Here we go another Sabatti review

Well this is embarrassing. ... I have been shouldering the rifle to develop mechanics like a shotgun, and asked myself "why am I lining up the brass forward dot deep down into the v notch rear sight when the tops are not lining up? And then it hit me, I was aiming height wise all wrong!!! Brass dot should be centered and level with top of rear sights. I am not used to this type of sight so I did it wrong. I hope you guys understand. The rear v notch is bigger than the front so you float the front tsight level and center. That is why I shot so high. Oh well. Very embarrassing. I guess I am not the expert I thought I am. I am sure rifle will shot see center next session. Crap

Nope the reason you are hitting too high is that the front sight is not tall enough (or the rear sight is too high).
The easiest fix would be to install a taller front sight.
The proper sight picture should be with the front bead centered in the rear notch (right/left) and even with the top of the rear sight.
 
Nope the reason you are hitting too high is that the front sight is not tall enough (or the rear sight is too high).
The easiest fix would be to install a taller front sight.
The proper sight picture should be with the front bead centered in the rear notch (right/left) and even with the top of the rear sight.

It depends upon the depth of the notch, as well as the type of notch. They can vary, quite a bit (even within the context of a given maker, the style changing over time).

Not a double, but the early Dakota rifles (from the 1980's) had an extremely shallow vee. Others (most) are a lot more deep, some prominently so.
 
It is simple...to bring the point of impact down you install a taller front sight.
 
All of this recent positive talk about sabattis shooting well is dangerous... dangerous for my checkbook... I sense an imminent purchase in my future!
 
Quick update. I am not concerenced about the front sight. I spoke to wholesale hunter and they will ship me a front sight in any size I need but advised to develop a load and use that height. I shot 500 Barnes and they crossed. As I added powder they are coming in together BUT My chrono is not working so I am hesitant so push it without velocity numbers. I tried 450 Barnes and they are doing the same thing. According to " shooting the British double" I should be adding powder at this point but I will wait for the chrono. At 85 grain, bullets crossed by 9". At 90 grains 6". At 95 grain 3". Sounds like a 100 grains is where I'm headed. On the other hand hornady 480dgs with 94 grains shot great so I was able to replicate the factory load.
 
Keep after it! Sounds like you are just about there.
 
Quick update. I am not concerenced about the front sight. I spoke to wholesale hunter and they will ship me a front sight in any size I need but advised to develop a load and use that height. I shot 500 Barnes and they crossed. As I added powder they are coming in together BUT My chrono is not working so I am hesitant so push it without velocity numbers. I tried 450 Barnes and they are doing the same thing. According to " shooting the British double" I should be adding powder at this point but I will wait for the chrono. At 85 grain, bullets crossed by 9". At 90 grains 6". At 95 grain 3". Sounds like a 100 grains is where I'm headed. On the other hand hornady 480dgs with 94 grains shot great so I was able to replicate the factory load.
Not that i would advice you to keep going blindly, but if you are not seeing any pressure issues on your cases i would go up slowly. but best to get a chrony and look at the speed. Just remember that you will get a totally different result with the monolithic than with the DGS.
 
The proper sight picture should be with the front bead centered in the rear notch (right/left) and even with the top of the rear sight.

never seen one of these rifles so i dont know what type rear sight is used. if its an english type shallow v express sight then the front bead should be nestled into the bottom of the shallow v for the correct sight picture.
 
Another update. I have approximately 160 rounds down the barrel. I really enjoy shooting it. It is breaking in nicely and opens closes really nicely now. I don't have any primer drag marks as other member reported and it opens super nice, mine is ejector so I bring it close in to eject, the brass is soft and will easily kink if it hits the ground. I have 6 boxes of factory ammo and will buy more. If nothing else for brass!
I have switched to a faster burning powder. I think h4831 works really well with hornady dgs and dgx but not with solids. Well Today I loaded 8 rounds of 450 Barnes with faster powder and very first 2 rounds went into the same hole! All others shot great but they were loaded in 2 grain increment so I can not be sure. I might be onto something. I think I'm being waaaayyyyyyy to focused on accuracy and it might be a mute point. I might be done At this point. I will load 10 in this load and see how it shoots. I will post pictures soon. I have no problem hitting a 20" gong at 100 with my loads standing up so I might be over thinking the whole thing. I will be setting up a chrono this weekend and testing this new load. So...we shall see
 
My best regulation was on 2180 ft/s so it would be interesting to see what you are getting.
 
Another update. 180 rounds down the pipe. Slow powder causing groups to cross. I'm being meticulous and trying all kinds of bullets, powders etc. I have switched over to reloader 17 and grouping is 1.5 inch at 60 yards. But, I can not tell if the rounds are crossing. One shot will cross, another will stack on top, same hole etc. I'm starting to flinch and have to try really hard to relax before every shot. I would like to be certain groups are not crossing but at this point I might just say who cares. I will do another range session and might call it good. Given shooters error, unless I put the rifle into a jig that will consistently shoot into a same spot I might be wasting time and money. Longest shot I took in hunting was 70 yards so what's the point? Bragging rights? I might just let it go for a while and try to pattern the rifle as I shoot more. One thing I learned is the target supplied with the rifle is a joke. Any brand rifle. Any $$$ amount. 2 shots 1.5 inch apart? Please. Complete marketing BS. We are shooting barrels that are at best 1.5-2 inch moa, 1 inch apart. So theoretical spread, given perfect shooting technique with zero error and ultra accurate ammo would yield same hole or 2 inch spread. Now add shooter error, ammo variance. Etc. errors stack up. Maybe I'm just sick and tired of shooting it and driving to the range sucks, but I will do 1 maybe 2 sessions and call it done. Best shooting is done with peregrine bullets, go figure. I live in the USA and need bullets out of South Africa. Just my luck
 
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Those 4 shots actually measure less than 1 inch apart. The other holes are Barnes tsx, which for the life of me I can not get to shoot well.
 
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Here are the suspects. Barnes 450/500 tsx Peregrine 480, hornady 480dgs and Barnes 45/70 400.

image.jpeg
 
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i also tried about every make available in SA and have the best results with the Peregrines
 
Yes, unfortunately, USA supplier is all out. I bought the last 2 boxes of 480 solids. This is the best bullet I have ever used and I bought some for my 45/70. Far superior to Barnes in the USA. Barnes has a very large hollow point so is much longer. It also lacks the relief cuts of peregrine so does not slide down the barrel like peregrine. I am very very impressed so thank you for introducing me to these bullets. I am surprised no one came up with this concept before, solid and expanding same ballistics. Due to brass plug. Genius.
 
Another range session. This gun shoots like a laser but only with peregrine bullets. Barnes shoot ok 3-4 inch spread so in an emergency I would use them. I upped the powder load to 90 and am averaging 2200fps. I shot 8 rounds into 1 inch. I consider it done. I will say that driving to the range and shooting this gun in sucked. I live in Los Angeles and traffic is a nightmare. Driving to the range and spending $20 just to shoot 4 rounds and discover the load is wrong was a real pleasure. I probably did 25 trips to the range. My dream is to own a piece of land where I could shoot on it and that would have made this process much easier. One day. My higher sight arrived and now the gun shoots 2 inch high at 50. I might take the rear down a fraction to get it dead center. Sight was supplied free of charge. Next size up would drop it too much, so I elected to take the rear down. Since changing targets is only available during range closure every 30 minutes I only had 2 targets set up. It would have been nice to set up a lot of targets so each 2 shots can land on their own target but I would take up another lane and this range is busy. So I had to take multiple shots at the same target. I would love to have a picture of just two shots side by side and post on here for bragging right but I don't think this represents real accuracy of the gun. I often see guys shooting a bolt gun with a scope at multiple targets and getting a spread of 2-3 inches all over the place. Then they shoot 3 shots and get 1 inch and proclaim "there it is, I'm an amazing shot". The correct picture would be to overlap all of their targets and that would tell them what their real shooting skill is. In this gents case it would be 4-5 inches at 100, perfectly acceptable for hunting, but not for internet bragging. That is why when people post 2 shots, free hand out of a double, at 50 and shots are parallel 1 inch apart, I wonder how many other shots crossed, shot 4-5 inches apart until 2 landed side by side and whop, there it is! So in retrospect, $1000 later on range fees, ammo, cursing LA traffic and loosing hair over this gun, I have concluded that my approach of shooting multiple shots at the same target and getting composite grouping is better and I'm done. At least that is what I think so that I don't have to do this any more. I also noticed as another member concluded that gripping the front around the barrels and holding tighter produced better grouping. Gun opens and closes smooth and is nicely broken in. I have 200 rounds down the barrel. Opening level is almost center but not quite. It appears to have settled there. So, do I feel Sabatti is worth it? I think so. I would still like to own a proper English double and will so one day but for now this gun is it. Is it better than a heym or krieghoff, I can not say that. Nor is this the best gun on the world. Would I recommend it, sure. It shoots good, appears to be well made and the wood is nice. Case could be better. Barrels and the rib is brazed not soft soldered, trigger is crisp but very heavy, and the blueing is ok, not great. White lettering on top is atrocious so I might have it re blued. But as another member said, unless I have a mechanical issue, I am more than pleased with this gun. This gun is a heck of a value. Now the hunt planing can begin.
 
I would also like to add the following. Advice based on my experience. In no way I would consider myself an expert so please don't take it as such. I am not looking to prove anyone wrong or get into debates, this is just my experience. And I'm just some guy on the Internet with no credibility so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.
Before you condem the rifle or the load make sure your shooting is consistent. Your shooting can deteriorate with these heavy loads quickly and the worst you can have is leave the range not sure how the shooting went. You need to change only one variable at a time. But your hold and aim has to be 100 %. If nothing is working try changing the way you hold the rifle, especially the amount pressure you apply into the shoulder.
Shoot with a chronograph. I guessed speed a few times thinking I can go higher and I was always wrong.
Take good notes. In the begging I was remembering stuff and this info was all wasted, as you quickly forget what speed, crossing not etc..
And finally I want to thank all of you good folks on thsi forum and on others. I read much about how a double shoots and works and this helped me tremendously so hopefully this can help someone else. Good luck in your shooting development.
 
I don't know much about new Sabatti rifles, mine was absolute junk but it was an old model.

however, I will NEVER do business with wholesalehunter again! some time back I tried to purchase a rifle from them and when my FFL took a little long (an extra couple days) to get his license threw to them (he had fax trouble) they went and sold the gun to someone else... after I had already paid for it! those assholes then told me I was now on backorder for another rifle which was rare and who knows when I would get it. I managed to get my money back after some heated arguing but to date I have never seen such terrible customer service.

-matt
 
That's understandable however my experience has been completely different. I have been in touch with the owner throughout the whole process and we spent a lot of time chatting about hunting and rifles. When I decided to upgrade to ejectors, they picked up the shipping cost. Very cool. As soon as my FFL shipped out the rifle back, another was sent it. I did not have to wait to return the old rifle. The treated me like I was buying a $100k rifle so I'm very pleased. They supplied the front sight for free even though They had nothing to do with regulating the rifle. So based on my experience, I recommend them highly.
 
Well I just took the action apart to examine and tweek if needed. First advice, don't do it. Springs are a nightmare to compress. I had to make tooling to compress them. One almost flew into hyperspace but I caught it. Action is massive and springs are top notch. I don't think I will ever mess with it. I cleaned it and put fresh grease here and there. Didn't do anything else. The coil spring for the lever was the worst. I had trouble pushing with both hands. I will just use it to break in. I examined the safety as I read reports of safety engaging during firing but can't see how that would happen. The notches are very deep and a coil spring pushes the catch in. You could always add a heavier spring but I can't see the need for this. Ever. Now onto loading my own ammo.....
Thanks very much ill try a look to Sabatti. Sadly they have had so much negative reports that it damaged the brand.
 

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