Thoughts on a Weatherby Orion o/u made in Italy

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recoil 5

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Acquired a Weatherby Orion 12 ga o/u made in Italy. The gun is in as new condition. I don’t think it was ever fired. It has 28” barrels with vectors. I would like to know it’s value.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
 
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I'm not sure about the value but the resale won't be high. The Orion is a Beretta 686 clone made by ATA, it's a good design but ATA does have some QC issues.
I looked at a brand new Orion a few days ago and the barrels wouldn't lock up when the action was closed without pushing the lever over manually. Probably just some rough surfaces inside but it never should have left the factory that way.
 
The Italian Orion's were made by Fausti, their reputation from what I've read isn't horrible, but nothing special. The SKB built Orion (Japan), is a fantastic shotgun and a great value for the money. I love mine.
 
The ones fausti messed up the barrels on are selling for between 1200 and 1800 new. However theyre various length chopped barrels. Took awhile to sell from what ive seen
 
Wow! thought they were worth a bit more than that. The new ones are a bit different, having a wider forearm and are made in Turkey, I’m told. This Italian model has a slim forearm and the one I have functions very well. Could there be more differences?
 
I should have clarified, the original Orion's were made by Fausti in Italy but the present Orions are made by ATA in Turkey. If yours is marked Italy then it's a Fausti.

Fausti also made sxs's for Wby and there were QC issues with them as well. They're capable of building good fire arms but the Wby's are made to a price point, one that didn't include a lot of quality.
 
Fausti only made them for Weatherby for a few years after they switched from SKB. I suspect that after decades of building Orion's, Athena's etc, SKB couldn't meet the price point any longer. I can't comment on the quality of your Fausti but their relationship with Weatherby ended quickly. Just like the Turkish guns, Fausti would have built to whatever price point Weatherby wanted. That's not saying your gun is a poor quality gun, only shooting it will tell you that.
 
recoil 5 said:
Were the Italian made Orion Guns a bit better quality?
Click to expand...


I would think that they are better quality than the ATA Arms guns that are stamped Wby now but still built to a price point. Mostly that would be reflected in the cosmetics such as the bluing not being as nice as it could be, the wood being lower grade, etc and hopefully they didn't scrimp too much on QC. You don't tend to see a lot of Wby stamped shotguns around but I know a couple of guys shooting lower end Fausti made o/u guns and although neither of them are high volume shooters, they don't seem to have any trouble with them.
 
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