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Seancass: "Joint at muzzle-barrels, thought should be seamless there." Not sure what you are talking about, but Sabatti joined barrels and ribs same way any of the other makers have done, or do today. But, maybe you were looking at a particular double rifle that had some sort of defect there; I can't say.
gungadoug/Jumbo and others: Opti wood stock wood. I can assure you that it isn't Turkish walnut; only a rank amateur not familiar with walnut wood might think it. A trained eye can readily tell that this fake wood grain on the so-called opti wood is not real at all. The real wood stock, real wood, but with plainest, cheapest possible wood, is "enhanced" with man-made overlay that is paper thin, so when it wears off, is scratched or otherwise damaged, it cannot be sanded down and refinished, unless one doesn't mind the ugly pain wood beneath. Personally, I would never own a gun/rifle with opti wood or anything similar.

What I have to say below, applies only to the higher grade big bore express Sabatti double rifles, as I own three of them (information below is a repeat of what I have said in an earlier post that appears to have not been read by many who have interests in the Sabatti double rifles. I have done quite a lot of custom work on all three of my Sabatti doubles, detailed below:

Initially, I bought a Sabatti .500 NE, even though I heard rumors that the Sabatti doubles had regulation problems with some examples (this was before the muzzle grinding issue became well known by most of us). 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 do 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, but still not to my complete satisfaction. Custom work on all three of my Sabatti rifles include the following: I cut stock to my needed length, 14.5 inches, with good quality recoil pad installed (factory pad is not intended to be used, as it is as cheap as they come. For most shooters, Sabatti as well as numerous other modern double rifles are stocked longer than necessary, allowing for cutting to fit shooter. I added a much better recoil pad made by N E C G Company, 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, though not necessary, and did some other internal work on the actions on all three of my Sabatti doubles, just fine tuning them for better overall functioning, though they clearly were already well made and highly polished internally, 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 (only one of my Sabatti doubles have ejectors, 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, while so many modern double rifles are moving toward using more coil springs rather than the V type. 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 well. The Sabatti factory told me that the actions are not cast, but are machined from a solid block of a modern high strength tri-alloy, heat treated steel. I found it to be very tough, with a hard surface, and plated with some sort of process, making it exceptionally resistant to corrosion. Now, the actions are also DESIGNED extremely well for a double rile action, much better than most any shotgun action, if one were considering making a conversion to double rifle the way Brown explains in his book. For using Sabatti double rifle to make another barrel set in a different caliber, explained again, in Brown's book, the Sabatti is 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 the Sabatti holds up to those pressures, so I am sure that these actions will hold up to normal use from all normal rimmed "double rifle" cartridges with ease, 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; 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, shown on their online website. 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 a lot, so I bought another in .450/.400, with the nicest figured wood grain I could find. It shoots well too, and is well regulated as all three of mine are. I overlooked mentioning that I stripped the stock finish, as I don't like the glossy varnish like finish that seems so common of guns/rifles today. I finished my Sabatti rifles with my special blend of alkanet stained London oil finish, which enhanced the grain remarkably.

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. Since writing the above, I have now seen a few examples of this muzzle grinding on a few Sabatti rifles in Casbelas stores. 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. Since writing the above, I now am convinced that Cabelas and Sabatti have stopped this muzzle grinding practice, so if one runs across any of them now, they are certainly old stock; not newer stock. 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., thus have no need for Cabelas or any gunsmith having to work on my rifles. 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 model. I do have various other makes of classic old double rifles in the 9.3x74R chambering and larger casliber; I do love that 9.3x74R caliber; no wonder it is so popular and well liked in Europe! It has to be one of the top three all time best German calibers ever developed by them. I fully agree with comment by Jumbo "DG PH in RSA, who says he has one and it is great"; they are! If the Sabatti prices go up (I think they may, as prices already seem to be rising on some of them), and/or if Cabelas stops bringing them in for resale (which I think they may, as they seem to be trying hard to sell off present stock of them, and they don't seem to be bring in any or many new ones now), this would be a serious loss for those of us who love double rifles.

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