Sabatti Rover Varmint in .308 Win - Looking Good!

Sabatti is one of the quieter names in the UK gun trade, but they showcase a few different rifles with a bit of styling panache different from the usual run-of-the-mill Remington 700 clones. They use a 7075 aluminium action that’s machined from a billet as the foundation for their switch barrel guns, and it’s nice to see something alternative in a multi-calibre format at a lower price point.

Rover Range
The Rover action is available in several barrel/stock formats, but this Varmint specification shows a deep, blacked finish to its 24” cold hammer forged barrel, which, incidentally, is threaded 5/8x24 for a moderator or brake. There’s an 11º taper on the neatly finished crown and the tube features Sabatti’s Multi Radial Rifling (MRR) system. The barrel shows a straight taper back to the receiver, which shows the same finish, and it is fully free-floated within the laminate stock’s barrel channel. Importantly, the woodwork is stiff enough to prevent any intermittent contact from occurring.

Action details
The chromed bolt is spiral-fluted for smooth travel and offers an appropriately scaled 55mm handle with a 22mm conical tip. Three lugs mean a 60º lift to cock and there’s a sprung plunger ejector on the left side of the push feed bolt face to fling brass clear. The bolt diameter is 21.7mm and there is a 114mm stroke length, enabling long action cartridges. The bolt head, like the barrel, is also interchangeable, if required. The action has a flat base with vertical walls and the left side shows some machined detail as well as the maker’s name and model. A bolt release catch is positioned rear/left.
The two-position safety catch on the right side of the action offers strong detents, with forward for FIRE and rear for SAFE (with bolt lock). It’s nice to see a full-length uninterrupted Picatinny rail machined as part of the receiver, as this makes scope mounting simple and secure. This was different to the interrupted version seen on the website, so it goes to show how a few changes in a CAD program can alter the evolving fundamentals of a fully billet machined action for the better.

Multi calibre possibilities
The Rover is a switch barrel rifle, and you can remove the action from the stock by undoing the two T25 Torx screws in the trigger guard. The stock features aluminium bedding pillars and a small amount of epoxy bedding compound surrounding the frontal clamping/recoil stud area, to ensure the action remains stationary in the machined inlet.
Three opposing 5mm Allen key clamp screws are staggered on either side of the receiver’s front end, and with these released, the barrel simply sides out. There is a location stud to ensure the barrel is in the correct position and the three bolt lugs lock directly into the steel barrel (not the aluminium receiver) to bear firing pressure.
The trigger is Sabatti’s own single-stage match unit. It is weight adjustable and the one seen here broke at 900-grams/32 oz with about 4mm of overtravel at the tip of the 5mm wide black blade. There is a tactile cocked action indicator at the rear of the bolt’s shroud, so you can monitor status visually or with your thumb.
The polymer bottom ‘metal’ is AICS-compatible, and the rifle comes supplied with a 7-round Sabatti magazine. Action feeding and ejection were reliable from this standardised format, which loads from the front in a single column. Also, single rounds dropped on top of the magazine, through the ejection port, fed cleanly to the chamber. The magazine release catch hangs below the front of the trigger guard and is accessible with either hand.

Distinctive woodwork
The stock is distinctive in a bright blue birch ply laminate and shows a good ergonomic layout. The forend shows a moderate 48mm beavertail width for ample grip as well as the ability to ride bags smoothly. There is an underside sling stud and a short length of M-LOK rail, for accessories, as well as lateral QR anchor points for a biathlon-style sling. The furniture’s matte finish is blemish-free, with notably neat cutouts to the barrel cooling slots within the upper finger grooves. With the action out, you can see the neat inlet machining and bedding, including a bonded metal bridge pin across the stock’s internal structure, just rear of the recoil lug anchor point. Laminate stocks, and some composites, are prone to splitting here, so the fact that Sabatti are thinking ahead with reinforcement is confidence boosting.
No chequering is featured but the ambidextrous vertical pistol grip swoops down behind the receiver’s tang, allowing a thumb-up or thumb-wrapped hold. It rises again to show an adjustable cheekpiece with over 30mm of vertical travel. The slim comb with a soft touch finish fits smoothly under your cheekbone without displacing your jaw. The butt is smartly finished with a 20mm thick recoil pad, giving the rifle a length of pull of 13.25” (335mm), which is short, but one spacer is supplied and more could easily be added.

To the range
I set up and zeroed the rifle using a Wildcat moderator and a Schmidt & Bender scope with Tier-One scope mounts. I ran 20 rounds through the rifle and gave it a clean, finding nothing worrisome on the cleaning patches. Shooting from the bench at 100m showed the rifle to operate and function smoothly, although the length of pull was short compared to most competing rifles and certainly important where precision is concerned. Bolt lift and operation showed no failures to feed or eject, and the trigger was consistent, although the reach to the blade was quite short at 70mm. The recoil was well controlled with minimal muzzle jump and the pulse created was central in the firm, non-squishy recoil pad, which I liked. I also liked the cheekpiece and found it easy to maintain my position within the scope’s eye box. This is an important benefit for a high-magnification target scope, which can be fundamentally more critical with a smaller exit pupil. I constantly felt cramped with the short length of pull.

Preferences
The performance on paper showed the gun was particularly critical to specific ammunition types, with only the 168-grain Hornady Match ELD-M achieving sub-MOA performance. However, in fairness, this was the only match bullet I used for this review, but I would have expected better with the conventional lead-cored hunting bullets if not necessarily the solid copper projectiles. The MRR appears to be well-finished and didn’t attract significant copper deposits. It was a fundamentally ‘fast’ barrel, developing velocities very close to the published velocity figures on the boxes. This was no doubt down to the 24” length, too.
I only had one barrel for the rifle but tested the return to zero after removing the action from the stock, removing/replacing the same barrel, and then shooting from the same position and with the same ammunition. Overall, the return to zero was pretty good, with the POI 2cm high and 2cm right. All without the use of a torque wrench.
I liked the looks of the rifle and thought that although marketed as a precision rifle, it definitely fits the varminter name. Saying that, .308 seems quite outdated now for a rifle of this specification. Nowadays, .223 is used for varminting and the 6.5s for precision use, which is why they are the most common press rifle chamberings I review.

Conclusion
As a mechanical package, the Rover was a functional rifle with great visual appeal, although I was a little disappointed it only ‘liked’ one type of ammunition. Personally, I felt the rifle’s performance was restricted by the short length of pull and I’d like to see multiple recoil pad spacers supplied to assist with this. The trigger was crisp and predictable, the bolt operation reliable, and I thought the gun, even with its short length of pull, handled recoil exceptionally well. When aiming, the balance of the rifle was appreciated. The stable forend meant any forces applied from or to the bipod’s feet were totally tactile and assured, without any wobble from the stock’s flexibility. I’d certainly like to have shot it with more pad spacers and perhaps an alternate calibre, in order to appreciate the switch barrel capability more. It would be a great .223 varminter, with a 6.5 PRC barrel for those long-range days.