Some interesting information there. Nothing I'd seen before--including the guns themselves in gun stores--told me that SKB sxs were still being imported into the early 80's. I thought the Mitsui import era ended about 1977. I note the 1981 catalog carries an "SKB Sports" address in IL. But that might be Mitsui under a different name. I know that Mitsui also operated out of IL.
Stan, if you look at the 88-89 catalog, you'll see that the 200 made a brief reappearance, although the E suffix was dropped. On the original Ithaca SKB guns, E stood for ejector. On those 88-89 guns, SKB confused things for fans of their guns. The 200 with a PG was just a 200. However, there was also a 200E. My records indicate I bought 2 of them, new, in 20ga at a gun show in Feb 88. On those 88-89 guns, the E stood for English. And the 200E actually looked like the old 280E, with straight grip and beavertail forend. Those were the first SKB sxs with choke tubes. They'll pop up on occasion, but you won't see many of them.
An even rarer SKB sxs, I think--even more so than the 400's and 480's, which you don't see very often--was one version of the 385 that appeared at the very end of the SKB side by side's import history (until the current Turkish guns). The 2004 catalog shows the splinter forend and matte finish options offered on some 385's. SKB in Omaha sent me one of those guns to field test in 2003. I wrote about it in Pointing Dog Journal magazine, suggesting that they finally had it right: straight/splinter (although a somewhat larger splinter than the old Model 100) with a matte finish. My field test gun was a 20ga, 28" with choke tubes. Shot a few pheasants with it. Since the BSS doubles were long gone, I thought SKB had a real winner there. At which point the company stopped making sxs.
I don't know how many of those "traditional" looking 385's ever made it to the States, but I don't think very many did. I can't recall having seen one since I sent mine back to Omaha. Thus ended the good old days of nice sxs from Japan.
