Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Weatherby Orion II for Clay Shooting? Advice Please

My local gun shop has a really nice Weatherby Orion II Sporting O/U - asking $850 with a nice case and three chokes. Look like they are your basic winchokes. 28" barrel I think. I did not see a wrench but I might have one thrown in a box of misc gun crap that would work. It does not look like it has seen much use and the wood is pretty nice by todays standards. He said it was probably made 15 years or so ago in Japan by SKB for Weatherby. I recently joined a local club that has a pretty nice sporting clays course, wobble trap, and five stand. I have a Franchi 612 semi that I was using. But I thought the Weatherby Orion II Sporting might be a nice budget O/U to start with. I am in my 50s and my vision is not what it was. I am just social shooter - enjoy hanging out at the club and shooting for fun.

I know SKB is no longer operating but that parts are pretty easy to get. The owner said that these are pretty robust O/Us and would stand up to some clay shooting.

I thought I should seek some opinions about the quality/reliability for these guns? Would it be a good entry O/U for sporting clays at the club? Would it be okay for wobble trap and 5 Stand?
Any thoughts on these older Weatherby Orions/Orion 2 would be much appreciated.

SKB guns made in Japan are a very robust design. If they would have had decent distribution they would be as popular as Browning or Beretta. Many SKBs I've seen were on/from the trap fields where they shot thousands of rounds a year. I did not see nor hear of these being any better or worse than Beretta or Browning. I can't see there being any issues with this gun for heavy clay shooting of any type.

I've bought several Weatherby/SKB guns over the years as gifts to nephews and nieces. They typically shoot several hundred shells a year so aren't heavy shooters but so far no problems. At $850 I might have a hard time passing another one by. Being a Sporting Clays model with 28" barrels is probably the reason it is priced as it is. 30" barrels and longer are the trend today but for informal use it would work just fine.

It will outlast you, if it fits you buy it, and enjoy, SKB made some of the finest shotguns in America and at prices most shooters could afford.

i have an orion II what you are looking at
if it fits you ,youll love it hell it can be made to fit ifit doesnt
mine has shot MANY rounds of clays killed tons of pheasants
you wont be disapointed

I agree with Woodmaster that the reason it is not selling quickly is the 28" barrels. You being a novice makes this a non issue. For sporting it is usable, for skeet 28" used to be the standard, and for trap it is on the short side but still usable. I have a Remington Live Bird gun with 28" barrels and have had great success on the the trap field. More 25 straights than I can remember. These are extremely well made shotguns and will easily last your's and your kid's lifetimes. I believe the chokes are in the same family as Winchoke, Standard Invector, and Mossberg.

Edit
I did confirm the choke interchange. Look under Wetherby Athena Orion.

https://www.choketube.com/downloads/Carlson's-Interchange-2017.pdf

Confirming what the others said above - those are excellent firearms... Only caveat - they shoot 'flat'... I.e., not like many trap guns that shoot a pattern with a 60/40 or so in height.. SKB/Orions usually shoot 50/50 - at least, all of mine do except the 85TSS set I have where I have the un-single adj. rib set at 55/45..

Go for it......

Depends on the game you intend to shoot, and how seriously.

There is your answer. It is a great shotgun, but not necessarily great for any of those games if you are into them seriously. And that is the problem with the shotgun games. Seriously is only a clay target mainline away. It sneaks up on you and one day you are hooked. That being said, a good shotgun to find out.