doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com SKB 500 Over and Under

Oh, if it's Ithaca/SKB it will be pre 1973 or so. Then Matsui for a year or two then SKB. Modal numbers remained consistent throughout, I think. Where is Col. Brown?

It is a genuine Japanese SKB but imported by Birmingham Small Arms in the UK.

In various grades but to see a relatively plain one see the Proofhouse TGS SKB500 video on YouTube.

Thanks Parabola, I'll have a look.

Johnny on his latest ProofhouseTGS YouTube video does some work on a Merkel style Bettinsoli over and under.

It looks very similar to the SKB 500.

Does anyone know whether those Bettinsoli guns were made in Italy or imported from Japan?

Either way I anticipate they would bear Italian Proof marks as I do not think Japanese Proof was recognised in Europe at the time(?).

To answer half of my original question:

“I know I have read an article on SKB in DGJ in recent years.

Can anyone remember year or issue?

Or why I thought I needed it?”

Thanks to the member who suggested (in another thread)looking at the back number indexes in the current issue, I have found in the Winter 2008 DGJ Nick Hahn on “Sakaba - The SKB Shotguns of Japan”

Collected it now. It has clearly seen a lot of use, but not “rid hard and put away wet” as I had feared.

Not had a chance to shoot it yet, but it goes “click” and “ping” at the right times.

Bores on both the the SKB, and the Valmet Skeet lotted up with it, are very clean and I suspect both were made with hard chromed bores.

Only remains to see if I can miss as many clays as usual?

So is this japanese-made SKB as good as my Nikko over-under, made in 1974?
This is a Browning style copy but without the holes in the bottom of the receiver. I believe that it was widely sold as the Winchester 101.

Now that I have opened out the full choke barrel to Skeet I am ready for standard steel cartridges here in (bone-dry) southern England!

HB

Your Nikko was made by the same folks who built all the Winchester 101s made in Japan. I like the looks of them more then the SKB over unders. That said I really prefer the barrel selector on the SKB to the Winchester. The SKBs you can still get parts for. The Nikko made guns are really hit or miss on parts.

Both very well engineered to high Japanese standards (I wonder what the Japanese equivalent of “Who do you think you are working for - Cogswell and F****** Harrison” is?).

The SKB is copied from the Merkel over and under design. Mine is 1/4 and 1/2 choke so should cope with steel within reason.

Late 70's would have been too late for Ithaca SKB.

Concerning Japanese proofs being recognized in Europe . . . they're not part of CIP.

When I first started shooting skeet, my mentor had a Model 500 20ga. Tire weights taped to the barrels. That gun had been shot a LOT!

For those looking for something a little different in an SKB OU, look around for a 680. That's the OU with straight grip vs PG. While the 280s (straight grip sxs) are relatively common, you don't see a lot of 680s.

If you've saved old issues of Shooting Sportsman, I did two articles on SKB doubles back in 2003: March/April and May/June.