Just bought one at auction, not seen it yet.



Bottom gun, top is a Valmet Skeet.

Johnny at ProofhouseTGS/TGS Outdoors on YouTube is at least partly to blame.

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?

Parabola

I had one a long time ago always worked not bad looking. do you really need an excuse to buy one

Bought my first new one at G.U. in Omaha, Nebraska in 99’. A field 505. Great gun. My full time waterfowling piece nowadays is a old SKB built Weatherby Orion. Pretty damn tough guns…built to last that’s for sure. The Orion has been fed a lot of stout 1 1/4 Oz steel loads in its lifetime….and I just sent it back to SKB in Omaha to get a new top lever spring, an ejector spring and the locking bolt replaced. Not too bad for a 30+ year old gun that has seen a lot of legit use in its lifetime.

Parts are still available, factory maintenance is reasonably priced and do it yourself maintenance is pretty straightforward. Stout, simple, very well built guns.

Thanks, that’s comforting.

Just hoping this one hasn’t been “rid hard and put away wet”.

If it has…..you’re in luck. Most all of the important parts are readily available….even new stock sets. If everything checks out and is on the up and up…..I’d go ahead and order a couple of mainsprings, a top lever spring, and a locking bolt. With those basic parts and minimal fitting….you’ll basically have a new gun if any of those parts happen to wear out on you. If the trigger hasn’t been monkeyed with too bad and works as it should….you’re in business.

https://www.skbshotguns.com/parts-tools

Enjoy! Carried one as a grouse gun for many years. 20ga. Choked SK/SK. Wonderful gun. About to gift it to my son. It’s always been a favorite of his. Now he’ll have zero reasons not to join me this fall.

Johnny must have had one to sell.

At least mine is not the BSA SKB 500 one he was showing with the “why bother if that is all you are going to do?” few lines of engraving.

He did suggest looking for SKB instead of a BSA SKB.

I would say late 70's for the SKB. They were all great guns

OK, just to save the search. What is a BSA SKB? I know of Ithaca/SKB, Matsui SKB , SKB /SKB and also Turk/ SKB,(NOT SKB). I have a couple Ithaca/SKB, A 100 and a 600. Just want to know, Thanks!

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.

Finally got the SKB 500 to our local Sporting Clays ground. It does go “Bang, Bang”. Although when I am standing behind it, “Bang, Bang, B****r!”, as I once saw embroidered round the tops of a pair of shooting stockings, is doubtless more appropriate.

It is just on 90 degrees F today, which gave me an additional excuse (although I sure many of you gentlemen would regard that as pleasantly mild) to add to my usual list.

The gun behaved perfectly. The Birmingham proof date stamp “W2B” shows it was imported in 1971, so has had half a Century of use.