This article originally appeared on Breach Bang Clear.
Can a good precision rifle be had for around 1,000 dollars? With the precision rifle series expanding quickly, and more and more people getting into long range shooting, more companies are releasing affordable options that offer a lot of bang for your buck. We tend to hear a lot about companies such as Remington, Savage, Tikka or other of the more widely brands. We do not hear a lot about companies such as Sabatti.
Like Marcus Aurelius, Luciano Pavarotti, and of course Lilli Carati, Sabatti hails from Italy. The company manufactures hunting rifles and shotguns as well as rifles made for competition or duty applications. I have been shooting their Rover Tactical Rifle in .308 now for a few months.
Retail for the Rover in the US sits right above 1,000 dollars. It can be had in .308, .223, 6.5 Creedmor and 6.5×47 Lapua, which of course presents a potential buyer with something of a quandary — what to buy?
The Sabatti Rover Tactical .308 bolt gun.
Translated (more or less) from Italian, and in the manufacturers words:
Our bolt action rifles have cold hammer forging:
Long story short, the rifle comes with a:
• Fully adjustable stock
Rover Tactical stock showing adjustable features.
• Removable magazine
Detachable bottom metal which will take AICS or Magpul magazines.
• Side bolt release
The Rover Tactical Rover, seen here with a Vortex optic, features a side bolt release.
• Threaded barrel
Add whatever suppressor or muzzle brake your evil little heart desires. Except something you build from an oil filter. That’s frowned upon.
• 20moa scope base
• Large bolt knob (that’s what she said)
• Pic rail for bipod attachment
Including all of these options and coming in around 1,000 bucks seems like a great deal to me (Buds Guns has them in stock.).
I chose .308 just to keep things simple and for availability of ammunition, then selected a Vortex PST gen 2 3-15x scope ($1299 MSRP) for glass. Counting the scope and the rifle itself, sans any additional furniture or accouterments, the entire package can be had for around $2500. That could go up a a bit depending how fancy you get with bipod and scope rings.
This package puts a new shooter into a very solid package for a reasonable price.
I plan on using this rifle for a couple precision rifle classes in the coming months, and I’ll be putting some new shooters behind it to see how it does in the hands of someone less experienced. I’ll report on that soon.
Guns America did a good video review of the rifle, take a watch:
For more information from Sabatti direct you can visit their website:
http://www.sabatti.it/en/products/rover-tactical-bolt-action-rifles/
For their US importer (which is who we received this rifle from) visit:
http://www.italianfirearmsgroup.com/sabatti/firearms/rifle-target
Take a look at some Vortex Optics offerings here at Rainier Arms or on Cabela’s. The optic you see here is the Viper PST Gen II 3-15×44; it is on Amazon, and eligible for Prime.
More to follow soon.