Another Italian import from Gardone Val Trompia, Sabatti is a relative newcomer to the scene in comparison to the oldest gunmaker in the valley. Ludovico Sabatti was a famous gunmaker in the early 1700s, and later generations of Sabatti gunmakers followed in his footsteps. You get the idea—the Sabatti family has been in the gun-building business since before the United States became a nation.
The new Sabatti Rover action is a completely new design made from a solid billet of high-strength 7075 aluminum alloy, precision machined to minimize manufacturing-induced tolerances, then hard anodized. All of the new Rovers in the series got a redesigned action and bolt.
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The Sabatti Rover bolt is CNC machined from steel bar stock. The three-lug 60-degree opening bolt, along with a new sturdy extractor and removable knob, sets the new Sabatti Rover action apart.
The Sabatti Rover Hunter Classic Pro rifle tested comes with a standard, two-stage trigger group. The cold-hammer forged barrel makes use of a traditional rifling. The barrel comes fitted with a barrel extension, which allows ease of barrel interchangeability without headspace adjustment. Its barrel measures 22 inches, wears a matte black finish and comes with a muzzle brake mounted on an M14x1 thread.
During sight-in, the Rover printed five-shot groups as small as 0.795-inch at 100 yards with Hornady 147-grain Match loads. It liked the Hornady 143-grain ELDX, too, printing several sub-MOA groups. It averaged 0.937 MOA for all groups and all shooters. To achieve this level of accuracy, a Trijicon Accupoint 5-20X optic rode the rifle’s Picatinny rail.
