doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Weatherby Athena SxS- Spanish

My neighbor has one of these in 20 ga for sale. It's choked with Weatherby and Brileys and has the English stock, which I fancy and shoot reasonably well. I have handled and shot the later/more current SxS Athenas by Fausti, but can't find much written about this flavor. Does anyone have any first hand or even anecdotal knowledge about these?
Thanks

Hi Weatherby imported these a few years ago and they were made by Zabala Hermanos. The guns didn't last long as there were some quality issues that Weatherby had with them. In short they didn't want to have the Weatherby name on this import. The gun itself is one of Zabalas standard price point exports. The gun is an A&D action and was also imported by Charles Daly (Field Hunter II, not the Turk made 306), the Brittany series is common to these importers: American Arms, Tristar and BSA.

The differences included, engraving patterns, checkering patterns, type of stock grip. Some had sideplates (Royal and Sporting). But all had in common were SST, Choke tubes and ejectors.

While many consider these inferior SxS's they do fill a nich for a lower end SxS that can be used without worry. The main problems with these guns have been the ST and bbl regulation. You either get a good one or a crappy one. They also tend to be heavy for the gauge and the wood is rather plain.

I've owned/own Zabala's of this type off and on and to be fair they are not a bad gun, mine never gave me any problems and I have one I use for real crappy duck hunting weather.

You could do a lot worse.

Best!

Greg

I could tell you alot more if you would post a picture like this

Greg,thanks for the note. Not certain that I want to spend most of a grand for "I could do a lot worse". LOL

Skeettx,
I've only seen it once, but as I best remember,
they're stamped:
1270 bares (both barrels)
20-73. Z.H.
Can't remember the longer number shown at the top.

Close enough, Zabala Hermanos = Zabala Brothers
The one you post about was made in 1992 or 1993.
I have a number of these and they all work fine, they are
tight when new and smooth out with use.
Not TOP of the line guns but you get what you pay for
A grand is not much these days in Side by Sides
Mike

Hi, skeettx is right, a grand is not that much anymore. But, I wouldn't pay that much for a used ZH. Don't know what he's asking, but it might be a good price depending.

Good Luck!

Greg

I don't own one of these, but I do remember an awful lot of hype about them when we were waiting for them to arrive in the market. They did not live up to the initial hype and disappeared fairly quickly. But, it is a 20 and if if fits you, that's two points in its favor. Buy the gun, not the reputation. A good 20 for under $1K could be considered a bargain.

To further add to the confusion . . . the Weatherby Athena d'Italia guns are all Fausti-made (as the name might indicate). Marlin sells the same gun, different cosmetics (CC sideplates, different wood) in 12 and 20 as their "LC Smith". However, when Marlin decided to add 28ga and .410 to their Elsie line, they had those made by Zabala.

It can be a bit tricky, but proofmarks will tell for sure whether you're dealing with an Italian or Spanish-made gun. And you have about 5 or 6 possibilities for country of origin if you're talking about a Charles Daly-marked sxs.