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I just got back from shooting 2 elephants in Zim in June with a bolt gun in 500 Jeffery where I shot one at 15 yards. So I started looking for good deals on DR. I saw great prices on these Sabatti rifles and read all about the problems. Cabelas had a 500 NE cheap so I called them and I asked if it had a 24" barrel and if it was one where they had ground the muzzle. The sales rep said it had not been ground and the rifling was good. I asked about their return policy and he said we only guarantee it goes bang. I took a shot and ordered the gun.

The good part is the gun was very nicely finished and balanced. It had a test target with final tuning written on it with 2 holes 2" centered in the middle of the target. So this is looking good.

Now the bad, Cabelas lied to me the muzzle was ground on booth barrels substancaily. I have a private range on my property so fired from the bench at a 50 yard target with the Hornady regulation ammo. The left barrel printed nice groups 5 to 6" to the left and the right barrel 5 to 6" to the right. Elevation was spot on but a 10 to 12" spread between the right and left barrels. That certainly makes a DG rifle un usable. So the gun is basically a wall hanger.

I called Cabelas to see what they would do for me. They simply said there was no guaranty on the accuracy and they could not help me. They refused to replace, repair or refund the gun.

Since they had lied to me about the condition and I paid by credit card, it would have been simple enough to do a charge back. But I really wanted this gun to work out. So I have worked with the imported before EAA and they have always been great with me. When I called EAA and explained the problem she was very pleasant and said I should speak to their head gunsmith. But he was at the shot show so I would need to call back next week. No problem. So I call back and get the head gunsmith, well I guess he had been tiered of taking a beating over these guns and at first was very defensive. Once I was able to convince him that I was not blaming him or EAA and I just wanted the gun fixed, he was very nice. I asked if they repair them there or did they go back to Italy. He said they only do minor repairs there and if the rifle needed to be reregulated they would have to ship it back to Italy and it could take 6 months to get the gun back. I asked how they would fix it, I did not want them just to hack off the barrels as some other had wrote about. He assured me that first I would need to send the rifle to him to test fire and if was as I said it would go back to the Factory and have new barrels installed and when they returned it to him, he would personally test fire it before sending it back to me.

So since the time I shipped it to them, they have confirmed it was going back to Italy and I am know waiting for it to be returned. I had questioned EAA thoroughly and have delt with them in the pass. They have assured me that the rifle will be re regulated with new barrels and all of the guns they have been getting back like this from the factory are now being done properly. They also said the repair time is long because the wait until they have enough guns to ship in a batch since all the paper work is the same for one gun as it is for multiple guns. I believe they will live up their word and will make another post when the rifle comes back. But I am extreamly disappointed in Calbelas for lying to me about the gun and not standing behind the products they sell. I truly believe that Cabelas knew this was a bad rifle as the muzzle grinding was very obvious and they were so ridge on not helping me resolve the problem. Beware of Cabelas. I'll let every one know how well EAA and Sabatti do when I get the rifle back.

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