doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com skb 280 barrel length

Looking at a skb 280 on line with 26 inch barrels marker full and mod. Aren't 26 inch barrels on skb cyl and mod. Wondering if anyone here is familiar with the 280.

I have an SKB 280 12 ga with 28" barrels-M/F for chokes. I think that the majority of the 26" barrel models in both 20 and 12 ga, were choked IC/Mod, with the 28" barrels being M/F.

There were probably runs or perhaps a few of the 26" barreled guns made in M/F. Someone with more knowledge than I will probably chime in at some point, although you didn't say whether it is a 12 or 20 ga. Not sure that matters though.

Is the referenced gun a 12 or a 20? If a 20, I thought the shorter barrel length offered was actually 25" long and only choked IC/M or IC/IC.

Has someone actually measured the chokes? Could the barrels have been originally 28" and cut back to 26" because of damage at the muzzles?

At least in 20 gauge, I'm pretty sure the short open bbl. were 25". For some reason, I seem to recall the 12's might have been 26".

The SKB doubles and over-unders first appear in the 1966 Ithaca Gun Co. catalogue. The side-by-sides offered were the 100 Field, 200E Deluxe Field and the 200E Skeet, in 12-gauge only with barrel lengths of 30-inch full and modified, 28-inch modified and improved cylinder or full and modified, and 26-inch modified and improved cylinder. The 200E Skeet could be had with 26- or 28-inch barrels bored skeet and skeet.

For 1967, the 20-gauges were added to the line with barrel lengths of 28-inch full and modified or 25-inch modified and improved cylinder. For the 20-gauge 200E Skeet the barrel length was 25-inch bored skeet and skeet. Also the 28-inch option was gone from the 12-gauge 200E Skeet. Offerings remained the same through the 1970 Ithaca catalogue.

In 1971 the straight gripped 280 was added to the line. It came in 12-gauge with 28-inch full and modified or 26-inch modified and improved cylinder barrels and 20-gauge with 28-inch full and modified or 25-inch modified and improved cylinder barrels. For 1973 the option of 20-gauge 25-inch barrels both bored improved cylinder was added to the 280 and the 20-gauge 200E Skeet barrels grew to 26-inch. Offerings remained the same through the 1977 Ithaca Gun Co. catalogue. I don't have any Ithaca paper dated 1978, and by the 1979 Ithaca catalogue the SKBs are gone.

The 1979 SKB Sports, Inc. catalogue adds the 480, but the barrel lengths remain 28- and 26-inch in 12-gauge and 28-inch and 25-inch in 20-gauge for both the 280 and 480.

It's a 280 12 ga. it states that the barrels are 26 inches and on the barrel flats it says mod & full. They must be cut ? Thank you for your help.

With the exception of the late 20ga skeet guns, for whatever reason, short barrels on the Ithaca SKB 20's were always 25" and the long ones 28", while the 12ga short barrels were always 26".
I can't recall ever having seen a 12ga Ithaca SKB with 26" barrels choked M/F. 28" were typically M/F, short ones IC/M (except the skeet guns, and except some of the 25" 280 20's which were IC/IC). However, there were some exceptions. I owned 2 Ithaca SKB 12ga 150's--a somewhat rare model, PG/beavertail and engraving like a 200 but without automatic ejectors--which had 28" barrels and came from the factory choked IC/M. So I would not say it's impossible that a 26" 12ga 280 might have been factory M/F.