Before it ceased operations on a fateful February day in 2017, Olympic Arms, Inc.—headquartered in Olympia, WA—was known as a prime manufacturer of AR-15 variants for the civilian and law enforcement markets. Established in 1982 as the brand under which Robert C. Schuetz of SGW (Schuetzen Gun Works) manufactured and sold AR-15 derivatives, Olympic Arms established itself as an innovator. It was the first to offer free-floating aluminum handguards or pistol caliber conversions for America’s rifle; they were also the first company to experiment successfully with a redesigned upper receiver that would integrate a recoil buffer over the bolt carrier group and barrel, allowing an AR-15 to be equipped with a side-folding stock — or none at all.

Olympic Arms was also one of the first-ever manufacturers of AR-15 pistols: indeed, the aforementioned top recoil buffer allowed its OA-93, OA-96, and OA-98 pistols to do without a buffer tube behind the lower receiver. While that system did provide the basis for a good, super-compact, short-barrel rifle (the OA-93 TCP, with a side-folding stock and a 6.5-inch barrel), Olympic Arms would indeed go on to develop an SBR based on a standard AR-15 layout.

ENTER THE “STUBBY”

The reason why Olympic Arms decided to follow that road when they had a bufferless design (arguably better, albeit with room for improvement) already in production; given the short barrel length, which would make it subject to the provisions of the National Firearms Act, the 1994 assault weapons ban that was in effect back in the day was likely not a factor in the decision.

It’s more likely that the company decided to market a product that would be more appealing to military, law enforcement, and government customers by providing prompt drop-in compatibility with pre-existing, select-fire M16 or semi-automatic AR-15 lower receivers for entry/CQB operations or for close protection details. And indeed, Olympic Arms was offering 6.5-inch BBL drop-in uppers to MIL/LE customers as early as 1998.

The first factory complete SBRs based on those uppers would be launched circa 1999, dubbed the K23B “Stubby”. Built around an Olympic Arms MFR lower receiver with standard controls and chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO, the Stubby was by no means the first “micro M16” to hit the global markets – products such as the La France Specialties M16K and the M2 Corp. M16C, M16X, and M16SP had been around for a while, and that’s not mentioning Colt’s early Model 607 carbines dating as far back as 1965 – but it was definitely one of the shortest-barreled to be produced in quantities that could be considered “significant” by any standard, and was very shortly followed by other very similar competitors such as the DPMS “Kitty Kat.” For all intents and purposes, the K23B Stubby did pave the way.

SHORT AND BRUTAL

The Stubby featured an A2 upper receiver with a 6.5-inch cold-hammer forged barrel, a Smith Enterprises Vortex flash hider, an A2-style front sight equipped with a front sling swivel but no bayonet lug, and a free-float cylindrical aluminum handguard that was a short version of the version used by Olympic Arms on their line of match-grade AR-15 variants. As such, the K23B does not feature a delta ring, nor a handguard cap.

It’s worth noting that Olympic Arms was the first company to introduce a free-float handguard for the AR-15. A new flat-top version would be launched around 2004. It would come with an M4A1-type removable carry handle mounted on a top Picatinny rail and a quad-rail machined aluminum handguard, making it more compatible with the many accessories that were becoming increasingly popular back in the day… and that today we just can’t seem to do without. This last version was in production — or at least available — all the way until Olympic Arms ceased operations.

The carry handle on the Stubby was fixed and featured a familiar, A2 fully adjustable rear sight. The bolt and bolt carrier group were, likewise, standard for an A2 variant, and as such the Stubby came with a standard recoil buffer, buffer tube, and six-position collapsing stock. Manufactured out of black polymer, the stock of the Stubby was more akin in design to that of the M16A1 carbine, M733, or early the Colt Commando (XM177), but all the standard A2 features were otherwise there (including a brass deflector in front of the forward assist and some major fencing around the magazine catch.)

Of course, such a small carbine (barely 20 inches long with the stock collapsed) would suffer severe overgassing problems and timing issues without a properly tuned gas system. Olympic Arms went solved this problem with a pigtail gas tube: essentially a carbine-length gas tube shortened to PDW length by wrapping it in at least two loops around the barrel. The length that the gas has to travel to reach the gas key and push the bolt back is the same as on an 11.5-inch or 14.5-inch carbine, ideally reducing pressures to levels that guarantee sufficient reliability.

From direct experience, and experience of other users, that’s actually easier said than done. Firing a 5.56mm firearm with a 6.5-inch barrel is truly brutal in terms of concussion and muzzle blast, even outdoors, becoming particularly uncomfortable for the shooter after just a few rounds in rapid fire. Shooting it in low-light conditions or indoors will quickly become taxing to the shooter’s eyes and ears. Owners of the rare K23Bs in Italy, where this article was written, were quick to nickname it the “portable flashbang dispenser.”

Additionally, such a short barrel does not do a proper job at stabilizing ball ammo for engaging targets farther than thirty feet or so away – but that’s par for the course, the K23B was always meant for extreme CQB. Simply put, the Stubby barrel is just too short, not allowing enough time for the propellant to burn properly and for gases to reach optimal pressure levels. Trying to hit anything at 50 meters, or approximately 55 yards, is essentially a coin toss.

Finally, the pigtail gas tube is an excellent solution that reduces recoil in semi-automatic rifles and the cyclic rate of fully-automatic rifles when the barrel is at least 11.5 inches long… but on a 6.5-inch barrel, the levels of torque can easily become too high for the gas tube to bear. As such, the most commonly reported issue with the K23B is the rupture of the retaining pin, causing the gas tube to come out of the gas block and make the gun completely useless until it could be repaired.

A system such as the TwinTube, patented by Tim LaFrance for his M16K, would have been a better solution. But then again, back when the K23B came out, Olympic Arms was focusing on bufferless AR designs, and their first SBR had been such a design, with the K23B being more of an afterthought for compatibility with pre-existing M16 lowers. Something’s always gotta give.

AN OBJECT OF DESIRE

It’s quite clear that the Stubby was never a key product for Olympic Arms, but more like a footnote in their MIL/LE catalog; a version for the U.S. civilian market, dubbed the K23P and featuring a pistol-length recoil buffer and buffer tube, came to be without much success at a time when arm braces were still a long time from appearing. However, there is at least one place where the K23B has risen to an almost cult status among shooters and firearms enthusiasts: Italy. And that’s where we found the sample pictured in this article, at the Armeria Red Point gun store in Ostia, just outside of Rome.

The Stubby was approved for import and distribution on the Italian civilian market in March 2001, and it is considered a handgun by Italian law, which does not distinguish pistols from rifles by the presence of components like a buttstock or the intended shooting stance, but rather by the overall length vs. barrel length ratio (“intended to be fired from the shoulder” isn’t a thing, here.)

The Italian gun laws have been significantly improved from the year 2011 onwards, with some hiccups following the 2015 wave of terror attacks in Europe. However, back in 2001, the law (passed in 1975) assigned oversight on the Italian civilian firearm market to a central commission composed of “experts” (mostly from the military and law enforcement) with regulatory powers similar to that of the ATF in the United States and full freedom of interpretation as of what constituted a “common” firearm and what was a banned “weapon of war”, albeit somewhat tied to the National Proofing House.

The history of such a commission would warrant an article on its own. But, right now it’s sufficient to say that if it was for the mindset of the members of such commission (dissolved in 2011), the Olympic Arms Stubby would have never made it to the Italian market. As the (quite reliable) rumors have it, however, politicians entered the chat, or to be more specific, one politician, very prominent in Italy and extremely controversial, who held the office of Prime Minister four times from 1994 to 2011.

This specific politician, who passed away in 2023, relied on his personal private security detail even when he was Prime Minister and would have had the right to a state security detail; as such, he wanted his private security to have the closest thing available to the Colt Commando, Heckler & Koch MP5 (later MP7), and a G36C that were standard for that kind of close protection duties in Europe.

The Italian importer for Olympic Arms – the now long defunct ATP (Action Tactical Products), headquartered in the northern town of Lesa – imported an unknown “minimum quantity order” of K23Bs, anywhere between ten and twenty samples, almost all of those immediately purchased privately by the personal bodyguards of the aforementioned politician, the others all sold on the civilian market and becoming the first “super-short” AR-15 on sale in the country. Many others would follow.

Back in the day, the Stubby was marketed in Italy chiefly towards private security guards – particularly those employed in cash-in-transit duties – but the extremly high price made it largely unattainable on a security guard paycheck, and all samples ended up in the ownership of private collectors with extremely deep pockets. Even nowadays, on the Italian second-hand gun market, the Stubby does not command any less than 3,800 euros, or just over $4,000 U.S. dollars.

Guaranteed, they’ll all be in essentially mint, as-new condition, but with the high number of better alternatives currently available to Italian shooters, including locally made models, you would need to see the K23B Stubby as a grail gun to spend so much money on one.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Most gun enthusiasts will know that the Swiss-made B&T MP9 rotary barrel sub-machine gun was developed by Steyr-Mannlicher and manufactured in Austria from 1992 to 2001 as the Steyr TMP; but that’s just scratching the surface. Things between Steyr and the rotary barrel go way back – to the early 20^th Century, to be more precise.

A LOT OF FIRSTS

At the turn of the 20^th Century, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a centuries-old, declining global power, but a major power nonetheless; a status that it would formally retain until its defeat in World War I and its subsequent dissolution.

As such, it retained a massive military that strived to remain equipped with the latest, cutting-edge technology. In 1898, the Austro-Hungarian army had adopted a new sidearm in the form of the Mod.1898 Rast & Gasser revolver. It was chambered for a proprietary 8mm Gasser rimmed cartridge. Despite fairly modern (for the time) features such as an eight-round cylinder and a double-action trigger, the Rast & Gasser retained other characteristics, including an Abadie gate-loading system and an ejector rod, that made it obsolete right from the very get go.

And this, at a time when designers worldwide were already experimenting with increasingly reliable semi-automatic pistols that were seeing limited military adoption by the militaries of smaller countries and, in certain cases, by specialized troops and the navies of major powers, the Mauser C.96 was ordered by the Turkish Army, the Italian Navy, and saw success in China, while the Luger pistol first entered service in Switzerland, then with the Imperial Navy in Germany, a foreshadowing of the full-scale adoption that was to come.

Little did those countries know, the Habsburg empire would outrun them all, and with a domestic design nonetheless, the brainchild of Karel Krnka.

Born in Bohemia (which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and would now be in the Czech Republic), Karel Krnka followed in the footsteps of his father Sylvester, who had designed the breech-loading conversion for the 1857 Six-Line musket used by the Russian Empire. Early in his career, he designed a few ill-fated breech-loading, straight-pull, and bolt-action rifles. In the late 19^th Century, after a stint in England, he started working on handguns under the patronage of Georg Roth, owner of one of the biggest ammunition manufacturing companies in the empire.

Some years earlier, another handgun designer by the name of Wasa Theodorovic had worked under the patronage of Roth, coming up with a series of pistol prototypes, aptly dubbed the Roth-Theodorovic, that the company had not been able to successfully pitch. Karel Krnka extensively reworked the original Theodorovic design into various prototypes, adding or removing features as the development phase went by. Among other things, Krnka did without an external hammer and any manual safety of sorts, briefly experimenting with a grip safety before settling on a peculiar striker-fired trigger system that looks very familiar today.

The final iteration of the pistol, now known as the Roth-Krnka, was submitted to the Austro-Hungarian military in 1906 and officially adopted in 1907, hence the official denomination “Repetierpistole M.7” for “Model 1907 repeating pistol”. The Austro-Hungarian government acquired all rights and appointed the two major firearm manufacturers of the Empire to produce it broad numbers for the entire military, with cavalry units being designed as early adopters due to the specific features that made the Repetierpistole M.7 ideal for cavalry units.

The biggest manufacturer was, of course, OWG (a.k.a. Steyr), which further refined the project from an industrial point of view, adapting it to broad-scale manufacturing. It produced approximately 60,000 samples, which is why the pistol is today known as “Roth-Steyr”. However, the FEMARU Fegyvergyár Részvénytársaság of Budapest (later known as FÉG) was also in the game, manufacturing about 30,000 samples from 1907 until the end of World War I.

Just like that, Austria-Hungary had beaten all major powers in adopting a semi-automatic pistol as the standard service sidearm for its armed forces.

FAMILIAR FEATURES

The Repetierpistole M.7 is a hefty piece of machined steel, with a very long, sliding bolt assembly entirely enclosed in the frame. Locking is achieved by two cams machined on the barrel itself, which engage two slots within the front of the bolt assembly that wraps around the barrel.

As the pistol is fired, the barrel moves with the bolt for approximately 13 mm (½-inch) until a set of two front cams integral to its cylindrical body engage with a corresponding set of helical guides machined into the barrel bushing, blocking its rearward movement. This disengages the barrel from the bolt body and forces it to rotate 90-degrees clockwise while the bolt assembly completes its rearward movement, ejecting a spent case and picking a new round from the magazine and feeding it to the chamber as it is pushed back to the locked position by the return spring.

The Repetierpistole M.7 is a striker-fired pistol, with a trigger that can be described as half-way between a single and double action. When the plunger (which hosts the striker) at the rear of the pistol’s body is pulled back and released, the rear portion of the striker’s body protrudes from the end cap to signal the cocking status; but the striker is actually only half-cocked. As pressure is applied to the trigger, the sear pushes the striker all the way back to a fully armed position until it disengages it, allowing the striker to spring down and hit the chambered round.

Should the round fail to fire, the striker must be manually cocked by pulling again on the plunger; a built-in safety intercept system prevents the striker from reaching the primer and igniting the round if the gun is fired when out of battery. When all ammunition is spent, the bolt assembly locks back to the open position; once the Repetierpistole M.7 is reloaded, it’s brought back to the locked position by pushing on a slide stop tab located above the grip.

What we are looking at, here, is essentially not only the first semi-automatic pistol to be adopted by a major military, and not only the world’s first rotary barrel pistol, but also the first “Safe Action” pistol. Glock’s signature trigger goes back a long way, but its roots are traced back to Austria. The trigger system was one of the reasons why the Roth-Steyr design was considered to be particularly adequate to the needs of cavalry units; the gun simply can’t fire by accident and features a hold-open device for one-handed operation.

The grip of the Repetierpistole M.7 is one with the frame, features wood panels, and double as the pistol’s magazine, which is loaded from the top via the ejection port using stripper clips. The M.7 held ten rounds of a proprietary .32 caliber (dubbed 8mm Steyr or, more accurately, 8×19mm Roth-Steyr). Slightly more powerful than 32 ACP, it was originally made available to the Austro-Hungarian military by its own ordnance factories in a 113-grain load with greased, unplated steel-jacketed bullets, although some private suppliers, including Georg Roth’s own factory, did manufacture cupro-nickel jacketed loads.

Regardless, all ammunition for the M.7 came pre-loaded in a stripper clip with a plunger to assist loading and prevent mishaps that could cause rounds to be ejected uncontrollably under the pressure of the follower springs. The stripper clips were packaged individually, and the M.7 featured a tab located above the grip that could be pushed when the bolt was locked in the open position to unload the magazine by, you guessed it, just ejecting the rounds from the top window.

FORGED IN FIRE

The service history of the Repetierpistole M.7 is inextricably tied to the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as the pistol had its baptism of fire on the cruel battlefields of World War I. Outside of a small batch of German-produced Sauer variants of the design sold on the civilian market starting in 1900, in fact, the Roth-Steyr Model 1907 failed all military bids outside of Austria-Hungary, including two separate pitches to the militaries of the U.K. and the U.S., where it was unsuccessfully offered in a .45 caliber variant.

As the fortunes of war turned against the Central Empires, the number of M.7s in service quickly turned out to be insufficient. Starting in 1912, the Austro-Hungarian military had been complementing it with the Repetierpistole M.12, a.k.a. the Model 1912 Steyr Hahn, a hammer-fired, stripper-clip fed pistol that was easier to manufacture and more powerful than the Roth-Steyr, being chambered in 9×23mm Steyr and 9mm Luger.

Nevertheless, the Habsburg Empire’s need for handguns during the war ended up vastly outpacing the local industry capabilities; like their counterparts in the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian troops had to resort to the “Behelfpistole” (“Necessity pistols”), often privately equipping themselves with commercial handguns chambered in a myriad of different calibers. As the defeated Empire collapsed and disintegrated after World War I, a myriad of new independent states were born where it once stood. These states, including the Austrian republic, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, ended up inheriting vast quantities of Repetierpistole M.7s and all fielded them before and (in small numbers) during World War II.

Austria’s arch-enemy Italy ended up capturing swathes of Roth-Steyr pistols during World War I and received many more as reparations; those guns were retained in service as rear-echelon sidearms for decades, so much so that Italy’s biggest ammunition manufacturer, Fiocchi, produced vast quantities of jacketed 8mm Roth-Steyr ammunition. The 1920s and 1930s saw those guns issued to Askari units with the Italian colonial troops in Africa, and in the final chaotic months of World War II, the Italian fascist troops that remained loyal to Mussolini and to the Germans fielded them in the last desperate attempts to stop the Allied offensive across the country.

That was the swan song of the Roth-Steyr Repetierpistole Model of 1907. Today, a small (but not small enough to make them rare) number of these survive on the civilian collector market in Europe and the United States. Their conditions may vary, but those that are still in good condition can return decent results at the range. Among other companies, Fiocchi still manufactures an 8mm Roth-Steyr load with Boxer primers and 113-grain FMJ bullets, developing approximately 329 fps of muzzle velocity and 290-foot pounds of muzzle energy, considered safe for these old timers.

However, if well kept, the Roth-Steyr Repetierpistole M.7 can reasonably be tested with original ammunition. I remember such a case from early on in my career when I worked for the historical (and now defunct) Italian gun magazine “Diana Armi” in the early 2000s. My colleagues and firearm collectors Roberto Allara and Oscar Groppo fortuitously came into possession of ten 8mm Roth-Steyr rounds (marked “GR” (for Georg Roth!) and manufactured in 1910) that were recovered by a friend in the woods of northern Italy, the location of many bloody gunfights between fascist troops and partisans in the final months of World War II.

Once each round was inspected for lack of corrosion and painstakingly restored, and, fighting back the protests of antique ammunition collectors who wanted to prevent such a waste, the two colleagues brought a third party on board who happened to own a Roth-Steyr M-1907 pistol. Two attempts to use the original stripper clip failed, but third time is always a charm… and there they went, on a 15-meter range, putting nine rounds out of ten on target, progressively getting closer to the bullseye. That’s what you get from a 100-year-old pistol and 100-year-old ammunition… if you’re brave enough.

The things we do for science…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Designed in 1886 and adopted the following year by the French military, the Lebel Modèle 1886 has the distinction of being both France’s first repeating service rifle, and the world’s first service rifle chambered for a smokeless round.

The defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 and the subsequent fall of the Second French Empire forced the newly formed Third French Republic to re-evaluate its military needs in light of the increasing mistrust towards the neighboring and aggressive German Empire. Over a decade after the end of what was arguably the most important conflict fought in Europe between the end of the Napoleonic wars and the onset of World War I, French infantrymen were becoming seriously outgunned if compared to the German troops, which were being issued with the new Mauser Model 71-84 repeater rifle – an upgrade over the Model 1871, using an eight-shot magazine tube.

On the other hand, the French Army was still issuing the Gras Model 1874 single-shot bolt-action rifle, essentially a brass cartridge conversion of the old Chassepot design, designed by Austrian engineer Alfred Von Kropatschek and chambered for the 11×59mm rimmed black powder caliber. The French Navy had it substantially better, with the Kropatschek Model 1878 rifle, which was basically a repeater version of the 1874 feeding through a magazine tube that held eight rounds. Both would, however, go down in history as interim adoptions with the next quantum leap in individual firearm technology being just around the corner.

HARNESSING NEW TECHNOLOGY

Between 1882 and 1884, French chemist Paul Vieille perfected the first viable smokeless powder. His creation, named “Poudre B” (“B-powder”, where the B stood for “Blanche”, or “white”, thus meaning “white powder” in contrast to black powder), a nitrocellulose-based compound, was three times as powerful as black powder and generated a substantially lower amount of smoke and residue, keeping rifles cleaner and the rifleman’s field of view relatively unobstructed on the battlefield.

The formulation of smokeless powder, including the French Poudre B, would improve substantially in the coming years, but the French government was hell-bent on becoming an early adopter of such revolutionary military technology. The sitting French minister of war, revanchist general George Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger, ordered the institution of a commission to design a new repeating service rifle using smokeless powder ammunition. Headed by general Baptiste Tramond, the commission was given orders to have a rifle ready within one year.

Part of the commission was Lt. Col. Nicolas Lebel, who came up with the idea of the first bullet used by the 8×50mm rimmed round for the new rifle. Dubbed the “Balle M”, this was a nickel-brass jacketed, round-nose, lead 232-grain bullet that would be safe for use in the intended feeding system – a tube magazine holding eight rounds, plus an additional ninth round in the elevator, as holding an additional round in chamber would be considered unsafe.

Despite Lebel’s contribution being limited mostly to that aspect – and despite the Balle M being replaced in a few years by a more effective boat-tailed Spitzer bullet – he received the honor of becoming the namesake of the new rifle. In his defense, for most of his life and up until the end, Lebel would insist that the creation was a collective effort, and that other members of the commission would have deserved that honor more than he did; those included famed colonel Yves Gras – a familiar name in French gunmaking at the time – and captain Georges Desaleux, who worked on the concept of the new 8×50mm Lebel cartridge; colonel Jean-François Marie Bonnet, who designed the bolt and its two sturdy parallel locking lugs necessary to withstand the pressure levels generated by the new smokeless propellant; and engineers Albert Close and Louis Verdin, weapon inspectors at the Châtellerault arsenal (better known as MAC), who worked with Gras for the best part of the engineering process, concerning both the rifle itself and the manufacturing technologies and machineries.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY AND NEW FEATURES

The commission had been directed to design the new rifle so that it could be compatible with existing stock of spare parts for the Gras and Kropatschek rifles, particularly the Navy-issue Kropatschek Model 1878 repeater. Additionally, the 8×50R Lebel cartridge was designed to be manufactured on the existing tooling used to make 11mm Gras ammunition. Hence, features such as the magazine tube (slow to load but offering a relatively high capacity for the time and featuring a manual cut-off feature, a very popular feat among military rifles back in the day), the straight trigger, horizontal-handle bolt action with cock-on-open, 90-degree bolt throw, and rimmed cartridge case.

That’s not to say that the new Lebel rifle – designated as the Modèle 1886 – didn’t have any merit on its own, though. It was built on an incredibly robust machined steel receiver, to withstand what were arguably the highest pressures sustained by a service rifle back in the day. The wooden stock was composed of two separate pieces – buttstock and handguard – and despite inheriting a huge deal of drawbacks from the designs that preceded it, the Lebel 1886 rifle packed a hell of a lot of firepower for its time, being far superior to its most direct competitor, the German Mauser 1871/84. The 8mm Lebel round, loaded with smokeless powder, developed a muzzle velocity of 700m/s (2296.59 fps) and offered a maximum effective range of 3500 yards, making it superior in terms of performance to the .303 Mk1 cartridge being adopted around the same time for the MLM Magazine Lee-Metford rifles of the British Empire.

PRODUCTION, INITIAL RECEPTION, AND UPDATES

The three French state-owned arsenals of Saint-Étienne, Châtellerault, and Tulle were all instructed to start mass manufacturing the new Lebel Model 1886 service rifle at once. General Boulanger’s plans were to procure one million samples by May 1887, but that goal soon turned out to be unrealistic and in the same year Boulanger was sacked from his position as the minister of war for his revanchist approach that risked sparking a new war with Germany. Nevertheless, the combined effort of the three arsenals allowed the French military to acquire over two million Lebel Mle.1886 rifles in six years, along with a quadrangular épée-style bayonet aptly dubbed the Model 1886.

As usual with newly adopted service rifles, the troops immediately started reporting the first teething issues: the rear sight assembly – whose ramp was adjustable to engage targets at 2,400 meters, or a little bit over 2,624 yards, a very optimistic estimate for the average infantryman despite the technical capabilities of the ammunition – required strengthening, and the bolt needed to be modified with a gas shield to protect the shooter’s face from the hazard of potential cartridge case ruptures. Said modifications were applied in 1893; the modified rifle came to be known as the Lebel Modèle 1886 Modifié 1893, or Mle.1886 M93 for short. Basically, all pre-existing Mle.1886 rifles were retrofitted to the M93 standard in relatively short time, which is why original, non-modified Lebel 1886 rifles are exceedingly rare today.

FURTHER AMMUNITION DEVELOPMENT

Field experience with the Mle.1886 M93 issued across the board in the vast French colonial empire and elsewhere, such as in the French concessions in China, where it was used by the French troops that contributed to quell the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901, also led to modifications to the ammunition. As stated above, the original round-nose bullet was replaced with a Spitzer (a.k.a. pointed tip), boat-tail bullet for improved performance. The new round, dubbed “Balle D”, has the distinction of being the first boat-tail bullet ammunition ever adopted for military service. The new Balle D also featured a slight annular rebate around the primer pocket to prevent accidental ignition in the magazine tube, a wise and cautious move on the behalf of the French engineers. The modification was conceived by Georges Desaleux, a member of the original engineering team for the rifle, although, to be fair, no such catastrophic incident was ever recorded with any Lebel 1886 rifle and any type of ammunition. The 8×50R ammunition would be subject to a further safety modification much further on, in 1912, with the adoption of the “Balle D A.M.” load, with “A.M.” standing for “Amorcage Modifié” (“modified primer”), whose primers were crimped to prevent bulging and expulsion from their pocket when the ammunition was used in a machine gun such as the Saint-Étienne Mle.1907 or, later, the Hotchkiss Mle.1914.

After WWI, a new round would be launched for the Lebel rifles still in service. Dubbed the “Balle N”, which was loaded with a steel-jacketed, Spitzer, boat-tail, lead bullet that had initially been designed for the Hotchkiss machine gun and required rifles to be rebored before they could safely fire it. The fact that rifles introduced back in 1886 were still around at the eve of World War II shouldn’t come as a surprise for the reader: the Lebel was, after all, a mighty solid rifle, although pushed into early obsolescence by the widespread adoption of smokeless powder cartridges by other countries.

PHASING OUT THE LEBEL

With most nations adopting rimless cartridge designs, quick reloading via detachable magazines and stripper clips became feasible and improved the volume of fire that an individual infantryman could provide at any given time. In 1906, the French military started to research a new service rifle that would replace the Lebel and give them the edge against their arch enemy, Germany, once again. Berthier bolt-action rifles were issued as a stop-gap measure to colonial troops, chambered in 8×50R Lebel and, later, in 7.5mm. But at the turn of the 20^th Century, thus much before other countries, the French had their eyes already set on adopting a semi-automatic rifle. Tentatively, this had to be the Meunier A6, chambered in a powerful 7×59mm round, but the lengthy development process led to just about 1000 Meunier A6 rifles being manufactured before WWI broke out.

French troops thus found themselves fighting off advancing German armies for four years using a mishmash of Berthier 1892 rifles, a large quantity of Lebel Mle.1886 M93, and several tens of thousands of RSC M1917 and M1918 semi-automatic, gas-operated rifles chambered in 8×50R Lebel and designed to be assembled using numerous Lebel rifle components. The Lebel rifle could be equipped with a muzzle-mounted launcher for the VB Viven-Bessières rifle grenades, and it often was during the conflict. Accuracy of the rifle was deemed good enough that French snipers during WW1 were equipped with Lebel rifles supplied with two types of scopes – the APX Model 1916 and APX Model 1917, manufactured by the State-owned Atelier de Construction de Puteaux.

The retirement of the Lebel rifle was long postponed at the end of the “war to end all wars”, due to a lack of political interest in rearmament and the poor state of the French economy. Before, during, and after WWI quantities of the Lebel rifle were sold to Greece and Ethiopia, among others, as well as to the Republican side during the Spanish civil war. The MAS 1936 bolt-action rifle arrived too late, and the RSC 1917 and 1918 rifles were too scarce to fully replace it, and soldiers overall liked the high capacity of the old Lebel. A more advanced scope, the APX Model 1921, was developed for sniper-issued Lebel rifles and used up until the end of WWII, which saw French troops still fielding the old 1886 warhorse in very significant quantities.

Meanwhile, newly manufactured, refurbished Lebel rifles, and carbines had found their way through mail order to French civilians, with Manufrance being the biggest distributor. The history of Manufrance commercial developments over the Lebel rifle warrants an article on its own, but in the inter-war period, a significant quantity of Lebel Mle.1886 M93 rifles were repurposed, refurbished, and converted into short carbines or mounted colonial troops in French Africa by Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de Tulle (“Tulle National Weapons Factory”) the French state-owned weapons manufacturer in the town of Tulle, Corrèze. These carbines, dubbed the Lebel Mle.1886 M93 R35, along with pre-existing Mle.1886 M93 rifles, saw use during WWII. They were captured by Axis powers and deployed by their rear line units during the last chaotic months of the war, ultimately ending its tour of duty in the French military when they were issued to local colonial auxiliary troops in Algeria and Indochina before being finally being completely replaced across the board by the MAS 49 and MAS 49/56 semi-automatic rifles. To this day, functional Lebel rifles can still be found in the hands of irregular militias in Africa and the Far East.

LEGACY OF THE LEBEL RIFLE

Nowadays, the Lebel Mle.1886 M93 rifle and M93 R35 carbine are appreciated collectibles among shooters in North America and Europe. Paradoxically, up until fairly recently, their motherland of France was the country where they were least easily available.

Until France implemented the 2008/51/EC European Firearms Directive in its national laws (which back then considered every firearm ever fielded by the French military or any other armed force in the world in the past century or so to be still a “military firearm”), the Lebel Mle.1886 rifle was considered a 1ére Categorie or “Category 1” firearm – essentially a “weapon of war”, like a machine-gun. Lebel rifles were thus often converted to calibers such as 348 Winchester for civilian sales in France. With such restrictions gone, now the original 8mm Lebel rifle in all its variants is considered a Catégorie C firearm in France, requiring registration of ownership, but no license for purchase or possession by anybody over the age of 16.

Interestingly enough, the Lebel name still lives on in modern French gun making, having been adopted by Verney-Carron, a well-known manufacturer of hunting and sporting firearms based in Saint-Étienne, as the new brand name for its line of riot control weapons and MIL/LE armaments. On November 8, 2023, Verney-Carron was contracted to deliver 10,000 assault rifles based on the M4 platform, 2000 designated marksman rifles based on the AR-10 design, and 400 40x46mm SR grenade launchers, all under the Lebel brand, to the armed forces of Ukraine. The contract is worth €36m, or just over US$39m at the current exchange rate. Deliveries will start in 2024.

By Pierangelo Tendas

Unlike former fellow Axis powers Germany and Japan, Italy was never forced to disarm and disband its forces in the aftermath of World War II. The events of the late stages of the war and the location at the center of the Mediterranean Sea made the country, now a republic, a key ally in a new world whose climate was rapidly turning chilly as the Cold War mounted.

The post-WWII Italian military was largely equipped with U.S. handovers, specifically M1 Garand .30-06 caliber rifles, for which Winchester also donated manufacturing machinery to Beretta and Breda. When NATO adopted the new 7.62×51mm as its standard unified service rifle caliber in 1954, the Italian Army arsenal in Terni took up the job of converting existing Garand rifles to the new cartridge, while Beretta and Breda started the manufacture of 7.62mm caliber M1s for foreign sales, most notably for Denmark.

The lessons learned of WWII, however, ushered in a new era where bolt-action, semi-automatic rifles, and light automatic rifles would be replaced – at least tentatively – by select-fire individual weapons that would cover most if not all roles in modern infantry. If the Belgian FN FAL and the Spanish CETME – improved to become the Heckler & Koch G3 – would become by far the most successful in the category of individual weapons we today know as “battle rifles”, the U.S. would spend years and millions of dollars in an attempt to develop a totally new, totally domestic new service rifle that would still retain as many features of the beloved M1 Garand as possible; the result, the M14, is still controversial among historians and gun enthusiasts alike, and its tenure before replacement was very short if compared to its international counterparts.

Cash-strapped post-war Italy had to standardize doing what it could with what it had. A team of Beretta engineers headed by Domenico Salza and Vittorio Valle – both of whom had learned their trade from Tullio Marengoni, Beretta’s head engineer before and during WWII and the inventor of the MAB series of sub-machine guns – was tasked to create a new service rifle for the Italian military that could be produced with existing technologies.

The solution was simple: at first, existing M1 Garand rifles were modified to feed through detachable 20-round, double-stack, single-feed box magazines; the solution, known as the “Garand Type E”, would later be further modified into a select-fire rifle with a shorter handguard and a peculiar muzzle device. The Beretta Modello 1959, or BM59 for short, was born. It’s deployment in the Italian military started in 1962.

IF IT WORKS, DON’T CHANGE IT

The BM59 was designed to be built around an essentially unmodified Garand action and a slightly modified Garand gas system and sear. Taking cues from another firearm that the Italian government had received in droves by the U.S. after WWII – the M1 carbine, and more specifically its select-fire counterpart, the M2 – the Beretta engineering team installed a fire selector on the left side of the receiver which, when switched from “S” (“Semiautomatico”) to “A” (“Automatico”), would activate a U.S. M2 Carbine style disconnector lever assembly, allowing the BM59 to fire in full-automatic, at a cyclic rate of approximately 750 rounds per minute.

As anybody who has ever shoulder-fired 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle in full-automatic, recoil was harsh… to say the least. In order to mitigate such a punishing factor, Beretta would issue every BM59 with a folding metal bipod, which allowed more accurate semi-automatic fire and provided a stable platform for full-automatic, sustained covering fire; note that back in the day, the standard support weapon for the Italian Armed Forces was the locally-built 7.62×51mm Beretta Mg.42/59 universal machine-gun, which required at least two men to carry and operate at squad level.

Additionally, all BM59 rifles would be equipped from the factory with a muzzle device called “Tri-Compensatore” (“tri-compensator”), which dubbed as a flash hider, muzzle brake, and rifle grenade launcher. Much like many other NATO armies at that time, the Italian military made extensive use of rifle grenades, particularly the 75mm Energa manufactured in Belgium by MECAR and known in the U.S. service as the M28 rifle grenade; the BM59 would, thus, also come equipped with a flip-up grenade leaf sight (“Alidada” in Italian) which, when raised, would also act as a cut-off valve, preventing any gas from reaching the piston.

The grenade sight was pre-set for target at 50, 75, and 100 meters, and marked specifically “Energa” at the bottom. The grenade sight and bipod were all in one assembly with the gas valve and front sight tower; when the Energa grenade was phased out in favor of the improved-capability Super Energa, the leaf sights were replaced with new ones, which were pre-sighted to 75-, 100-, and 120-meter increments.

Being based on the Garand action, the BM59 featured a charging handle on the right side of the receiver, a hold-open button to the left, and the same type of front and adjustable rear sight used on the U.S. M1 rifle. The front-in, rock-back magazine was held in place by a paddle catch to the rear of the magwell; the safety was located in front of the trigger guard, and consisted of a flat plate that could be pushed in and out with the shooter’s index finger. The safety plate was perforated, so that BM59 rifles could be secured with a chain or a metal rod when held on a rack – once again just like the Garand.

Additionally, the BM59 also featured a winter trigger in form of an up-folding lever that would normally lay flat against the bottom of the action, to the right of the trigger guard. When necessary, it could be folded down to allow the BM59 to be fired with mittens or heavy gloves.

THREE SUITS FOR THE SAME RIFLE

The Beretta BM59 rifle would be manufactured in three main variants, the most commonly available being the BM59 ITAL, known by the Italian military simply as the FAL, standing for “Fucile automatico leggero” (“Light automatic rifle”). The BM59 ITAL was the baseline model with a standard fixed stock, which hosted a cleaning and maintenance tool behind a trapdoor in the buttplate. An export version, known as the BM59 Mk.1, came without the distinctive “tri-compensator” device on the muzzle.

The second variant – less common in Italian arsenals, but by far the most popular among troops due to its lower weight and easier maneuverability – was the ITAL-TA, with TA standing for “Truppe Alpine” (“Alpine troops”), initially conceived for the Italian Army’s mountain regiments. The ITAL-TA variant came from factory with a vertical brown plastic pistol grip and a side-folding two-strut metal stock; a variant of the ITAL-TA, known in Italy as the ITAL-Para (from “Paracadutisti”) and marketed internationally as the Mk.3, came with a removable tri-compensator device, turning it into an even more compact package to be secured to a paratrooper’s harness before launch.

Finally, two squad automatic weapon variants were proposed, dubbed the Mk.2 and Mk.4 respectively, with the Mk.2 featuring a full wooden stock and the Mk.4 coming with a brown polymer pistol grip. Both were essentially a baseline BM59 ITAL rifle with a fixed stock and vertical pistol grip, not unlike what the U.S. had experimented with in the M14E2/M14A1 – and not unlike it, the Mk.2 and Mk.4 were lackluster in their intended function due to the limitations of the 20-round magazine. The Italian military never adopted the BM59 Mk.2 and Mk.4; export sales were however made to Indonesia and Nigeria, which later proceeded to manufacture them under license respectively as the SP.3 rifle at the Bandung Weapons Factory (now known as PT Pindad), and as the NR-2 rifle at the Kaduna plant (now known as the Defense Industries Corporation of Nigeria, or DICON), which is why this last pattern is known chiefly as the “Nigerian type.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the BM59 was never adapted or modified for sniper or designated marksman purposes. Being based on an unmodified M1 Garand action, the BM59 ejected spent cases from the top, which meant that it could be reloaded by topping off the magazine with 10-round stripper clips (and, indeed, all BM59 rifles came with a dedicated clip guide), but also that it could only be equipped with a side-mounted scope, much like the M1D Garand. By the 1960s, when the BM59 rifle was introduced in Italian service, this was already an outdated solution; while some pictures do exist of Italian Army paratroopers using side-mounted optics on their BM59 rifles, this was by no means a widely adopted solution, but rather a limited-scale concoction by the most elite frontline units of the Italian military to overcome the limitations of their service rifles.

For the same reason, and unlike the M14, no attempt to turn existing BM59s into DMRs was made after the Italian military switched to 5.56×45mm NATO. Other weapon systems had been adopted to fulfill that niche by that point, and now that the AR-70/90 has been phased out in favor of the ARX-160 and ARX-200, the problem can be officially considered as solved.

THE LAST OF ITS KIND

The Beretta BM59 rifle would go on to serve with the Italian military officially until 1990, being retained as a rear-line and reserve rifle for a few more years afterward, as its replacement with the new AR-70/90 5.56mm weapon system was gradual. This makes the BM59 arguably the longest-serving battle rifle having been based on a classic, pre-WWII stock and action design.

As of today, with the Beretta ARX-160 and ARX-200 being universally in service with the Italian military, and with tens of thousands of AR-70/90 rifles in reserve – so many, indeed, that upon their replacement, the Italian government donated many of them to Albania to facilitate the latter’s transition to NATO standards – the BM59 doesn’t fulfill any operational role in its motherland any longer, and like the M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, MAB sub-machine guns, and Carcano rifles, it is confined to ceremonial duties.

The BM59 also saw distribution on the civilian markets, both in Italy and abroad. In the 1960s, Beretta manufactured very small quantities – approximately 1,700 samples overall – of the BM62 semi-automatic rifle; chambered in 308 Winchester, it came from factory with a five-round magazine and lacked the “tri-compensator” and flip-up grenade sight/gas cutout.

As laws concerning modern sporting rifles relaxed in Italy, and with the country having nothing similar to the “once a machine-gun, always a machine-gun” rule that is in place in the U.S., the Nuova Jäger S.r.l. company would first launch a rifle called the M99 – essentially a Beretta BM62 assembled using old BM59 components – only to flood the Italian civilian market with a huge quantity of proper BM59 rifles from dismissed Italian military stocks, properly refurbished and converted to semi-automatic only. In the following years, other companies, such as Redolfi Armi, did the same. After so many years, the BM59 is no longer an impossible dream for European shooters.

At the same time, Nuova Jäger introduced a line of dedicated accessories for the BM59, including a specific Picatinny scope mount. A similar product is offered by Sadlak Industries in the U.S., providing plenty of clearance for the top-ejecting action while no longer requiring a scope to be side-mounted. Too late to allow the Italian military to convert their BM59s to designated marksman rifles, but welcome news for shooters in Italy and elsewhere that wants to get the best out of their rifle.

As far as American shooters are concerned, BM62 rifles are way more rare and collectable in the U.S. than they are in Europe. BERBEN (the first ever U.S.-based Beretta subsidiary) imported but a few in the 1980s; around the same time, Springfield Armory sold their own BM59-based semi-automatic rifles, assembling them in the U.S. with a mix of locally made and imported parts. Today, for American collectors, the best way to get their hands on a BM59 are the James River Armory build, and parts kits.

by Pierangelo Tendas

From 1969 to 1988, Italy bore the brunt of the wave of political terrorism that hit Europe as a whole: bombings, shootings, kidnappings, robberies, and attacks against law enforcement, politicians, and magistrates by both extreme left-wing and extreme right-wing militant armed groups ended up killing over 400 people and wounding well over 1000. On top of this, the 1970s saw the rise of international terrorism, particularly by radical Middle Eastern groups; from 1973 to 1989, attacks by Palestinian terrorists against Italy and Italian assets all through the world killed 66 people and wounded more than 130.

Just like their counterparts more or less all over the world, the Italian firearms industry went on to study numerous solutions that could integrate the lessons learned from both the experience of law enforcement operators and that of the militaries in the recent conflicts around the globe – last but not least, the American experience in Vietnam – into practical solutions to tackle this kind of threat. Some would be more commercially successful than others, although, as in many other cases, more often than not, the most interesting products would be the brainchild of this or that underdog.

Headquartered in the city of Turin, the Società Italiana Tecnologie Speciali S.p.A. company (“Italian Company for Special Technologies, Ltd.”), best known by the acronym SITES, was established and led by two engineers – Roberto Teppa and Claudio Gritti, with a third engineer, Franco Manassero, acting as the CEO – spent some time evaluating the pros and cons of existing firearms in an attempt to create what would be the best all-round sub-machine gun for all law enforcement uses… from patrol (most law enforcement back in the day, and still today, relying on SMGs as their patrol long guns in lieu of the shotguns and semi-automatic carbines more popular in the U.S.) to close protection, from special operations to counter-insurgency.

The first iteration of their project, called the Spectre Model 2, was first showcased in 1983 and began production in 1985. By 1988, a few modifications concerning the manufacturing specs of certain components were implemented; the changes are detailed in our article by J.M. Ramos published on SAR V4N8 (May 2001), Volume 4. The result, dubbed the Model 4 – or SITES Spectre M4 for short – was manufactured by SITES from 1988 to 1998, with some variants still being assembled as late as in 2001.

Italian Innovation

In the highly competitive field of small arms manufacturing of the 1980s, the SITES Spectre was a blend of tradition and innovation. Built around a stamped steel receiver, with a trigger group assembly manufactured out of the same materials and very little synthetic components outside of the pistol grip and its foregrip, the Spectre wasn’t a featherweight by a long shot, weighing in at 2.9 kilograms (about 6.4 pounds) when empty.

What made it absolutely unique was its technical layout. Teppa and Gritti wanted the SITES Spectre to be ready to deploy and operate at a moment’s notice, without sacrificing performance, reliability, or safety. As strange as it seems, they did so by doing without a manual safety. The SITES Spectre was the world’s first sub-machine gun – and as of today, it remains the only mass-produced SMG – to employ a SA/DA trigger with no external safety, replaced by a decocker.

A half-moon selector, located right above the trigger guard on both sides and activated by the shooter’s index finger, only provided two positions – “S” for semi-automatic, and “F” for full-automatic. An ambidextrous lever located at thumb reach over the pistol grip could be activated to decock the gun, requiring a deliberate, long trigger pull to fire off the first shot, with all subsequent shots being fired in single-action. This made accidental or negligent discharges of the SITES Spectre basically impossible while still keeping the gun always ready for action.

The SITES Spectre was a hammer-fired, delayed-blowback, closed bolt design, with a peculiar two-part bolt and a dual recoil spring. When a round is chambered, the front portion of the bolt, which also houses the firing pin and the extractor, moves forward while the rear portion remains locked back, engaged to the sear, and acts as a hammer, to be released on the striker when the trigger is pulled. Both components travel rearwards together after the SMG is fired, but once the empty case is extracted and ejected, only the front portion slams back forward, loading a fresh round in chamber while the rear portion engages the sear and stays locked back until the trigger is pulled again. The timing of the interaction between these two separate masses creates the opening delay that makes the SITES Spectre safe for use in all calibers it was built for – but we’ll talk about those later.

Additionally, the two-part bolt was advertised as a “forced convection” device, a safety feature against overheating: the alternate movement of the two components would pump air around the chamber and the barrel, reducing the temperature of the system during sustained fire and thus the danger of a cook-off. That may seem redundant – a closed-bolt firearm is definitely more prone to cook-off than an open-bolt firearm, but a sub-machine gun is hardly the kind of weapon that will likely experience a cook-off – but, if anything, the bolt design also had the advantage of reducing moving masses at any given time, thus making the SITES Spectre extremely stable and controllable, with very low felt recoil and muzzle climb, and reliable even with high or very high-pressure ammunition (it was rated for 9mm Luger up to +P+ by the Italian military and government entities that procured it.)

Readily Ambidextrous, Suppressor-ready

Aside from the previously mentioned ambidextrous selector and decocker, the only other controls on the SITES Spectre are the non-reciprocating charging handle and the magazine release catch.

The former is located on top of the receiver and consists of a flat polymer lever with two serrated studs on both sides. An improvement from the first-iteration Model 2 (which featured an UZI-style cocking knob), the charging handle of the SITES Spectre M4 can be operated by the shooter’s index finger and thumb, with either hand, and doesn’t interfere with the sighting plan, nor with the position of the buttstock.

The magazine release is a flat button located within the trigger guard, just behind the magazine well, and by pushing it with their trigger finger, the shooter releases the hook that retains the magazine in place. Both controls can be operated by left-handed or right-handed shooters, making the SITES Spectre one of the very first fully ambidextrous firearms of modern times.

The SITES Spectre M4 fed through proprietary quad-stack, single-feed magazines manufactured out of sheet metal, inspired (at least in concept, if not officially) by the Finnish Suomi KP/31 “coffin” mags, and offered in two capacities – 30 and 50 rounds. The 30-round magazine was as tall as a pack of cigarettes, while the 50-round mag was as long as a standard 30- or 32-round mag used by any other SMG of the time. Reduced masses made the SITES Spectre more easily concealable – a plus for law enforcement operators working close protection details – while still packing enough ammunition to engage in sudden, high-intensity firefights and get the upper hand.

The SITES Spectre was fitted from factory with a 13 cm (5.11-inch) barrel, with a rather unusual sinusoidal rifling; similar in concept to the Sabatti MRR Multi-Radial Rifling pattern of modern manufacture, the SITES Spectre’s sinusoidal rifling consisted essentially of polygon rifling with softer edges between lands and grooves, which the bullet was thus allowed to fill better, acting as a gas seal as it traveled through the barrel, allowing very little (if any) gas to escape around the lands and maximizing propulsion efficiency.

Upon request, the SITES Spectre M4 could be obtained with a slightly longer, threaded barrel that would take a purpose-built silencer, manufactured entirely out of steel and dubbed the EM-F2. The sinusoidal rifling and the “gas seal effect” it achieved made the EM-F2 suppressor particularly effective, even with supersonic loads.

The SITES Spectre came from factory with an up-folding sheet metal stock, held in the closed position by a metal clamp that engaged the top ventilation holes of the barrel shroud and was thus very easy to deploy and not nearly as uncomfortable as other sheet metal stocks of sub-machine guns from the same era. The stock was cut on top – a reminiscence of the Model 2 pre-production model, where the stock had to have clearance for the UZI-style cocking knob – and even when closed, provides unobstructed view of the sights, specifically a fixed polymer rear sight and an elevation-adjustable front post, zeroed from factory for a 50-meter range (about 164 feet).

The SITES Spectre M4 strips very easily: with the chamber clear, hammer down, and magazine removed, the user only needs to open the stock and pull out the passing pin that integrates the rear sling swivel – which can be installed to the rear or left side, by the way – in order to remove the receiver end cap with the recoil springs and guide rods and slide the two-part bolt out. At this point, the entire trigger group assembly is removed from the bottom of the receiver. Additional stripping includes the removal of the barrel, which requires the use of a hex key to loosen the barrel retaining block nut.

Multicaliber… But Not Exactly

The SITES Spectre M4 was initially advertised as being available in three calibers: 9mm Luger, 45 ACP, and later, 40 Smith & Wesson. In reality, virtually all the select-fire Spectres still in existence are in 9mm Luger, and their recorded cyclic rate in full-automatic fire ranges between 850 and 900 rounds per minute, with the utmost level of reliability; the issues with the selector experienced by a well-known Guntuber with a full-automatic SITES Spectre in early August this year are to be attributed to the wear and tear and lack of maintenance of the individual firearm being tested rather than to inherent engineering or manufacturing issues.

The ergonomics of the SITES Spectre M4 were very reminiscent of those of the Beretta PM-12S, Italy’s main service sub-machine gun of the day. The Spectre might have been considered significantly superior due to the closed bolt operation and ambidextrous capabilities, but its lack of widespread acceptance and adoption among Italian government, military and law enforcement customers came down to the Italian authorities’ long-rooted reluctance in subjecting their personnel to extensive retraining. This, and in the fact that SITES was, after all, a small company, incapable of meeting the production volumes that a major government contract would entail.

This said, certain special units within the Italian military and law enforcement communities did procure significant quantities of the SITES Spectre M4, which was deployed as late as during the Italian participation to ISAF and the circa 2015 Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. Confirmed international customers include Switzerland, France, and in the early 1990s, the South African Defence Forces and the governments of the freshly independent Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

SITES also manufactured three semi-automatic variants of the Spectre M4 for international commercial sales to civilian shooters and private security personnel, dubbed respectively the “Falcon,” the “Spectre HC,” and the “Ranger.”

The SITES Falcon was the civilian version of the Spectre M4 as sold in Italy; chambered in 9×21 IMI but also available in 40 Smith & Wesson and 45 HP (45 ACP would remain banned for civilians in Italy until the year 2000 and 9mm Luger wouldn’t be made legal until the year 2022), the Falcon was an outright Spectre M4, with the lack of select-fire capabilities but retaining the original foregrip and upfolding sheet metal stock.

The Spectre HC was the version for the U.S. civilian market, available in 9mm Luger, 40 Smith & Wesson, and 45 ACP, and imported first by FIE Inc. of Hialeah, FL then by American Arms, Inc. of Garden Grove, CA.

In order to comply with the 1934 National Firearms Act and the 1968 Gun Control Act, the Spectre HC came equipped with a manual safety located where the fire selector on the Spectre M4 would be, and of course didn’t feature either the upfolding stock and the foregrip of the original, which largely reduced its ergonomics. The Spectre HC was banned by name by the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and by similar state laws passed around the same time, in effect killing the presence of the SITES Spectre on the U.S. market.

Last, the SITES Ranger was a pistol-caliber carbine version for the Italian civilian market; manufactured in a handful of samples in 9×18mm Police, then solely in 9×21 IMI, the SITES Ranger was essentially the same as the Falcon, only with a slightly longer, unthreaded barrel. In order to comply with the Italian laws of the time, the stock of the SITES Ranger was locked in the open position and the 30-round magazine was pinned to a maximum capacity of 10 rounds (the same as the SITES Falcon, pistol, its magazine was similarly pinned to 15 rounds); but by “pinned” we mean literally, as the company used simple non-rebated passing pins that Italian shooters could, and often did, remove with a simple pin punch, returning the magazines to the original capacity and the stock to full function.

A 16-inch barrel PCC version of the Spectre was advertised briefly on the U.S. market, but, to our knowledge, not many were actually imported. FIE imported approximately 1,500 Spectre HC pistols, all in 9mm Luger, while American Arms imported a gross total of 4,000 samples, over 3,500 of which were in 9mm, only 300 in 40 Smith & Wesson, and less than 100 in 45 ACP.

When SITES closed permanently in 1998, the existing stock of parts for the Spectre M4 and its civilian counterparts was picked up by Claudio Gritti, who moved to Lugano, Switzerland, and established his own company – Greco Sport S.A. – which continued to assemble and sell them until 2001. The legacy of the Spectre M4 lives own, however, with BCM Europearms of Italy still working on the PM4 Storm pistol, which we wrote about on SmallArmsReview.com back in June.

From the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, an Italian company experimented on a large-size tactical pistol for home and property defense and for private security that never entered mass production: let’s take a look at it and see if there’s a future ahead for the design!

Albeit not successful as its creators (Roberto Teppa and Claudio Gritti from the Turin-based SITES S.p.A. company) would have wanted it to be, the SITES M4 Spectre sub-machine gun was by all accounts one of the most technically innovative and interesting firearms of the 1980s.

The Spectre design also saw civilian sales on both sides of the Atlantic: a stockless, single-grip variant dubbed the “Spectre HC” would be marketed on the U.S. civilian market, while European shooters had the choice of the “Falcon” pistol (essentially a semi-automatic M4 Spectre with a removable vertical foregrip and upfolding stock) and the “Ranger” carbine, same as above but with a longer barrel.

SITES shut down in 1997, but Gritti – now operating a company called Greco Sport S.A. in Switzerland – would continue to assemble and sell Spectre sub-machine guns, pistols and carbines until 2001.

For years, however, its creators would attempt to revise and improve the concept into an aesthetically new, more compact and ergonomically-friendly package that would be marketed chiefly as a semi-automatic pistol in two barrel lengths (5.3-inch (13.5cm) and or 8.6-inch (22 cm)), with a fast clip-on butt-stock available as an optional as Europe lacks the short barrel rifle restrictions of the U.S., that could become a desirable alternative for individuals looking for a high-capacity, highly controllable home and property defense pistol, as well as for local law enforcement and private security personnel, particularly those working cash-in-transit duties.

The first prototype of what was meant to be the Spectre’s heir apparent would be showcased at the 2000 EXA gun expo in Brescia, Italy by Claudio Gritti’s new company, THOR Projects, headquartered in the Swiss city of Mendrisio. In 2003, once again at the EXA expo, the design was on display again, this time known as the PPM-1 “Storm”, and announcements were made that it would be manufactured in Italy by a company called Modulo Masterpiece S.a.s. – back then a newcomer whose product line included both a vast line of bolt-action long-range precision shooting rifles and a series of high-grade competition-oriented 1911 pistols, a throwback to the post-SITES days of Gritti, who had worked on 1911 handguns with the Bologna-based TECNEMA company from 1990 to 1996.

Differences between the Modulo Masterpiece and THOR Projects teams sadly led to the project being dropped not much later, with not a single PPM-1 being produced commercially. The Italian company, however, retained the rights for the design and, in 2008, it underwent a corporate restructuring, becoming known as BCM Europearms. The development of the Storm pistol – now called the PM4 Storm – continued all through the early 2010s, with the final version being revealed in 2015.

Technically speaking, the BCM Europearms PM4 Storm is a semi-automatic, locked breech pistol designed to be manufactured in three calibers – 9mm Luger, 40 Smith & Wesson, and 9×21 IMI – but ultimately produced in an extremely limited number (approximately fifteen) only in the latter.

As the heir apparent of the SITES Spectre sub-machine gun, the PM4 Storm was conceived to be ready for use at a moment’s notice, while still remaining perfectly safe to carry or transport given the relatively compact size – a true plus for bodyguards and other private security professionals working close protection details – and boasting an aggressive look and feel that would alone act as a deterrent against the less well-prepared and determined attackers. Gun grabbers in the United States would call this an “assault pistol”, but well, the makers of the Storm don’t shy away from it.

As many of you may remember, the SITES Spectre featured a SA/DA striker-fired (or better, linear-hammer fired) trigger group, quite unusual for a sub-machine gun: an ambidextrous decocking lever located over the grip, at thumb reach, replaced the standard manual safety and allowed the user to drop the striker safely on a loaded chamber with the selector set on semi-automatic or full-automatic fire.

The Spectre could thus be carried ready to fire, much like a revolver or a double-action pistol. All the operator would need to do, if the need arose, was to bring the gun to bear and pull the trigger; the first shot would be fired in double-action, the following rounds would be fired in single-action. The SA/DA trigger design also allowed shooters to restrike a chambered round in the event of a malfunction.

The PM4 “Storm” improves and elaborates on the original SA/DA trigger group of the Spectre, albeit ever so slightly, by replacing the old linear hammer with a standard hammer for easier manufacturing and offering a better trigger pull in double action.

At the heart of the PM4 Storm is a massive cylindrical bolt, with a large hook-type extractor. The bolt is hollow and houses a free-floating striker and the return spring; the entire bolt assembly runs within a (likewise cylindrical) steel receiver to which the trigger group is hinged at the bottom, housed in its own metal chassis with two side bars for easy inspection and maintenance.

The charging handle of the PM4 Storm is screwed on to its seat within the bolt, is reciprocating, and runs into a slot cut on the left side of the receiver. It is also the only non-ambidextrous control of the gun, which in and by itself has very little controls, most notably no manual safety: a push-button located within the trigger guard, behind the trigger itself, acts as a decocker and engages the double-action.

The flat magazine catch is located right behind the mag well: it is meant to be operated by thumb, either by left- or right-handed shooters. The magazines don’t drop free and must be pulled away, although the PM4 Storm does lock open on an empty magazine.

Ditching the heavy, cumbersome and complex 50-rounds quad-stack “coffin” magazines of the original SITES Spectre, the Storm pistol has been conceived ever since its first iteration in the year 2000 to use tried and true, double-stack Uzi magazines. 15- and 20-round magazines were planned to be made available, but the pistol will feed through any iteration of the popular 9mm Uzi mag.

The mentioned steel receiver of the PM4 Storm is contained within a black high-strength polymer chassis; unscrewing the charging handle from its seat in the bolt and removing the rear endcap of the polymer chassis is required to field-strip the gun.

The chassis is composed of two parts: a lower, which includes the grip assembly and the magazine well; and the upper, featuring a full-length top MIL-STD 1913 Picatinny rail for optics or emergency flip-up iron sights.

Originally the PM4 Storm had to feature a shorter top rail and a set of integral sights, consisting of a fixed front post and an adjustable rear sight assembly; the idea was ditched in the final iteration in favor of a full-length top rail, as were many features of the previous prototypes such as a detachable pistol grip and a different, overall more smooth and sci-fi-ish design of the polymer chassis.

A second, removable screw-on piece of Picatinny rail is located in front of the magazine well, providing an interface point for tactical accessories or for a foregrip – once again, there’s no such thing as SBR or AOW regulations in Italy.

The barrel of the PM4 Storm pistol is 14.5 centimeters long (5.7 inches for those using freedom units), and ends in a thread-on, multi-port proprietary muzzle device that doubles as a flash hider and compensator. Like the SITES Spectre, the PM4 Storm opts for a sinusoidal rifling pattern, with six right-handed grooves and a very long twist rate (1 turn in approximately 1 meter, which would be 1:39.3-inch). The sinusoidal pattern is extremely effective in tightening groups, not as much as you’d need to come out on top in a shooting competition, but definitely enough to bring the hostiles down when the prize on the line is your own life.

As mentioned above, time and time again, there’s no such thing as SBR restrictions in Italy and in most of Europe. While in the US the difference between a long gun and a handgun is the intended mode of use – with long guns being “originally conceived to be fired from the shoulder” – the European Firearms Directive, ever since its first iteration in 1991, designates a long gun as a firearm that is both longer than 60 cm (23.6 inches) and has a barrel longer than 30 cm (11.8 inches), with anything shorter being classified as a handgun, regardless of any buttstocks or foregrips.

The Italian law, which like many other gun laws in European countries implemented the directive, goes so far as to state that the overall length of a firearm equipped with a collapsible or folding buttstock must be measured with the stock in its fully collapsed or closed position, thus focusing on concealability rather than the possibility of firing the gun from the shoulder.

It is, thus, no wonder that the Storm pistol was always planned to be equipped with a buttstock. As previously mentioned, the original prototype from THOR Projects in Switzerland came with a clip-on fixed stock, and as the various iterations of the design came to be, the companies involved in the development experimented with fixed, folding, removable, and collapsing wire metal stocks.

In the current iteration, the PM4 Storm’s factory chassis end cap can optionally be replaced with another that is threaded at the end for a MIL-SPEC or commercial buffer tube, allowing the use of M4-type collapsible buttstocks. The mount is hinged to fold to one side, making the PM4 Storm compact enough for concealed carry under a jacket even when the stock is installed.

Now, the PM4 Storm is by no means a diminutive firearm, standing in at 39.5 centimeters (15.5 inches) in overall length without a stock, or with the stock folded, while topping the scale at 2.5 kilograms approximately (5.51 pounds) when empty. But considering it is meant for rapid fire in close quarters, the extra mass helps keeping recoil and muzzle climb under control.

THOR Projects and Modulo Masterpiece briefly experimented with a carbine version, to be called the CM4, that would tentatively be 77cm (30.31 inches) long overall and feature a long barrel and a fixed buttstock.

The carbine project has however since being shelved; the reason for its demise are unknown, but once again, with SBR restrictions not really being a thing in Italy and most of Europe, the manufacturing company wouldn’t have to worry about overall length. The reader must also remember that the Storm pistol was conceived initially in the early 2000s, over a decade before the PCC craze ever saw the light of the day.

And to be more accurate, “shelved” is a description that applies to the entirety of the PM4 Storm pistol project. After a limited run of merely fifteen commercial samples, BCM Europearms put the production of the Storm pistol on an indefinite hiatus to focus on their core business of top-tier bolt-action competition rifles for the European commercial markets and high-precision sniping platforms for the Italian military and other professional customers worldwide.

“Indefinite hiatus”, however, doesn’t mean – in the words of the owner and CEO of BCM Europearms, Gianmattia Molina – that the PM4 Storm is dead. It’s on the back burner, for sure, but still in his mind; and the company still has the technology and owns the rights to the design.

A return – or to be more precise, a true full-scale commercial launch – of the PM4 Storm pistol sometime in the future can thus not be ruled out.

The design would require some tinkering, to adapt it to the sensibility of the modern markets: Molina explicitly mentioned lengthening the overall action and chassis to accommodate Glock magazines, abandoning the .40 Smith & Wesson option which has long fallen out of favor with civilian shooters and professional operators worldwide, and replacing the original end cap and M4 buffer adapter with a vertical Picatinny rail that would allow more versatility and flexibility in the installation of sling rings, SIG Sauer MCX/MPX type stocks, arm braces, and the like.

But in today’s civilian firearms market, even in Europe, a firearm like the PM4 Storm does have its space, and for someone like the writer – who has been following the development of the design ever since the 2003 edition of EXA – it would really be a pleasure to see it finally come to fruition.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

by Pierangelo Tendas

One of Italy’s oldest firearms manufacturer and potentially the oldest dedicated barrel maker in the world, with over 300 years of experience, Sabatti S.p.A. introduced its first line of dedicated bolt-action rifles in 1993: dubbed “Rover”, the product line would remain in production for approximately twenty years and establish itself as one of the first European examples of what American companies had done with the likes of the Remington 700, that is, a basic action iterated in a number of variants, each conceived for a specific use or set of uses.

The Sabatti Rover rifles were built around a Mauser type action, with two sturdy locking lugs, and an all-steel receiver, cold hammer forged barrel, and bolt. While some variants of the Rover series were conceived for sport shooting, the main focus of the line was hunting: calibers available included all the most popular north American and European hunting cartridges, and some versions were available in African big game calibers. Production quality was so good that most original Sabatti Rover rifles are still out there, on the line, in the hands of countless hunters and shooters who bought them originally when they were in production.

In the past fifteen years, however, Sabatti’s business focus shifted from hunting rifles and shotguns to long-range rifles for competition shooting and tactical applications. Fifteen years is a long time to build and consolidate a full new background and know-how: new technologies, new materials, new engineering, the pursuit of new technical solutions in search for greater accuracy and performance. When the time came to distill such a treasure of experiences in a new series of rifles that would get all users’ needs covered – from hunting, to sport shooting, to patrol and tactical, the closest anybody in Europe ever got to a Remington 700 type of experience! – it just made sense to homage the Sabatti tradition by giving it a classic name, an official appointment as the heir of the Sabatti tradition of gunmaking.

The New Rover

Sabatti introduced the new and improved Rover series on the European market in the second half of 2021, and on the U.S. market at the 2022 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Featuring an entirely new action, precision engineering and manufacture, and a slew of other Sabatti signature features, the new Rover family includes, as of today, 13 different variants – definitely something to please everybody.

Of these 13 variants – or to be more specific, of the ten out of 13 entries in the family that are solely or partially intended for hunting purposes – three are dedicated to a specific breed of hunters, those who don’t want to give up elegance and style even in the toughest hunting scenarios: the Sabatti Rover Hunter, Rover Hunter Classic, and Rover Hunter Classic Pro.

Like all the entries in the new Sabatti Rover series, the Hunter, Hunter Classic, and Hunter Classic Pro are based on the same barreled action. First and foremost, the common feature of all the new Sabatti Rover rifles is the barreled action: gone is the old Mauser-style action, in favor of a bolt very similar to – but not exactly the same as – those found on Sabatti’s modern long-range shooting rifles based on the Blizzard action. These are machined out of special steel, with three sturdy locking lugs, and heat-treated, hardened and tempered, quenched, the chrome-lined to the exact level of thickness to match the tolerances of the receiver, itself machined out of a solid billet of 7075-T6 aluminum alloy and hard-anodized in black.

A departure from the all-steel construction of the Mauser action of the early Rover rifle, this makes the new rifles lighter, extremely fast, smooth and silent to operate, and offers a superior level of resistance to corrosion and wear.

Features

Like Sabatti’s long-range rifles based on the Blizzard action, the new Rover actions offer a 60-degree bolt throw to keep the shooter’s hand well away of the eyepiece of any scope when chambering a round, and a threaded charging handle allowing the bolt knob to be removed and replaced with compatible aftermarket alternatives at the shooter’s will.

Other features include a bolt stop located to the left of the receiver and a safety right behind the charging handle, at thumb reach, providing three positions – one of which blocks the trigger and sear while still allowing the bolt to be cycled, so that the chamber can be cleared in full safety.

Unlike the Sabatti Blizzard action, the Rover action cocks the striker on opening and features a cam located on the front of the bolt, interacting with a screw for primary extraction. That screw is arguably the most wear-prone part of the bolt, but easily replaceable. A separate extractor, manufactured out of a special steel alloy – which special steel alloy, exactly, is a Sabatti industrial secret – is located on the bolt face.

Barrel

The Sabatti Rover Hunter, Rover Hunter Classic and Rover Hunter Classic Pro come with the shooter’s choice of 20-, 22- or 24-inch cold-hammer forged, blued barrels, manufactured entirely by Sabatti, all with a 5/8-inch diameter, threaded muzzle for accessories such as flash hiders, muzzle brakes, or sound suppressors. Indeed, the Rover Hunter Classic Pro model comes from the factory with a pre-installed, easily removable muzzle brake instead of a simple thread protector, more specifically the company’s own Jet-Brake, of Sabatti’s own design and manufacture. As of today, none of the Rover rifles feature Sabatti’s world-famous, proprietary MRR multi-radial rifled barrels, opting for standard rifling profiles instead.

In all models, the barrel and the action are held together by a set of three screws, which makes rebarreling of the Rover action very easy – even more so since headspacing is provided by the interaction between the locking lugs and the barrel extension, so that a rebarreled new-generation Sabatti Rover rifle will not need a headspace check or adjustment.

Changing the barrel of your new Sabatti Rover rifle (to change caliber or shift to a different barrel length, given how unlikely it is that you’ll ever shoot the rifling out on these barrels) can be done by any shooter with the right equipment, including a good quality torque wrench. Sabatti, however, recommends that shooters wishing to rebarrel their Rover rifles seek the assistance of a competent gunsmith, as the screws holding the barrel and receiver together are manufactured out of steel and tightened to a very specific level of torque, and over tightening them could cause damage to the alloy receiver.

Stock

Aside from the barrel length and the presence of a factory muzzle brake on the Rover Hunter Classic Pro model, the Sabatti Rover Hunter rifles can be told apart by the factory stock. The baseline Rover Hunter comes with a dark grey fiberglass-reinforced polymer stock; the Hunter Classic model features an oil-finished walnut stock; the Hunter Classic Pro model is built around a walnut stock with a patented Optowood coating, a unique feature of the Italian gun industry.

All stocks are of the same style, with a straight pistol grip and checkered, slip-proof surfaces on the grip and handguard; a slight lightening on both sides around the magazine well area for easier reloading, and a black synthetic pad and cheek riser that allows the stock height and length of pull to be adjusted through a set of shims and inserts.

Other features of the stocks include two standard sling swivel studs, and two M-LOK slots carved in a steel plate embedded underneath the handguard, for bipod mounts.

The stocks are secured to the barreled action with a set of two screws located respectively behind and ahead of the action. The stock features an embedded bedding – the new Rover family does without the quintessential “suspended action” of Sabatti’s long-range tactical rifles – but with no pillars. This technically means that stock interchangeability is total across the line, not just between the three Rover Hunter models, but among all, or almost all,the new Sabatti Rover family of rifles.

The screws are tightened to a specific level of torque depending on the version – 53.1inch-pounds for the rear screw and 62 inch-pounds for the front screw for the wooden stocks; 70.8 inch-pounds for the rear screw and 79.7 inch-pounds for the front screw for the polymer stocks – and as long as those levels of torque are respected, changing your Rover rifle stock will not result in loss of accuracy or even loss of zero… even more so because the three Rover Hunter rifles do not come with iron sights, opting instead for a pair of Picatinny rail segments machined directly on top of the alloy receiver, providing a sturdy mounting platform for wide array of optics.

Shooters should, however, know those two Picatinny rail segments are not precisely spaced, as they would be if the rail was a continuous segment. This means that, should a shooter remove a scope from their Rover rifle and install it to another firearm that has a full-length, continuous rail, one of the two rings may have to be moved slightly ahead or rearwards to make it fit.

Calibers

At the time of this article, the Sabatti Rover Hunter, Rover Hunter Classic, and Rover Hunter Classic Pro rifles are available in eight popular European and north American hunting calibers: 243 Winchester; 270 Winchester; 6.5×55 Swedish; 6.5 Creedmoor; 7mm Remington Magnum; 308 Winchester; 30-06 Springfield; and 300 Winchester Magnum.

Two additional calibers – 222 Remington and 223 Remington – will be made available in early Summer 2023; quite the news, considering how those two light varmint calibers have been noticeably absent from Sabatti’s production for a number of years now. All the Sabatti Rover Hunter rifles feed through a proprietary detachable magazine, offering a capacity of three, four or five rounds depending on calibers, with the capability to hold an additional round in chamber.

Trigger

The Sabatti Rover Hunter, Hunter Classic and Hunter Classic Pro come from factory with a two-lever trigger of Sabatti’s own design and manufacture, assembled using precision laser-cut components. A set trigger (or stecher, for those who like to use European terminology) is available as an option.

The factory trigger is set at a maximum break weight of 2.6 pounds. By removing the barreled action from the stock, the shooter can access the trigger assembly and lighten it to approximately 1.3 pounds. Sabatti, once again, strongly recommends that shooters wishing to adjust the trigger on their Rover rifles seek the assistance of a qualified gunsmith.

Wrap Up

As of today the marketing of Sabatti rifles in the United States has temporarily been halted, pending the selection of a new importer and distributor, which should take a few months. There’s no doubt, however, that when the moment comes, the Sabatti Rover Hunter rifles will prove a success on the U.S. market as they’re proving themselves to be in Europe, where they are sold at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of 990,00€ for the baseline Rover Hunter, 1.300,00€ for the Rover Hunter Classic, and 1.470,00€ for the Rover Hunter Classic Pro.

Specifications:

“A botched development process – focused solely on manufacturing, looks, and lighter weight – caused the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG to be forever exiled to the confines of the firearms curiosa.”

It has not been ever conclusively explained what led Società Costruzioni Industriali Milano S.p.A., best known as SOCIMI – a well-respected manufacturer of train wagons, buses and other means of mass transportation – to enter the firearms business in 1983.

Devoid of any expertise or dedicated technology for firearms manufacturing, SOCIMI joined forces in 1984 with Luigi Franchi S.p.A., best known for its SPAS-12 and, later SPAS-15 shotguns, as well as its hunting shotguns and a limited escapade in military weaponry in the 1950s with the LF-57 sub-machine gun.

By 1987, SOCIMI would be the sole owner of Franchi. And this is where our story begins.

The Italian UZI: the Type 821 SMG, manufactured by SOCIMI in close collaboration with Franchi all through the 1980s, was a botched attempt to refine the legendary Israeli UZI design (photo by Franco Palamaro)

The SOCIMI Type 821 SMG was compact and lightweight, aimed at the law enforcement market with a specific attention to special task units and close protection details (photo by Franco Palamaro)

A little bit of history

All through their coexistence, SOCIMI and Franchi would engineer a family of long-stroke piston-driven military rifles that included the 7.62x51mm caliber SOCIMI AR-832 FS battle rifle, and two 5.56x45mm assault rifles, dubbed respectively the AR-831 and the AR-871 – the latter an improved, simplified version of the earlier. The AR-871 would become one of the early entrants in the long trials for the selection of a new 5.56mm NATO assault rifle for the Italian Armed Forces… and would also be one of the first to be canned.

But that’s a story for another time.

The only firearm that SOCIMI would manufacture in any quantity would be the Type 821 SMG 9mm open-bolt, blowback-operated sub-machine gun; the reason why the company would decide to refine what was already a popular and well-established design – the Israeli UZI – is simultaneously arguable and completely lost to time.

A close-up of the muzzle: the adjustable front sight block is screwed on to the machined aluminum receiver (photo by Franco Palamaro)

The rear plate hosted a sling swivel, and could be rotated and pulled away to remove the bolt and return spring when disassembling the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG (photo by Franco Palamaro)

In the early 1980s, the decline of the sub-machine gun as the go-to weapon for numerous military and law enforcement specialties was still a long way off. Light weight, compact and effective as they were, sub-machine guns still enjoyed the favor of the guys in uniform… and somehow they still do, chiefly among special task units and close protection details, but not exclusively: the American reader must keep in mind that, to this day, in many countries the sub-machine gun remains the standard police patrol firearm, while rifles and shotguns – more popular within the law enforcement community in the US – never really caught on in that role.

It would thus make sense that SOCIMI would try and get a hold on what was, back then, a very receptive market, and that they would try and do so with a refined version of a proven design: aggressively marketed in both the civilian and military-grade variants, the UZI had, in 1981, received a somewhat unwitting publicity stunt when United States Secret Service agent Robert Wanko was photographed as he deployed his UZI in the moments immediately following John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s life on March 30, 1981.

REFINING THE BATTLEHORSE

While retaining most of the key technical features of the UZI, SOCIMI and Franchi decided to focus their improvement effort on the manufacturing and materials. While the bolt group and barrel are still made of carbon steel – as they should be – both the receiver and the grip frame were machined out of lightweight aluminum alloy.

The use of aluminum in lieu of stamped sheet metal made the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG approximately 2.2 ounces lighter than the original UZI; the SOCIMI/Franchi sub-machine gun was also somewhat shorter than the UZI, given the barrel length – 7.87 inches vs. the original’s 10.2 inches – which would make it more desirable for police officers who’d have to carry it all day, and for close protection details who could conceal it more easily.

The receiver of the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG was distinctive, more streamlined than the original UZI’s, and lacked its predecessor’s prominent pressed reinforcement slots that keep dirt out of the way of the bolt. It also does without the UZI’s removable top cover: the non-reciprocating charging handle runs on two guides machined over the receiver body, reducing the amount of components involved in the field-stripping. The front and rear sight, both adjustable, were manufactured in separate blocks and then screwed on to the receiver.

The grip assembly – likewise machined out of aluminum and secured to the receiver by two retaining pins – is also distinctive in shape, in that it features a slightly different trigger guard, a set of finger grooves, and a more prominent grip safety. It was otherwise identical to its counterpart on the UZI, with a completely identical trigger group, a sliding 3-position fire selector (marked A-R-S as on the UZI) and featured an UZI-style magazine catch. SOCIMI made its own magazines, the only bent steel components on the gun: they were exact (and excellent) copies of the UZI magazines, holding 32 rounds of 9mm ammunition, and bore conspicuous SOCIMI rollmarks. The Type 821 SMG was fully compatible with original UZI mags.

The SOCIMI Type 821 SMG was an open-bolt sub-machine gun; nominal rate of fire ranged at around 600 rounds per minute – essentially the same as the original UZI’s – but the lighter weight made it harder to control (photo by Franco Palamaro)

The buttpad would be folded up when the stock rested to the right side of the gun, in order to reduce the profile and allow concealed carry (photo by Franco Palamaro)

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

In order to make the Type 821 SMG lighter and simpler than the original, the SOCIMI/Franchi engineers replaced the complicated underfolding sheet metal stock of the UZI with a straight single-strutt tubular steel stock, featuring an upfolding buttpad, hinged underneath the receiver and secured in the open or closed position by a push-button latch.

While the design and construction of the original UZI stock was meant to make it viable as an impromptu hand-to-hand combat weapon (or entrenching tool, if need be), the SOCIMI/Franchi engineers had no such use in mind when they designed the Type 821 SMG stock, opting instead for striking an acceptable balance between stability, low encumbrance, and concealability when folded. The final design was strikingly like that of the Beretta PM-12 sub-machine gun stock.

Both the grip panels and the handguard were two-piece components manufactured out of molded plastic, in a grey-greenish color – a stark contrast with the hard-anodized matte black finish of the aluminum parts. They are also some of the overall worst aspects of the Type 821 SMG: the polymer mix chosen for their manufacture was all wrong, and they were thus very prone to breakages – as you can see from the many cracks in the pictures illustrating this article.

A close-up of the stock hinge on the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG: a wide button would lock it in place, both when folded and unfolded (photo by Franco Palamaro)

A spring-loaded catch would hold the barrel nut in place; in order to disassemble the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG, the user would need to keep the catch depressed while unscrewing the barrel nut (photo by Franco Palamaro)

Indeed, in some of the (very few) SOCIMI Type 821 SMG samples that still survive today, these parts have since all but broken away completely.

Additionally, they were held in place with Phillips-head screws – not a great idea on a firearm, even for the 1980s – and those weren’t exactly the best available, prone as they were to rusting.

Lacking a removable top cover, the disassembly of the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG was more akin to that of a Beretta PM-12 or the Czechoslovak SA Vz.26. With the magazine out and bolt closed, the sling swivel located at the rear end of the receiver would be unscrewed out. This would in turn allow the removal of the squared rear end cap; once that was done, the user could remove the return spring and guide rod assembly and slide out the bolt, which is substantially identical to that of the Israeli UZI, with a fixed firing pin, but features a deep guide milled on top.

The barrel is removed from the front by unscrewing the barrel nut, which was kept in position by a spring-loaded latch. Once it all was done, the return spring guide rod could be used as a punch to remove the pins that keep the receiver and the grip assembly/frame together.

The disassembly was not harder than the original UZI’s, and resulted in an overall similar amount of components.

Just like the UZI, the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG would host its magazine in the pistol grip; the magazine catch is identical to the UZI’s (photo by Franco Palamaro)

The plastic buttpad on the Type 821 SMG stock, fully extended (photo by Franco Palamaro)

REASONS FOR A FAILURE

The SOCIMI Type 821 SMG was originally announced in 1984, and despite some hiccups – such as the plastic components – it seemed initially like a very good product overall. A smaller version, half-way between a Mini-UZI and a Micro-UZI, dubbed the “Type 821-5 Micro SMG”, was also announced but never got past prototype stage.

It didn’t take long for the specialized press and the market to find out the Type 821 SMG was not exactly the advertised “classic UZI meets Italian sports car high-tier design and technology.” True, the Franchi engineers – largely responsible for the project – did a good job, but something went wrong.

The charging handle on the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG was identical in form and function to that of the UZI, albeit a bit smaller (photo by Franco Palamaro)

A close-up of the Type 821 SMG trigger group; notice the feeding ramp built-in on the frame (photo by Franco Palamaro)

SOCIMI’s haste in improving the original design, making it lighter and visually distinctive through the use of different materials and manufacturing techniques had a significant side effect: the bolt, machined out of carbon steel, was the single heaviest component of the Type 821 SMG; and being a telescopic bolt – whose front portion wraps around the rear end of the barrel when it closes – it moved A LOT of mass forward when the gun was fired.

Now, in an open-bolt sub-machine gun like the UZI, the SA Vz.26 or the Beretta PM-12 – all manufactured largely out of steel and thus fairly heavy – this helps to keep recoil and muzzle climb under control. In a featherweight like the Type 821 SMG, not so much. While the UZI is known to be controllable in full-auto and fairly accurate, even in off-hand shooting, the SOCIMI/Franchi design was everything but.

The bolt of the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG: a pretty straightforward copy of the UZI bolt, albeit with a deep guide milled on the top due to the different engagement system of the charging handle (photo by Franco Palamaro)

SOCIMI made their own magazines for the Type 821 SMG: excellent copies of the original UZI magazine. The Type 821 remained fully compatible with the original Israeli mags (photo by Franco Palamaro)

At 32 feet (10-meters), in full-auto, it was almost impossible not to totally saturate a standard B-27 target, with no accuracy of sorts – and that’s at 550/600 rounds per minute, essentially the same as the UZI. Acceptable if you’re looking for a room sweeper type of gun, much less if you need precision. Things weren’t any better in semi-auto, for the same reasons.

Add the inherently higher cost of a product made in an advanced western European Country like Italy, and you’ll quickly realize why even those customers who desperately wanted UZIs but couldn’t (or wouldn’t) procure them from Israel – chiefly for political reasons – would still steer clear away from the SOCIMI/Franchi design.

SOCIMI Type 821 SMG seen from the right side, with stock unfolded (photo by Franco Palamaro)

SOCIMI Type 821 SMG, field-stripped (photo by Franco Palamaro)

Despite being popularized today as the so-called “Milano 821” sub-machine gun from Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG was manufactured only in very small quantities – 500 samples at least, but certainly not more than 1000 – with Italian government entities being the only recorded customers.

None would ever be fielded and very few still exist: the sample portrayed in the pictures that illustrate this article was photographed in 2008 in a Guardia di Finanza (Italian revenue service) depot in Rome and has likely since been sent to the smelter. Only a handful of samples that were transferred to the reference collections of Italian firearms and ammunition developers survive to this day.

Drawings from the original patent of the Type 821 SMG: applied for in 1983 under the name of Alessandro Marzocco – quoted as the “inventor”, actually the owner of the SOCIMI group – it would be accepted by Italian authorities in 1986 with number IT19655A/86, and in published in the US with number US4895064A in 1990. It expired in 2007 (source: United States Patent and Trademark Office)

An experimental development of the Type 821 SMG chambered for the 9mm AUPO caseless self-propelled cartridge (generally associated with the prototype Benelli CB-M2 design) was carried on in collaboration with Italy’s prime ammunition manufacturer, Fiocchi; too little too late, one may say, because the Type 821 SMG was discontinued the in 1989, and SOCIMI went bankrupt in 1992 following the Mani Pulite kickbacks scandal.

Franchi tried to market it for a couple more years as the SOCIMI-Franchi LF-821, but not one single sample appears to have ever been made or sold under that name. By 1995, Franchi had been absorbed by the Beretta Holding and dropped the tactical firearms line, focusing exclusively on hunting shotguns and, more recently, rifles.

The history of the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG is an example of how capricious the firearms market can be. A good design cannot always be improved, and trying to do so isn’t always a success. A botched development process – focused solely on manufacturing, looks, and lighter weight – caused the SOCIMI Type 821 SMG to be forever exiled to the confines of the firearms curiosa.

by Pierangelo Tendas –

The Sabatti S.p.A. company of Italy has been well known for decades both in its home country and abroad for its bespoke like of hunting shotguns and rifles. In the mid-2000s, the company shifted its core business towards long-range competition shooting and tactical precision rifles, whose rise of popularity on the international markets has been partially hindered so far essentially only by issues with export and distribution.

And yet, what most hunters and shooters worldwide do not know about Sabatti, is that they may well be the world’s oldest barrel manufacturers in existence today.

The earliest records of Sabatti’s activity in the Val Trompia region of northern Italy – the “Italian Gun Valley” – date back to the early 1700s, when Lodovico Sabatti was active as a manufacturer of matchlock pistols and most importantly as a “cannoniere” (barrel maker). By the 19^th Century, the Sabatti family was known and held in high regard for their barrels and flint locks, which were used by other manufacturers to complete their own guns for commercial sales and for the militaries that fought the battles leading to the unification of Italy.

As of today, the manufacture of barrels for third parties still makes up for a substantial portion of Sabatti’s industrial activity. There are so many companies that bought barrels from Sabatti in the past decades that chances are, you may own a bolt-action rifle built with a Sabatti barrel and not even know it. Stocks of Sabatti barrels are well documented to have been used in some lots of Remington 700 and Browning bolt-action rifles, and today they are the sole suppliers of the barrels used on the bolt-action rifles manufactured by Benelli and Franchi (among many others). And that’s not counting shotgun barrels. Unbeknownst to most, Sabatti is what is rightfully called a major barrel supplier in the industry.

A company with such a long history and experience could not hold back for long from taking a huge step in terms of innovation once their core business shifted towards the precision shooting, long-range hunting, and tactical applications market. If the past few centuries had been spent by the Sabatti family mastering the art of making good, long-lasting, accurate barrels, now it was time to make them better, under all points of view: more solid, more accurate, easier to clean and maintain, and with a longer service life.

No Cheap-Out

Right from the very get-go, Sabatti established that the new, improved barrels they set out to conceive had to be easy to manufacture by cold hammer forging. A wise choice, indeed: not only is cold hammer forging a well-regarded, tried, and true barrel manufacturing technique, but is also one that the company had been using for decades and was well equipped for. After all, with such a widely appreciated technology already at hand, already in use to manufacture such widely appreciated products, there was literally no reason for Sabatti to stray from the path from an industrial point of view and set out to design a new barrel that would later require the development of entirely new manufacturing technologies.

This is not a cheap-out by any means. Indeed, more like a rationalization of industrial effort: the new barrels were to be easy to manufacture with the technology the company already had, so they could be put on the market easily and repay the investment just as rapidly, while at the same time not requiring long waiting times to satisfy customer demand.

The research and development phase lasted for years and included both extensive testing and a lengthy study on previous, well-established solutions including conventional rifling, polygon rifling, and 5R, not limited to technical examination of samples but rather reinforced by a thorough investigation of designs and patents dating as far back as the early 1970s, at the very least.

In the mind of Sabatti engineers, it soon became very clear that quality steel and perfectly executed cold hammer forging wouldn’t be enough to achieve the quantum leap they had in mind. They had to go at the heart of the barrel: the rifling.

As mentioned, the research and development phase went thoroughly through the pros and cons of conventional, polygon, and 5R rifling patterns. Sabatti engineers wanted to come out with a new type of barrel that would offer optimal performance with alltypes of ammunition, from factory to reloads, from low-pressure to the hottest loads, from standard to leadless and monolithic. No corners were cut, and no expense spared in the lengthy evaluation and development process.

The Secret Sauce

There is a reason why the final product was called “Multi-Radial Rifling”, or MRR for short: the MRR rifling pattern is characterized by two different, alternating rifling radii that go way back to the barrel extension and feature softer edges between the lands and the grooves.

When looking inside an MRR barrel with a borescope, an expert eye may get that old-style impression of the very shallow “microgroove” rifling used by old Marlin rifles and other similar firearms. That feeling would be largely incorrect: microgrooving is an extremely fast, but extremely shallow rifling pattern that doesn’t last long with high pressure loads, aggressive propellants, and, likewise, aggressive cleaning. MRR barrels are everything but.

The impression of a shallower grooving is given by the mentioned softer edges between the lands and grooves. As we’ll see, it’s all there for a reason. The alternating radii going back to the barrel extension end up modifying the forcing cone geometry in an optimal way for each given caliber, allowing the bullet to better align with the rifling right from the start. The chamber neck and what little amount of free-bore exists guide the bullet intothe rifling more precisely and with more stability than found with traditional rifling patterns.

It’s worth pointing out that twist rates of MRR barrels have been optimized for each given caliber, but do not depart much from industry standards: we’re talking typically 1:11in instead of 1:12in for 7.62mm/.308/.30-cal. in general, 1.8in for 6.5mm, and 1:8.25in for .260 Remington – for example, that is. It’s not the twist rate that marks the difference between standard, 5R, polygon, and MRR rifling.

With softer edges between lands and grooves, the bullet traveling through the barrel is deformed and pressure-formed around a circumference, but not cut at the surface like standard or polygon rifling would. The MRR rifling with its softer edges allows the bullet to better fill the lands and grooves, allowing very little, if any, of the gas generated by the detonation of the propellant to escape around the lands. Essentially, in MRR barrels, the bullets seal the barrel as they’re traveling through it, maximizing the propulsion efficiency of the expanding gases.

All the Pros, None of the Cons

The unique features of the MRR barrels make for a long list of pros, which the expert reader may already have guessed. A better bullet-bore alignment provided by a modified forcing cone, optimized twist rate and softer edges allow the bullet to better engage the rifling and thus benefit from better stabilization, which leads to higher accuracy.

At the same time, the “bore seal effect” of a bullet filling the lands and grooves almost completely as it travels down the barrel optimizes propulsion and allows for higher muzzle velocity levels – up to 12% over standard values according to Sabatti in most cases for factory loads, even higher in certain instances with handloads.

Softer land-to-groove edges – which, as we said above, do not cut through the bullet – also eliminate most friction, which is detrimental to both accuracy and barrel service life. Less friction between bullet and rifling also means less fouling, particularly a much lower level of copper or other aggressive metal residues depositing in the lands. Normally, those deposits need to be removed with likewise aggressive chemical cleaners and sometimes scraped away with metal swabs. Nothing of that is good for the barrel’s service life, and indeed nothing like that is actually required on an MRR barrel at any point.

Sabatti’s MRR barrels are overall cleaner, and easier to return to pristine condition: a soft swab with a small amount of CLP is usually enough to remove fouling after even a long shooting session. Abrasive paste or polish pads aren’t necessary to clean the bore, but can be used for lapping, if needed, as they won’t ruin the land-to-groove edges as they would with a traditional rifling.

Accuracy is guaranteed and documented from the factory by Sabatti to be sub-MOA at 100 meters (109.361 yards specifically) with factory ammunition, and to be constant with all MRR barrels, on all Sabatti rifles.

As of today, MRR barrels are a Sabatti exclusive. First introduced in 2017 with the Tactical Syn bolt-action long-range shooting rifle, by 2018 MRR barrels were used on all of Sabatti’s .308/7.62mm and 6.5mm/.284 caliber hunting, long-range shooting, and tactical rifles. As of today, essentially all of Sabatti’s centerfire bolt-action rifles – hunting, sport shooting, tactical – either come standard from factory with an MRR barrel or are available with one as an option. In 2021, Sabatti introduced the SAR Sport semi-automatic rifle – a DMR-style AR-15 variant in 5.56×45mm – which, as of today, is the only non-bolt-action rifle to feature an MRR barrel.

This said, Sabatti can manufacture MRR barrels of all profiles, and for all calibers. Rumors of MRR barrels being manufactured by Sabatti for M4-type select-fire carbines for foreign military contracts have been circulating for a couple of years, but the company, which is otherwise usually pretty talkative, has so far kept tight-lipped about those rumors.

Dedicated Ammo…?

While the MRR rifling pattern has been conceived to perform well with any sort of factory load, handload, and with any type of bullet, the potential exists to improve the performance of MRR barrels even further. In 2021, Sabatti announced the launch of MRR Bullets: a line of dedicated reloading bullets designed to perfectly match the key features of MRR barrels in terms of weight and geometry and help hand-loaders to get the best out of their Sabatti rifles and its multi-radial rifling,

Sabatti’s MRR bullets are all leadless monolithic, and their patented design offers better engagement of the MRR rifling pattern’s typical forcing cone geometry.

Sabatti’s MRR bullets are available in three lines – Green Hunting, Green Sport, and Green Long Range – all manufactured from copper alloy, and all optimized for an intended use: the Green Hunting line bullets feature a polymer tip for better energy transfer and expansion upon impact, while the Green Long Range line bullets are heavier than the “average” Green Sport for better performance at longer distances.

Sabatti MRR reloading bullets are sold in 50-count packages, with calibers and bullet weight availability varying from line to line: the Green Hunting MRR bullets are available in .264 123-grain, .270 120-grain, .284 13-grain, and .30 caliber 152- and 167-grain variants; the Green Sport and Green Long Range MRR bullets are all available in .30-caliber only, respectively in 152-, 158-, 160- and 176-grain options.

The price per box is pretty steep in their homeland of Italy, but one can’t really put a price on quality – particularly if quality comes in the form of patented geometry bullets manufactured out of solid copper alloy billet. As of today, MRR bullets aren’t available on the U.S. market, but a lot of Sabatti rifles with MRR barrels are, and they can definitely give your traditional, polygon, or 5R barrels a run for their money.

By the mid-2010s, the Sabatti company – previously known and appreciated mainly for its extensive line of almost bespoke hunting rifles and shotguns – began to shift its focus, channeling decades of company experience into the manufacture of high-performance, high quality long-range rifles for competition shooting and tactical applications.

The first STR (Sabatti Tactical Rifle) model was launched in 2016 with a dedicated competition shooting version – aptly dubbed the STR Sport – entering the market one year later. Both would be phased out of production in 2021 with the launch of the current iteration of the STR Sport bolt-action rifle.

It was pretty ballsy of Sabatti to introduce a new flagship product in the midst of a global pandemic; unlike other manufacturers, whose production and development process slowed down or came to a total halt as COVID-19 struck, Sabatti never lost its focus on innovation, knowing all too well that the market would spark back to life sooner than later, and that by then the competition would be fiercer than ever.

The 2021 iteration of the STR Sport was developed jointly between Sabatti and Victrix Armaments, another well-known Italian manufacturer of long-range rifles. The result of such effort was a good all-round, long-range shooting platform, with an eye on all disciplines, in general, and PRS and F-Class competition, in particular. With the new platform, Sabatti’s aim is beating the competition in several key areas of performance and price.

STR Details

The STR line represented Sabatti’s first production of chassis rifles, and the 2021 iteration of the STR Sport further elaborates on the concept. Sabatti’s expertise with chassis rifles vastly improved with the years, but in the case of the STR Sport, the chassis represents Victrix Armaments’ contribution to the design: CNC-machined out of a block of 7075-T6 lightweight aluminum alloy, it is available in hard-coat anodized matte black or bright red colors, and in two versions: standard and F-Class, with the key difference being the handguard.

The standard Sabatti STR Sport rifle features a tighter handguard with M-LOK slots at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock, allowing the installation of Picatinny rail segments, bipods, weights, or other useful accessories.

The Sabatti STR Sport F-Class version comes instead with a larger “bag-rider” type handguard, with a wider flat bottom surface and three ARCA Swiss interface guides. Originally conceived for photography, the ARCA Swiss interface has gained wider acceptance among shooters due to its performance as a rock-solid mounting platform, particularly when it comes to the taller bipods and tripods. Anschutz interfaces are also available, upon request.

Regardless of the version, the chassis of the Sabatti STR Sport bolt-action rifle is set to accept AR-15 compatible pistol grips. The current iteration of the STR Sport rifle comes issued from the factory with a FAB Defense GRADUS rubberized, reduced-angle ergonomic grip, which can be removed and replaced with any other aftermarket AR-compatible grip at the shooter’s will.

The factory buttstock is a fixed, lightweight Sabatti and Victrix design, entirely manufactured out of aluminum, with two Q.D. sling swivel cups on both sides, a flat bag-riding bottom surface, and a manually adjustable cheek riser; a set of rubberized spacers can be used to adjust the length of pull. The buttstock is attached to the rear of the chassis via a screw, and it can be removed and replaced with other aftermarket buttstocks with a similar attachment system, such as those manufactured by MDT (Modular Driven Technologies) in Canada.

The chassis also includes the magazine well. The Sabatti STR Sport is available in three calibers –.308 Winchester (7.62×51mm), 6.5×47 Lapua, and 6.5 Creedmoor – and feeds through AICS (Accuracy International Chassis System) detachable box magazines whose capacity will vary depending on caliber; AICS magazines are normally available in 5- or 7-round versions, but higher capacity variants are also available from third party suppliers. An ambidextrous paddle release lever is located at the base of the trigger guard, and the shooter can easily access it with the trigger finger.

At the heart of the Sabatti STR Sport rifle is the company’s own patented Blizzard action – a short action with a three-lug bolt and a very tight 60° bolt throw for faster follow-up shots. Both the bolt and the receiver are CNC-machined from solid, high-strength special purpose steel; the receiver is then finished in black and features a top Picatinny rail for optics – available in a 0-, 10- or 20-MOA tilt to facilitate holdover in extreme long range shooting – while the bolt body is heat-treated, rectified, and subsequently hard chromed until it reaches the exact level of tolerance requested by the manufacturing process.

This allows the bolt body to offer both a higher level of resistance against corrosion, wear, and dirt, and to be a perfect fit for the receiver – just loose enough for a smooth, quick operation, and tight enough to prevent any wobble that may be detrimental to the rifle’s feel or accuracy. A signature feature of the Blizzard action is Sabatti’s own, patented “Guillotine-type” extractor, whose construction – in 17-4PH steel – and positioning were carefully studied to ensure reliable extraction in all conditions and to double as an additional safety feature. Sabatti’s “Guillotine-type” extractor is engineered to withstand prolonged use with high-pressure ammunition, to support the cartridge case rim when the bolt is locked, and to make sure that even in the event of massive pressure spikes, cases will be extracted reliably and without rupturing.

Other features of the Sabatti Blizzard action include a sliding safety located right behind the bolt handle, at quick and convenient thumb reach, and an interchangeable bolt knob, which is attached to the charging handle via a 5/16-inch thread and can thus be removed and replaced with any aftermarket knob to meet shooter’s preferences.

The Barrel

The barrel, also manufactured entirely by Sabatti, is probably the cherry on top of the STR Sport. Available in three lengths – 24-, 26- or 28-inch, with a 0.86-inch or 1.10-inch muzzle diameter and a protected thread for flash hiders, muzzle brakes, or sound suppressors – the barrel is cold hammer forged, finished in black, and features Sabatti’s proprietary MRR rifling pattern.

MRR stands for “Multi-Radial Rifling”: first launched in 2011, MRR barrels are Sabatti’s own development, covered by numerous international patents, and are unique to Sabatti products, and heavily featured on the company’s tactical and sporting long-range rifles. MRR barrels were developed with accuracy in mind, with the goal to achieve levels of performance that couldn’t be matched by existing rifling patterns – including 5R – while at the same time allowing easy manufacture through cold hammer forging, a procedure that Sabatti has mastered over several decades and uses for the entirety of its barrel production.

Multi-radial rifling (MRR) can be described as a softer rifling if compared to both standard and polygon rifling, in that lands and grooves aren’t pronounced as one would normally find on a standard barrel. Additionally, MRR barrels feature a modified forcing cone geometry, providing for a better fit of the bullet to the rifling and alignment to the bore axis to begin with.

The MRR rifling is overall made to be a tighter fit on a bullet than the vast majority of conventional or polygon rifling patterns. When passing through an MRR barrel, the bullet will be deformed – albeit only ever so slightly, as the company stresses the low bullet deformation factor inherent to MRR rifling – but not cut, avoiding excessive levels of friction that may be detrimental to accuracy and service life. Indeed, not only do MRR barrels require less cleaning and maintenance than standard barrels and deliver muzzle velocities that are higher on average than most of the competition’s but are guaranteed from factory to deliver sub-MOA accuracy at 100 meters with factory ammunition.

Trigger

The Sabatti STR Sport comes from the factory with a match-grade, three-lever trigger of Sabatti’s own design and production. Sabatti’s rifles are currently not compatible with aftermarket triggers – including, sadly, those from the best-known manufacturers of custom triggers such as Elftmann, Timney, TriggerTech, or Jewell – but the truth is, they don’t need to be. Sabatti’s factory triggers are every bit as good as those highly regarded aftermarket competition alternatives. The STR Sport’s Match trigger is set at a 1.21 / 1.32-pound break and can be further adjusted by the shooter upon stripping the rifle.

Action Interface

And stripping the STR Sport – as well as any Sabatti rifle with a Blizzard action – is just as easy as taking out two screws, and so is putting it back, with no effect on accuracy. There is no bedding material that keeps the action and the chassis together; the two components are coupled by two hex screws – one behind the receiver, one right underneath the trunnion – in a manner that the company dubs “Azione sospesa” (“Suspended action”, or “hanging action”), because aside from those two engagement points, the barreled action is completely free to float over and within the chassis.

This eliminates all coupling tensions, which can potentially cause vibrations that are detrimental to accuracy. Given the construction of the barreled action, removing it from the chassis does not cause it to lose zero. The rifle will hold zero once reassembled as long as the proper torque settings for the two coupling screws are followed: in order to optimize performance, Sabatti recommends 5.9 foot pounds of torque for the rear screw and 6.6 foot pounds of torque for the front screw.

Range Time

Purists may wonder whether such a combination of a unique, almost oddball rifling pattern and a likewise one-of-a-kind coupling system would actually provide enhanced accuracy; we went to test the company claims in a hot, sunny summer day at a beautiful outdoor range just outside of Rome, Italy. Our test bed was a standard model Sabatti STR Sport in .308 Winchester (7.62×51mm), loaded with Fiocchi EXACTA factory ammunition. EXACTA is a commercial version of the loads manufactured by Fiocchi for the Italian Army, police and special forces snipers, and is loaded with American-made Sierra Match King 168-grain hollow-point boat-tail bullets.

At 300 meters, on a standard long range shooting target, the Sabatti STR Sport kept its accuracy promise, with only four out of fifteen rounds ending up in the second target circle, all others grouping tightly in the bullseye. We did not, unfortunately, have a chance to demonstrate how this level of accuracy improves even more dramatically with the use of Sabatti’s own MRR line of monolithic copper bullets, designed and manufactured by the company to optimize the performance of its Multi-Radial Rifling barrels. The Sabatti MRR bullets are dedicated to reloading enthusiasts and experts who want to get the best out of their Sabatti rifle and MRR barrel, and are available in three different lines – Green Hunting, Green Sport, and Green Long Range, all different in terms of specific features and bullet design depending on the intended use – and in .30, .270, 6.5 (.264) and 7mm (.284) calibers.

As this article is posted, Sabatti is preparing a unique version of the STR Sport for the North American market, dubbed the “Sabatti STR Sport US”, which will feature a 20-inch fluted barrel and a shorter handguard. The Sabatti STR Sport US rifle will debut in 2023.

The STR Sport rifle is a perfect example of Sabatti’s high level of craftsmanship and accuracy; it is a pity that Sabatti rifles aren’t better known among sport shooters in Europe and worldwide, because their price point is almost unbeatable for the type of features that they offer, and their quality and performance levels will easily rival or outmatch those of the best-known international brands. But the company is now adopting a more aggressive approach towards global markets, and it’s just a matter of time before the Sabatti name gains the recognition that it deserves.