THE Sabatti factory is located in an area that has a rich heritage in gun making, the Brescia (Gardone Val Trompia) region is located in north central Italy on the southern fringe of the Alps. Sabbatti has made and still makes all manner of high-end shotguns, double rifles, combination guns and bolt action rifles.
It must be over a decade since I last handled a Sabatti Rover bolt action and I was looking forward to seeing what Aqusport, the Queensland distributors would be sending me. I wasn’t disappointed since I found the latest Sabatti Rover Inox had been considerably improved over the old model.
The only criticism I can come up with concerns its weight; field-ready with scope and mount, sling and three rounds in the magazine, the outfit tipped the scale at 4.3kgs. That’s a lot of weight to be lugging up into the high sierras and rather hefty for a rifle in .270 Winchester which by my rule of thumb should weigh no more than 3.6kgs all-up and 3.3kgs would be better. This would be more nearly ideal for a cartridge that’s become known as known as “queen of the mountain rifles.” However, for plains country the Sabatti Rover is much less of a burden, and a great gun into the bargain.
The action is a push-feed, dual-opposed locking lug bolt design with a Sako-style extractor and plunger ejector – a system that has proved functional and reliable in a number of modern rifles. Sabatti has set the barreled action in a strong synthetic stock injection molded out of a special compound of nylon polymer filled with solid fiberglass, which is durable and virtually indestructible.
The stock has a Monte-Carlo comb, a generous cheek piece, which blends nicely into a sharply curved grip, and the nose of the comb is deeply dished on the right side to accommodate the ball of the shooter’s thumb. The pear-shaped fore-end is flat on the bottom and deeply grooved along the top edges to afford a secure grasp. Stock furniture includes a stainless steel grip cap carrying the Sabatti logo and a pair of matching sling swivels.
The inlet of the stock is clean-cut and a close fit around the action, recoil lug and magazine-floor plate assembly. Panels of checkering molded-in to grip and fore-end have sharp diamonds and there’s a soft black rubber butt pad about 19mm thick to absorb recoil. The stock has an attractive matte finish that’s superior to the average injection-molded handle fitted to economy-model rifles. It’s that well finished that it’s almost impossible to make out where the molds joined, and the butt may be solid or foam-filled since it doesn’t sound like a drum when you tap it with your fingers. The stock weighs 2.3kgs which add considerably to the heft of the rifle.
The Rover INOX Tactical Synthetic model in .223 Rem. has a heavy barrel which comes standard with a thumb-wheel adjustable cheek piece which gives both elevation and horizontal adjustment, and is available with or without spacer system for varying the length of pull.
The Sabatti’s receiver is slab-sided, but rounded on top and drilled and tapped to take Model 70 Winchester mounts. The lower part of the receiver is machined along the sides to match the outside diameter of the magazine well which fits flush against it. On the bottom of the receiver ring there’s an integral rectangular recoil lug with a width of 27mm, thickness of 10mm and depth of 5mm.
The tang is short and heavy and the trigger unit is attached to it using a pair of blued steel pins. The mechanism is housed in a blued steel casing, while the trigger is stainless. It’s adjustable for weight of pull by turning a slotted screw in the front of the housing, but there is no way of varying either sear engagement or over travel. Straight out of the box the trigger let off at 1.8kgs, so I loosened the lock nut and turned the screw out one full turn. My RCBS Trigger Scale then indicated 1.36kgs, the weight of pull I consider ideal for a big game rifle.
The two-position safety is a knurled button on the side of the tang. When thumbed to the rear, a stirrup swings forward and depresses a spring-tensioned lug that blocks the trigger; at the same time, it swivels an extension on the button forward and locks the bolt handle down. It’s a pretty rugged system that’s unlikely to fail. In addition, I favor the locked bolt because I’ve had brush snag an unlocked bolt, allowing it to drop open and dump a cartridge on the ground.
The hefty bolt has a diameter of 18mm and smooth, highly polished body. A pair of diametrically opposed locking lugs is up flush with the bolt nose rim. They measure 14mm in length and 10.45mm wide. The lugs are unbroken and ejection is accomplished by an integral lug on the end of the lower left side rail level with the rear end of the magazine follower. A groove milled lengthwise into the outer circumference of the right lug lines up with a full length rib broached into the receiver raceway to act both as a guide and an anti-bind device. The left lug runs smoothly atop the opposite rail. This full length key way system which is similar to those used on several bolt actions in recent years including the Post 64 Model 70 and Carl Gustav FFV, controls angular play closely along the entire path traveled by the bolt, allowing the action to function very smoothly without binding. A shallow bolt face counter bore encloses the cartridge head and houses a plunger-type ejector and carefully proportioned Sako-type extractor some 6mm in width.
The cams on the Sabatti Rover are geometrically proportioned to good displacement and advantage. The cocking cam works below the root of the bolt handle adjacent to the receiver floor. The one-piece firing pin threads at the rear into a very compact cocking piece and an extension at the rear, protruding almost 8mm serves as a cocking indicator.
The lightweight firing pin assembly contributes to locking rapidly without the necessity for an overly stiff mainspring, enabling the rifle to be cocked without taking it down from your shoulder in time to get off a fast follow-up shot. The Sabatti has very simple breaching; the barrel shank is faced off square to match up against the flat-nosed bolt reducing cartridge-head protrusion to less than .120 inch. The dimensional details ensure that the minimal cartridge head circumference, which protrudes from the chamber. The thick walls of the bolt face encircle this, which is solid except for the extractor slot. Thus the Sabatti’s breaching is strong and effective.
The receiver ring is free of gas ports; instead, a single hole in the bottom of the bolt body vents any escaping gas, which may enter the bolt body through the firing pin hole downward into the magazine. The low-profile bolt handle which rotates only 80 degrees on opening is machined as a part of the bolt body instead of being welded on or mounted on a separate collar. The handle is bent slightly to the rear and has an oval-shaped grasping knob. The bolt shroud is a close fit and lacks a gas-deflecting flange. However, modern actions seal the cartridge more efficiently and such accidents are all but non-existent – at least with factory ammo and sensible reloads.
The magazine has the release in the front of the trigger guard and it looks as if the polished blued steel floor plate may hinge out, but it actually releases a dropout single-column box with straight-line feed. Holding 3 rounds of .270 ammo, the box is folded from sheet metal in one piece. Guide lips are pressed directly into the top of the box while a groove on either side prevents cartridges from being thrown forward by recoil to flatten soft lead tips. The follower is polished steel tensioned and supported underneath by a W-shaped ribbon spring. The black floor plate forms a nice contrast with the silver colored trigger guard/ magazine frame.
The medium-weight 560 mm hammer-forged barrels is threaded into the action, and has a diameter at the receiver of 27.25mm. It carries this measurement forward for about 33mm before gracefully tapering to 15mm at the dished muzzle. The end of the barrel is threaded for a silencer and equipped with a thread protector. The barrel is free-floated for the full length of the fore-end.
Although some of the .270’s thunder has been stolen by the new .270 WSM, which packs a slightly greater wallop, this fine caliber retains widespread popularity. It is still a terrific long-range killer of deer-size game - slightly better than the standard .280 Remington, although it is shaded slightly by the new 280 Ackley Improved.
For big-game hunters ammunition is available with different bullet types and weights. Hornady lists Superformance ammo in premium 130gn Interbond, 130gn GMX and 130gn SST with a muzzle velocity of 3200fps and Federal matches that speed with a 130gn Bonded Tip load, but Winchester’s Supreme Elite load with 150gn XP3 bullet at 2950fps is superior and demonstrates the .270 Winchester’s full potential as a long range wapiti rifle.
During my lifetime I’ve worn out eight .270 barrels, so I figure I’m qualified to summarize; in terms of performance, barrel life and being mild to shoot in a light rifle, the .270 Winchester is hard to beat, which is why it continues to sell steadily.
A weight of 130 grains may seem rather light for big game compared with say, a 165gn .30 caliber bullet, but the sectional density (S.D) of the 130gn .270 bullet is .241 and the ballistic coefficient (B.C) of a sharp pointed spitzer bullet of that weight such as Nosler’s E-Tip is .459. If the B.C. is higher, the ranging qualities of the bullet are better. This is because the more slowly it sheds its velocity. The S.D of a 150gn .270 bullet is .279 and the B.C of a sharp-pointed bullet such as the Nosler CT Ballistic Tip is .496. The S.D and B.C of the .30 caliber Nosler 165gn bullet are .248 and .475, less than those of the 150gn ‘.270’ bullet. Even the figures for Nosler’s 180gn .308 caliber E-Tip spitzer bullet of .270 and .523, is only slightly better than those for the 150gn .270 E-Tip. Sectional density figures for the 160gn .270 bullet and the 200gn .30 caliber bullet are not far apart either – an S.D of .298 against .301 and B.C figures of .434 and .423.
Experienced hunters discovered a long time ago, that a .270 bullet leaving the muzzle at high velocity with such impressive ballistic credentials is actually very effective against some of the larger deer species. Not only that but a rifle in ‘.270’ could be made a lot lighter than a .30 magnum and was easier to hit at long range because it kicks a lot less. Nobody is going to get a bruised shoulder shooting the Sabatti Rover – that’s for sure.
For testing, I attached a Zeiss Conquest ‘3-9x40’ scope in a one-piece Leupold Q/R base with medium height rings – a mount that I used on a Marlin XL7 at one time. This was a neat fit for the receiver and was more in keeping with the quality of the Sabatti than the Weaver rings and bases that accompanied the rifle.
The Sabatti was checked for accuracy using factory ammo from Hornady, Winchester, Federal, Remington and Sellier & Bellot as well as three reloads. The smallest 5-shot group shot with factory ammo 0.779 with Federal Fusion. The worst, 2.6 MoA, was with Hornady Superformance 130gn GMX to which the rifle evidently took an instant dislike.
The most accurate bullet in a reload was the 130gn RWS H-Mantel with a best group of 0.722. The Sierra 140gn Game King didn’t quite crack one MoA but ended up averaging an impressive 1.240. But the velocity attained with the Hornady 150gn SST was really surprising and groups averaging 1.556 are not to be sneezed at! But it’s not the occasional small group that counts overall, but the average accuracy for four strings of five shots. Another plus is when all the groups are round with no fliers.
The rifle never failed to function. Feeding was smooth and positive and the trigger a crisp, clean 1.36kg. All things considered, the Sabatti Rover Inox is a lot of gun for the money. It delivered good and consistent accuracy, and therefore, paraphrasing a favorite saying of an old friend who’s long been gone to that great big hunting ground in the sky: “I’ve simply got to give this musket a clean bill of health.”