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:

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.