By: Warren Gray
Copyright © 2023
“Sabatti’s new hunting rifle lives up to the name ‘Shooter,’ and combines
excellent handling with accuracy and innovation. This makes it an instantly
usable and dependable rifle for the field…a true, all-round, stalking rifle.”
— Bruce Potts, for ShootingUK.com, August 1, 2022.
Sabatti SPA of Val Trompia in northern Italy, near Lake Iseo, is home to the Italian Firearms Group, which introduced its latest offering, the Sabatti Rover Shooter, in mid-2022. There are 10 different Rover models; the bolt-action Shooter is offered in .223 Remington, 6.5x47mm Lapua, 6.5mm Creedmoor, .30-06 Springfield, or .308 Winchester.
According to the company website, “The Sabatti Rover Shooter rifle comes with a match, three-lever, trigger group…(and) cold-hammer-forged barrel…(which) vaunts all the accuracy Sabatti rifles are famed for…matte-black finish, and comes with a muzzle brake mounted…Available barrel lengths are 18” and 20”…The Sabatti Rover Shooter rifle comes with a sturdy, wooden stock with a brown, soft-touch finish…ending in a soft recoil pad…The Rover Shooter rifle offers all of the accuracy, ruggedness, and reliability of the Sabatti bolt-action rifles tradition: more than 300 years of Italian gun-making experience, at the most affordable price.”
Sabatti rifles are not well-known here in the United States, but they have a solid, established reputation in Europe. GunMart.net wrote on May 10, 2020, that, “Sabatti rifles have been available in the U.K. for some time now, yet they have not achieved the same mainstream status as some other brands…this brand has a real chance of establishing itself.
“Sabatti is a proud, family-run business, and boasts an impressive history. They have been involved in the manufacture of guns for just under 400 years…all gun components have been made by them, using the latest technology and materials. With the brand comes some unique qualities, including Multi-Radial Rifling (MRR.) This is a combination of traditional and polygonal forms…to extract the advantages of both types…there are no sharp corners to fill, like in other rifling systems, therefore the barrel is cleaner and wears more slowly…(with) claimed, 12-percent velocity increase and better performance when using monolithic (solid-copper) bullets.”
The best review that I could find was by Bruce Potts, for ShootingUK.com, on August 1, 2022. He wrote that, “I remember being impressed with this Italian manufacturer’s attention to detail. The new model, the Sabatti Rover Shooter, is a typical, bolt-action, hunting rifle that continues Sabatti’s reputation for high quality while utilizing its decades of experience with a redesigned action and bolt, manufactured using the best materials and CNC-quality machinery.
Sabatti Rover Shooter in .308 Winchester. Photo by ShootingUK.com.
“The action design is made out of a solid billet of high-strength, low-weight, 7075 aluminum alloy, and then hard-anodized for a perfect, tough finish…The .308 Shooter…holds seven rounds. The mag system is ideal for hill stalking…where numerous shots are needed, and its polymer construction is rustproof, too…The trigger, too, has been upgraded. The pull is a very fine, single-stage, and broke cleanly…for consistent accuracy…The Rover Shooter sports a sensible, 20-inch barrel with a 2.5-inch muzzle break to reduce recoil, which I removed in favor of a much quieter (Ase Utra Jet-Z) sound moderator (‘suppressor,’ in American English.)
“The barrel is also free-floated, so the stock will not interfere with the barrel on firing. Again, this is important for consistent accuracy. The Shooter utilizes a wood-polymer hybrid to create a well-balanced, overall feel…In .308, the magazine holds seven cartridges, ideal for…stalking on the hill…Barrel: (18 or) 20-inches…Weight: 7.8 lbs.
“The Sabatti Rover Shooter has a very comfortable, wooden stock with soft-touch cover and detachable, high-capacity magazine, making it a true, all-round, stalking rifle…you get a lot for your money, and it deserves serious consideration as it is a well-made, sporting rifle…Price as reviewed: £950 ($1,155.)
Bruce Potts with Sabatti Rover Shooter in England. Photo by ShootingUK.com.
“I zeroed-in with some new, Winchester lead-free, Extreme-Point, Copper 150-grain rounds…fitted a moderator, then headed for the Surrey woods…Stalking quietly along the narrow (roads)…yielded a lovely roebuck feeding 65 yards away. A short whistle stopped him in his tracks, and as he turned broadside, the Sabatti helped harvest another great buck…Overall score: An underdog to keep a lookout for: 86/100.”
British roebuck taken with Sabatti Rover Shooter rifle. Photo by ShootingUK.com.
In the United Kingdom, moderators/suppressors don’t have the same “evil” stigma that they do here in the U.S. All handguns have been banned since 1996, and most semiautomatic rifles (except in .22 LR) are prohibited, so British rifles are predominantly single-shot or bolt-action, used mainly for hunting.
As Charles Smith-Jones described in November 2014, “Want to shoot more accurately, bag more quarry, and disturb the environment less? Perhaps it’s time to get a moderator…it has never been easier to get one added to your firearms certificate…Your shooting will improve dramatically, you’ll disturb the environment less, and you’ll likely shoot more deer or vermin. Above all, your hearing, that most precious of commodities, will be protected.”
The Gun Shop in Botley Mills, Hampshire, England, April 24, 2017.
Note the seven readily-available moderators on the rifle rack. Photo by author.
Sabatti’s Rover rifle series also includes the four examples shown below, of 10 different Rover models produced, so they have quite a variety to offer:
Photo credit: Sabatti
Rover Hunter: 20”-22”-24” barrel, 3 rounds, 2.6 lbs. match trigger, .223 Remington (from June 2023), .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, 6.5×55 SE, 6.5mm Creedmoor, 7mm Remington Magnum, .30-06 Springfield, .308 Winchester, or .300 Winchester Magnum.
Photo credit: Sabatti
Rover Ranger: 20” barrel, 7 rounds, 2.6 lbs. match trigger, 6.5mm Creedmoor, .30-06 Springfield, .308 Winchester, or .300 Winchester Magnum.
Photo credit: Sabatti
Rover Alaskan: 24” barrel, 7 rounds, 2.6 lbs. match trigger, 7mm Remington Magnum, .30-06 Springfield, .308 Winchester, .300 Winchester Magnum, or .338 Winchester Magnum.
Photo credit: Sabatti
Rover Scout: 18” barrel, 7 rounds, 2.6 lbs. match trigger, .223 Remington (from June 2023), 6.5mm Creedmoor, .30-06 Springfield, or .308 Winchester. I really like this one in .30-06, but I’d remove the front
Picatinny rail for lighter weight.
The Sabatti Rover Shooter is certainly a fine, Italian hunting rifle, at a competitive price in today’s firearms market. This author prefers short, handy rifles for hunting in the woods, normally using a Remington ADL in .30-06, with the barrel professionally shortened to 18.8 inches. But Sabatti’s Rover Shooter, Rover Ranger, and especially the Rover Scout all fit that requirement quite nicely, with barrels of only 18 or 20 inches. These well-made, Italian deer stalkers are surely worth considering if you’re in the market for a powerful, new, high-quality, hunting rifle.
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Author with Remington 700 short rifle and 8-point buck, January 8, 2022.
Warren Gray is a retired, U.S. Air Force intelligence officer with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism, and is an NRA member. He served in Europe (including northern Italy) and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author, historian, and deer hunter. You may visit his website at: warrengray54.vistaprintdigital.com.