The February edition of GunBroker.com’s Top Selling Report, presented by GunGenius.com, showed an unexpected surge in interest for a shotgun that many people never even knew existed in the first place. Coming in from a spot that didn’t even register on the chart and rising to the #4 spot for used side-by-side shotguns is the Smith & Wesson Elite Gold.

Announced in late 2006 as a part of the new 2007 product lineup to be debuted at SHOT Show, the Elite Gold shotgun was a 20-gauge side-by-side with a patent-pending trigger plate action that enabled the gun to have a sleek, rounded and sculpted receiver.

In order to live up to the Elite Series name, the guns featured hand cut checkering to 24 LPI, 25% coverage hand engraving, premium Grade III Turkish walnut stocks in Prince of Wales or English configurations, real bone charcoal case hardening, and an ivory front sight with an accompanying mid-bead. Elite Gold shotguns were available with 26” or 28” barrels with fixed IC and Modified chokes. The overall length was 43.5” and 45.5” and weights of 6.5 pounds and 6.7 pounds.

Through a series of agreements, Smith & Wesson had arranged for the construction and operation of a dedicated shotgun facility in Turkey. Since the shotguns would be wholly a Smith & Wesson product and not white labeling of an existing design, the Elite Gold and Silver shotguns were touted as being “distinct and unique” in the marketplace.

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Because of the shotguns’ foreign manufacturing, they had an introductory MSRP of $2,350 regardless of configuration. Were they to have been made in the United States, the price would have been exponentially higher. The Elite Gold shotguns were intended to compete with other high end hunting shotguns that harkened back to the golden age of American shotgunning. Whether in pursuit of quail, dove, or other upland game, the idea was for the Smith & Wesson offering to blend right in with the likes of Ithaca, LC Smith, and even Parker.

Smith & Wesson was so proud of these new guns and the quality that they represented that the company offered a brand-new Heirloom Warranty, which they defined as “a written proclamation of our extreme confidence in lasting performance.” This warranty promised a lifetime of performance for both the original owner and an heir of the owner’s choosing. That’s right, they were so confident in these guns that they never anticipated owners selling them, but instead handing them down through generations like fine English double guns have been for centuries.

Many people were surprised to see Smith & Wesson enter the shotgun market in the early 2000s. When the Elite Gold shotgun was introduced, Michael Golden, the president and CEO of Smith & Wesson at that time, announced that a 2004 consumer purchase intent study “strongly suggested” that the company best known for revolvers and pistols should enter the shotgun market.

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Unfortunately, this would prove to be dead wrong. Just a year into production, Smith & Wesson dropped one of the Elite Silver configurations from the lineup and by 2010, all Elite Series shotguns – Gold and Silver alike – were out of production. The final number of Elite Gold shotguns to have been produced sits around 3,000.

Since they’ve only been out of production for 15 years, it’s probably still too early to tell if many of the owners’ designated heirs have been able to make use of the company’s Heirloom Warranty. One thing is for sure: the Elite Gold’s rise on the charts during February 2025 shows that many more have been floating around on the used market than sitting in safes waiting to be inherited as an heirloom that the company so desperately desired to achieve.

Top Selling Guns Sold in February 2025

Source: gungenius.com/top-selling/

To learn more or shop for any of the guns listed, visit Gun Genius at www.gungenius.com/top-selling.

Editor’s note: In the report, guns are rated from one to five within each category, with the number one gun being the most popular that month. The numbers are color-coded to show any changes in the ranks from the previous report.

Black = Steady
Green = Up
Red = Down

Source: gungenius.com/top-selling/

To learn more or shop for any of the guns listed, visit Gun Genius at www.gungenius.com/top-selling.