Seen at the range today: Ithaca SKB 20ga, 25", marked 200E. Silver nitride receiver--but with a straight grip stock like a 280. Anyone else ever see a straight grip 200E from the Ithaca period? (Note: not talking one of the later--late 80's I think--SKB imports, in which the 200E's did have straight grip stocks and choke tubes. No tubes in this one, clearly an Ithaca import.)

Back in the mid-70's my first three doubles upon becoming a doublegunner were Ithaca/SKB's, a 200E-12, 280E-20 and a 400E-12. They are now long gone, but because they were my first love I've followed them closely and I agree Larry, what you seen at the range is definately a UFO. Was the silver nitride receiver engraved with the same pattern as the 200's or more intricately like the 480? Where on the gun did it state the model number? If only on the barrels, could it possibly have been a 480 with a replaced set of 200 barrels?

Maybe they're like Parkers--"never say never".

BB, the 200E was marked right on the barrels, and the scroll engraving on the receiver was just like on all the other 200E's I've seen. Don't think it was a 480 with replacement barrels.

Information I could find on the SKB 200E is that there were two variations, Old Model 200 and Recent Mfg. Model. Old model was discontinued in 1980 and New model was imported 1987-1988. New model had 3 choke tubes, straight stock and coin finished receiver. Only mention of silver nitride is Model 385, imported 1992-2004

There were Ithaca imported SKBs that never made it into any catalogue I've found. My friend has an SKB "Lightning" semi-auto. It is a long recoil operated gun like the 300 and 900 that were imported thru 1971, but of lighter weight and has the receiver decoration of the gas opperated XL 900 that begins appearing in the 1972 catalogue. A friend that was in the trade at the time said there was one shipment that included the "Lightnings" and by the next shipment the long recoil semi autos were replaced by the gas guns. I'm sure the same thing could have happened with model variations of the SKB doubles.

Very similarly we got several high grade Winchester 101 over & unders at the Chugach Rod & Gun Club in the 1974-75 time frame that never appeared in any Winchester catalogues. Me thinks the big W tested the waters and the only ones that floated were the Pigeon Grade Trap and the cheaper Expert.

My "wood guy" can straight grip about any double in about a week including fixing the checkering and re-finishing.

My memory is dim on this one but I swear I remember a guy shooting one at skeet in the late 70's.
bill

This one was definitely not a late 80's gun. Those weren't marked Ithaca and they came with choke tubes, which this one didn't have--and they were also game scene engraved instead of scroll.

There was a 200E Skeet gun imported by Ithaca, both 12 and 20. Not a lot of them around. They look just like a standard 200E, with a pistol grip.

I have seen both blue and silver 200E's and both PG and SG stocks on what appear to be factory original guns. SG is no doubt rare for 200E. Maybe Ithaca was doing some early market testing.

Erik, I've also seen the 200E's with blued receivers--far less common than silver. But this was the first one I ever saw with a SG--except for 280's.

I looked at a new 20 ga. straight stocked 200E long ago, as well as a 280, before I got my Browning BSS. I didn't like silver receivers, or particularly want 25" or 26" bbls., and a friend had a world of issues with an Ithaca/SKB SxS, and that's why I got the BSS. That's also why I got a Win 23 Classic 28 instead of the Golden Quail 28 ga. a few years later. But, I remember that 200E and the 280 quite well. If it had been a few years earlier when I was more into quail hunting and before my friend had those issues I believe I would have gotten that 280 in a minute.

It's seems to be a definite contradiction, in that the 280/480's differed from the 200E in stocking only.

Living in Western NY in the 70's, I saw many Ithaca SKB's including the unusual ones. My first SxS was a 20ga. 280E with 25in. bbls. choked IC/Mod. I bought it used for $275 and, even though it kicked like a mule, it was my primary grouse gun for several seasons.

Remember, at some point SKB went into bankruptcy and it may be that they fit a gun with 200E barrals due to cashflow problems. It would be interesting to see the original box.

They weren't quite the same except for the stock (SG vs PG), although very close. The 280 20ga was available in an IC/IC version, which I don't think was true of the 200E--although the latter was available as a skeet gun (but I can't recall the choke markings on those). And most of the 200's had the silver nitride/scroll receiver while the 280 was blue/game scene--although some 200E's did have the blued receiver.