Meet the Sorix
The fresh Sorix brings together some unique features for Weatherby’s latest scattergun launch. Designed around an inertia-driven recoil system, the Sorix is purpose-built for hunters. The competition-cut receiver aims for easier and faster reloading. Oversized controls, including the bolt release button, charging handle, and safety, follow suit with what has become the industry standard on waterfowl guns.
What’s most new and different on the Sorix is what Weatherby is calling its Shift System, an ambidextrous, reversible charging handle that can be switched from the right to left side of the receiver in seconds with only a sharp pull. Though the ejection port remains on the right, operating the Sorix will be friendlier for southpaws. In addition, the safety can be easily swapped from right to left, another welcome addition for left-handers.
Sorix Features
The young repeater is dressed with a full complement of modern and practical features. There’s a stepped rib finished with an LPA red fiber-optic front sight. The receiver is drilled and tapped at 8-40 for easy optics mounting, should the hunter so choose, making this waterfowl rig more appealing for turkey hunters and red dot lovers as well.
The gun ships with a set of shims for customization, though no such length-of-pull spacers are yet shown. There is, however, a soft touch insert at the buttstock’s comb, which adds to comfort on the cheek, a pleasant addition for the goose and duck hunters out in freezing conditions. The synthetic stock has molded texturing in lieu of standard checkering. An aggressive tire-tread-style rubber buttpad rounds out the package.
The Sorix ships with a set of five Benelli/Beretta Crio Plus choke tubes in Cylinder, Improved Cylinder, Modified, Improved Modified, and Full, all packed into a hard case with a choke wrench.
Sorix Variants
Buyers have a choice of three color variants right out of the gate, each available in three base options: 12-gauge 3.5-inch, 12-gauge 3.5-inch, and 20-gauge 3-inch. Each wears a 28-inch barrel with an overall length of 49 inches, with weights starting at 6.5 pounds for the 20 gauge and 7.1 pounds for the 12s. Each Sorix has a 2+1 round magazine capacity. The 14.3-inch length of pull falls on the longer side, especially on a waterfowl-geared shotgun often used with heavier clothing.
Weatherby’s unique color combinations include Midnight Marsh, Slough, and Storm, each pitting a hand-painted stock against Cerakote metalwork, with that finish reflected in the receiver, barrel, and top rib. Midnight Marsh mates a black Cerakote against a black stock base with cream and tan paint. Storm pairs metallic silvery Cerakote with gray-black furniture, while the Slough looks more like a typical duck and goose gun with a brownish-bronze metal finish against tan and brown-toned stocks.
The Italian Weatherby
The only catch is that Weatherby doesn’t technically build the Sorix, which is crafted in Italy. But the Sheridan, Wyoming-based company does bring the stocks back in-house for hand sponge-painting, reflected in some uniquely snappy-looking autoloaders in the aforementioned trio of hues. The Sorix, which looks and feels like a modern hunting shotgun, retails for $1,499 and will be shipping soon.
The Sorix joins Weatherby’s rapidly expanding lines of hunting and sporting shotguns, with models built in both Turkey and Italy. The Sorix marks the third major Weatherby scattergun announcement already this year, with both an inertia-driven, highly engraved 18i Limited and a more utilitarian double-barreled Orion SxS debuted at the SHOT Show and Safari Club International shows in January and February.
Will the March Sorix launch be the last we hear of Weatherby shotguns in 2024? Stay tuned.
More on the Sorix in Weatherby's podcast, below:
