced, which exceeded 100,000 pounds per square inch [psi] (690,000 kPa).

Manufacturing of the Mark V continued in West Germany until the early 1970s, when material and labor costs led Weatherby to shift production to Howa in Japan.

the machining and finishing of the Howa manufactured Mark Vs was an improvement over that of the quality of the Sauer-made guns.

[1] The Mark V action remained relatively unchanged during its first five years of production until manufacturing moved from PFI in the United States to J. P. Sauer in Germany.

The result was the Vanguard which Weatherby introduced in 1970, the same year that production of the Mark V moved to Japan.

Weatherby performs the final assembly of the Mark V and Vanguard at its company headquarters in Sheridan, Wyoming.

These variants range from blued to stainless steel metal with kevlar or wooden stocks and are available in calibers, including the .223 Remington (Vanguard only) through to the .300 Weatherby Magnum.

Earlier optics also included the Imperial Scope and were produced for Weatherby by Hertel & Reuss and manufactured in West Germany between 1964 and 1973.

Weatherby's shotguns (the "D'Italia" line) are made in Italy through a collaborative effort with Italian gunmaker Fausti Stefano.

[9][10] Weatherby has designed almost all of its cartridges with belts; curved, double-radius shoulders; and considerable freebore.