Weatherby Olympian O/U 12 Gauge

[n8tive97]

I inherited this shot gun from my wife’s Grandfather. It is a skeet version, with 26" barrels. I have tried like crazy to find out any info about this shotgun on the internet. I found little blurbs about it, but no detail. I found a couple 30" barrels for sale no where near the condition this one is in.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will try to post a pic when I can dig it out of the back of the safe.

Thanks in advance.

[JohnTRourke]

Weatherby shotguns are not made by Weatherby.
They are made by some contract manufacturer (it changes every few years) in turkey, Italy, Czech, russia etc.

some of them were made by fausti of Italy (which is better), the more current ones are usually made in Turkey.

hit or miss on quality.
can be difficult to sell (due to the strange origins), price it well.

[n8tive97]

This one said it was made in Japan? So are they collector guns? If not I would rather sell it and go with something else? Thoughts?

[JohnTRourke]

No, they are just a gun.
NOT a collectable unless it have some sentimental value to you.

26" barrels are out (too short nowadays), it will be hard to sell, just FYI.
the made in japan ones are in the good category (and clearly older)

[n8tive97]

Thanks for your help! May be on the chopping block. Really like the new Berretta Extrema 2.

[nontactical]

Weatherby shotguns are not made by Weatherby.
They are made by some contract manufacturer (it changes every few years) in turkey, Italy, Czech, russia etc.

some of them were made by fausti of Italy (which is better), the more current ones are usually made in Turkey.

hit or miss on quality.
can be difficult to sell (due to the strange origins), price it well.

This isn't quite correct, John. While their Semi-autos have bounced around quite a bit, their over-unders have only been made by three different manufacturers, and all of them have a great reputation.

The Olympian in question was made by Nikko of Japan on the same production line and at the same time as the Winchester 101. Its a rock solid gun, and you still see a lot of them on the skeet and trap fields. In very good condition, its worth between $750 and $1000. Because of the out-of-style short barrels, you are probably looking at closer to the bottom end of that scale. I took a sporting clays lesson from a guy who had an Olympian with at least 250,000 rounds through it.

After Nikko stopped making guns, Weatherbys were made by SKB of Japan for a couple of decades. These are also great guns, and most people consider them on par with Beretta and Browning. I would say that they are one step below the two "Bs", but not a very big step.

About four years ago, the Japanese version of the EPA shut SKB down, and their guns are now made by Fausti in Italy. They are still good, but not quite as refined as the SKB made guns.

BTW there are several Olympians on gunbroker; those should give you an idea of what to charge.