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I was sent this as an Email from Doubleriflejack as he had problems.:

Initially, I bought a Sabatti .500 NE, even though I heard rumors that the Sabatti doubles had regulation problems with some examples. Considering the price on them, and what I considered to be good quality, I thought that even if it wasn't regulated well, that I would regulate it myself, having been through gunsmithing class from W. Ellis Brown, converting double shotguns to double rifles prior to his writing book on same subject (now in 2nd edition), and having made several such conversions, I felt confident that I could use whatever was necessary, time wise, to re-regulate it well, and I thought that I could deal with any and all other potential problems that I may find. Well, as it turned out, my .500 shot well enough, certainly, on a horizontal plain poi. about one to two inches apart at 50 yards. However, for a .500, rifle was too light in overall weight, so I milled out a small area within the forend wood, and epoxied it in with lead, and I added a mercury recoil reducer, and now the weight, for caliber, is much better. I cut stock to my length (for most shooters, Sabatti as well as numerous other modern double rifles are made longer than necessary, allowing for cutting to fit shooter). I added a much better recoil pad, one that slides on/off in an upward/downward motion, for easy access to the internal butt stock throughbolt. I love this type recoil pad, because it is especially great for guns with stock throughbolts, as they enable one to quickly slide pad on/off. They are available from New England Custom Guns in NH. Too, I added a steel grip cap, making for a much nicer look. I gold plated the triggers and all internal parts, except the mainsprings, for corrosion protection, and did some other internal work on the actions, and a few other things, learning a few things in the process: These actions have only one coil spring, the top lever spring, while all other springs are of the traditional V type, including the mainsprings and ejector springs, all made extremely well, and of the finest spring steel. That speaks well of them, for I consider the V to be superior to the coil springs for such use, when so many modern double rifles are moving toward using more coil springs. Internal fit and finish of all parts is extremely good, about as good as any double rifle made anywhere, in my opinion, and I work on numerous German and classic British double rifles all the time, as comparison. I have been especially impressed by the high quality hard/tough ALLOY STEEL used in the actions. Based on this, I would say that the Italians know their steels. The Sabatti factory told me that the actions are machined from a solid block of a tri-alloy, heat treated high strength steel. I found it to be very tough, with a hard surface, and plated with some sort of process, making it extremely resistant to corrosion. Now, the actions are also DESIGNED extremely well for a double rile action, much better than most any shotgun action for conversion to double rifle, being especially thick on side walls and on all sides of the Purdey underbolt cutout, with quite large over-sized underbolt too, of finest steel. Some of these Sabatti rifles have been chambered for the .416 Rigby cartridge, a rimless round, designed for bolt rifles, rather than double rifles, and a cartridge that gives a bit more breech pressure than most double rifle cartridges up through the .500 NE, and they hold up to those pressures, so I am sure that these actions will hold up to normal use from all normal rimmed "double rifle" cartridges, up through the .500 NE. The action "engraving" is done by machine, I am sure, but is beyond doubt the finest machine made engraving I have seen on any and all guns. This "engraving" is very well done, and deep enough to last forever; I like it. I LIKED MY .500 SO MUCH, THAT I DECIDED TO BUY ANOTHER, THIS TIME IN .470, and I found one with an especially nice figured butt stock, among the nicest grain figure I had seen on Sabatti rifles, and I have tried to see all of them that have been offered by Cabelas to date. I gave my .470 the same treatment mentioned above, as my .500, but also added a steel TRAP grip cap, so the little cover could be opened to reveal spare firing pins I made for rifle. My .470 shoots as well as it looks, better than the .500, and even better than several classic English double rifles I own. I like it, and I am planning to get yet another Sabatti, probably a .450/.400 or a straight .450.

NOW FOR THE UGLY PART OF THESE SABATTI RIFLES:

After doing all of the aforementioned, I learned that some Sabatt rifles have been "fine tune regulated" by grinding tops off some of the rifling lands near muzzle crowns, allowing exiting bullets to be "steered" one way or the other by the escaping gas. When I learned this, I raced to my Sabatti rifles, for examination to see if mine had this abomination treatment done to them, and was relieved to see that they did not receive such abuse. However, some buyers have found, and I have seen pictures of this, the aforementioned treatment, done in an effort to "fine tune regulate" them. I take a dim view of such practices, only a short cut done to avoid proper regualtion. When I do buy another Sabatti, and I would suggest every potential buyer do the same, I intend to do so only after I personally examine it, to be sure that the muzzle crowns have not been ground, abused, in this way. I have found no other problems with Sabatti double rifles, and have found a lot of positive things about them. I would not hesitate to buy another, but, of course, I am not an average buyer, since I have no fear of re-regulating, working on, upgrading a rifle, etc., and if a buyer lacks these abilities, they are in a different boat than I, so they may not want to buy one. I would say that it would be best to carefully examine a potential rifle you are considering, including how well it shoots. What I have said applies only to the deluxe big bore version; not to the smaller less expensive model in .45-70 and 9.3x74R, as I have not examined any of these cheaper models. I do have various other makes of classic old double rifles in the 9.3x74R chambering; I do love that caliber; no wonder it is so popular and well liked in Europe!

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