For 2024, Weatherby has introduced a new shotgun called the Sorix. It has a unique camo/Cerakote finish and robust controls that scream “waterfowl gun,” and it joins the 18i and the Element in Weatherby’s inertia-gun catalog. Like the 18i, the Sorix is made in Italy by C.D. Europe (formerly Marocchi), a long-established gunmaker. Unlike the 18i, it is optimized for the duck and goose blind and has a unique reversible bolt handle intended to make the gun more left-hand friendly.
The Sorix comes in 12- and 20-gauge models, and I’ve had the chance to shoot both, and also to see them receiving their camo coats at the Weatherby factory in Sheridan, Wyoming. It’s hard to say which you notice first about the Sorix: its artisanal sponge-painted camo or the reversible charging handle. We’ll get to both, but first, let’s step back and take a close look at the whole gun.
Weatherby Sorix Specs
Length: 49.75 inches (with 28-inch barrels)
Weight: 7 pounds in 12-gauge with 28-inch barrels
Barrel: 28-inch vent rib, five choke tubes (Crio pattern), small fiber-optic stepped rib
Action: Inertia semiauto
Trigger: 7 pounds, 2 ounces
Capacity: 4+1
Finish: Cerakote metal, choice of three color schemes
Stock: Synthetic, also in three different paint colors
Chambering: 3 ½-inch 12-gauge, 3-inch 12-gauge (tested), 3-inch 20-gauge
Price: $1499
Weatherby Sorix Overview and Test Results
The Sorix is an inertia gun, with all the clean-running advantages inertia operation brings to semiauto actions. It comes with a 3- or 3 ½-inch chamber in 12-gauge and a 3-inch chamber in 20-gauge, all with 28-inch barrels. It has the super-sized controls everybody but me likes on waterfowl guns now, as well as a loading port milled out for fast, easy reloads. Combined with a softer spring and shell latch, as well as a lifter designed not to catch fingers, it loads very easily. I love this in a semiauto, especially on late-season hunts when my fingers get numb. I tried loading the gun with bare hands, with thin shooting gloves, and with bulky insulated gloves, and the lifter never once caused a snag.
The stock has a soft, effective recoil pad, although the rubber comb insert is hard. Despite that hard comb, the gun was fairly comfortable to shoot with heavy target loads. It has shims to adjust the stock, and it comes with five choke tubes threaded on the Benelli Crio-plus pattern. It does lack the out-of-battery-proof bolt of Benellis and Retays.
The slightly bulged forend and stepped rib call the Benelli M2’s to mind, but the gun has a receiver profile of its own, and I like its lines. It was easy gun to shoot both in 12-gauge and in 20. The 20-gauge I shot in Wyoming weighed a solid 6 ½-pounds with a 28-inch barrel, which I think is a good heft for a 20-gauge duck gun. More important, the gun shot where I looked. The point of impact was close to dead on for me, about a 65/35pattern, at most. The Sorix is also drilled and tapped for optics in case you want to take it turkey hunting.
About that reversible charging handle: Weatherby, I’ve heard, found that lefties didn’t like looking at the charging handle flying back toward them in their line of vision when they fired the gun. I have never, in an adult lifetime of shooting right-handed semiautos, noticed a bolt handle coming at me. If I shot a Sorix—and I would gladly do so—I’d leave the handle on the right side. I would just reverse the safety, which is easy to do, as it should be. That said, if you are a lefty and the charging handle bothers you, this gun allows you to eliminate that problem.
Final Thought on the Weatherby Sorix
Pros
Well fit and finished
Good weight and balance
Soft recoil pad
Easy loading
Cons
Reversible charging handle doesn’t win over this lefty
Whether you like the sponge-dabbed camo pattern or not, it is done at the Wyoming factory, where the guns are also inspected for quality, as I saw on my tour. My test gun was the tan Slough pattern, which is a little bit muddy looking for my taste, although perhaps that’s the point. I think the primarily black Midnight Marsh and Storm patterns are striking, though. At $1,499, the Sorix is priced a bit below comparable 3-inch inertia guns, and if I were in the market for a 20-gauge inertia gun especially, I’d give it strong consideration.
