2023 Author: Katelyn Chandter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 13:08
Battista Rizzini, founded in the early 1970s, is considered by many to be one of the best Italian manufacturers and specializes in the production of mid-range weapons.
When it comes to buying a mid-range sporting shotgun, the shooter is faced with a problem: how to choose a shotgun from the variety of models offered by the world's leading manufacturers, each of which promises victory with his shotgun at the most representative tournaments. When a shooter wants to buy a gun for a trench stand in the same price range, he also faces a choice problem, albeit of a slightly different kind. It turns out that there is not much to choose from. Of domestic and very inexpensive guns there are TOZ-57T and IZH-39-01, of the relatively expensive ones there is MC 106-01, of the well-known foreign-made guns - MK38 guns from Miroku and Beretta 682 and 686, Browning XT, that's probably all. The production of sporting guns for the circle and trench is not very profitable for most companies, since the demand for them cannot be compared with, say, the demand for sporting guns.
When I asked this question to the well-known Russian clay trap shooting coach Oleg Kulakov, he expanded the list by adding Battista Rizzini to it. Oleg Nikolayevich said that this company produces a Premier gun for a trench stand. When I began to get acquainted with this model of the gun, it turned out that it is also available in the Sporting and Skeet versions, and the hunting version of this model is called the S 2000.
Battista Rizzini and the company he heads are well known to gun lovers. The surname Rizzini is not often found in Italy, but in Brescia, where the production of hunting and sporting weapons in Italy is concentrated, many gunsmiths bear this surname. Suffice it to name such companies as Emilio Rizzini, FAIR (IR in this case stands for Isidoro Rizzini) and others.
The Battista Rizzini company, founded in the early 1970s, is considered by many experts to be one of the best Italian manufacturers and specializes in the production of weapons in the mid-price category, having abandoned the production of budget models from the very beginning. The company is a family business: the son and two daughters of Battista Rizzini work with him. The company's products are popular not only in Italy, but also in many European countries. Its representative office was opened in the USA.
In the not too distant past, Italian arms companies, having caught the growing interest in sporting, began to mass produce guns for this shooting discipline, not always having a clear idea of what kind of "beast" it was and how, in fact, to shoot it. And they gave the amazed shooters such samples that they could neither say in a fairy tale nor describe with a pen. But in the production of weapons for the trench stand, the Italians actually have no competitors, because if the Italians have football in the first place, then shooting at the trench stand is in the second place. Hardly any global manufacturer can compete with the likes of Beretta, Perazzi or Gamba for premium trench stand shotguns, and Battista Rizzini is out of reach of competitors in its price segment.
The Battista Rizzini company produces sporting smooth-bore weapons with vertical barrels only, hunting smooth-bore weapons (mainly with vertical barrels) and rifled weapons (double-barreled fittings of several models in eight calibers). The pads are made of chrome-nickel-molybdenum steel in two versions: lightweight for hunting and small-caliber rifles and reinforced for sporting rifles.
Battista Rizzini made some changes to the fundamental design of the frame trigger mechanism, so, in particular, the trigger is equipped with a patented system that excludes a shot when the gun is not closed. In addition, the design changes made by Rizzini make it possible to regulate not only the force on the trigger (on the test gun, the force on the trigger was 1300 g), but also the force of the striker's impact on the capsule. The forend was not left without attention either. It is equipped with a mechanism to compensate for the wear of metal parts. The locking system uses a Perde frame, so Battista Rizzini guns cannot be called low-profile guns, but still the height of the gun in the stock is 6 mm less than that of Browning rifles.
The barrel lengths of the Premier do not fit the conventional trenching gun. So, the Premier model for a trench stand has barrels 75 or 81 cm long. The hunting version of the Premier - the S 2000 model gun - has barrels 77.5 cm long. The explanation is very simple. Battista Rizzini implemented the achievements of the outstanding Russian coach Oleg Kulakov. Here is what Oleg Nikolaevich himself told a magazine reporter a few years ago: “My suggestions and personal developments were implemented by leading Italian manufacturers of sporting weapons in a new model of a gun. Barrels for a round stand will be 72–73 cm long, for a trench stand - 77 cm. What are the advantages of such a barrel? Firstly, it has an aiming line of sufficient length. This length is optimal to ensure accurate aiming, while maintaining the necessary maneuverability. The standard barrel length for a trench stand is 75 cm. Two centimeters is a small difference, but these two centimeters significantly increase the kinetic energy of the shot. The 77 cm barrel was made to my order by Perazzi and proved to be excellent at last year's European Championships. The lateral and peripheral pellets had sufficient sharpness and kinetic energy to hit the target. Of course, if the shooter hits the target with the center of the talus, then he is able to break any target, but in this case we are talking about one or two or three targets that separate the finalist from the athlete who was not included in the coveted six finalists. " Truly, there is no place for a prophet in his own country.
On the picture:
- Rizzini Premier gun;
- production workshop of the Battista Rizzini plant;
- Battista Rizzini is a family business: the son and two daughters of Battista Rizzini work with him;
- Battista Rizzini made some changes to the design of the frame trigger mechanism, so, in particular, the trigger is equipped with a patented system that excludes a shot when the gun is not closed.
The mass of barrels with a length of 75 cm is 1, 52 kg, while the mass of the gun as a whole was 3, 65 kg. A shotgun with 81 cm barrels will be heavier. The center of gravity of the gun is at the pivot axis. Shooting on the trench stand showed that the gun has a high controllability.
The muzzle constrictions are fixed - three-quarters choke and full choke. USM has a non-selective trigger. (But sporting shotguns are equipped with interchangeable chokes and a selective trigger trigger.) The chamber length is 70 mm. The diameter of the table channel is 18.4 mm. The bore is chrome-plated.
The aiming bar (10 mm wide) is parallel and devoid of any frills in the form of an intermediate front sight, a milled groove or a color line. There is only one front sight on the aiming bar - either plastic or brass. Both the aiming and side rails are ventilated.
The standard stock with a fixed comb is 375 mm long, the stock died in the comb 30 mm, in the heel - 40 mm. On request, the gun can be equipped with a stock with an adjustable comb. The stocks are made on CNC machines according to Battista Rizzini's own patterns. The precision of manufacturing of all parts of the gun is such that the stocks are interchangeable.
Not only the aiming bar, but the gun as a whole is devoid of frills. The stock of the shotgun is adorned with only the Rizzini lettering made in gold. The hunting version of this S 2000 shotgun is not so austere. Polished chrome plated bezels decorated with engraving. Luxury version of the Premier model - S790EL. It is decorated with hand engraving in gold. For the manufacture of the box, a selected butt nut was used. In general, there is a choice for every taste (and wallet), but, in my opinion, the simplest version of this gun, devoid of unnecessary embellishments, will look optimally at the stand.
P. S. While preparing the material for publication, I involuntarily drew attention to the lack of hype around this model of the gun. Neither annoying advertisements, nor sophisticated attempts by marketers to force the designer to give the bore an unusual shape, and then trumpet the whole world about it, nor any super shocks. Moreover, the model of the gun was completely and completely created by the designers of the company, no one went to the design ateliers (in Italy it became a craze - or a disease? - of gunsmiths) to give it a pretentious look. It seems that Battista Rizzini from the very beginning abandoned the use of everything that makes up the form, focusing on the content. Perfectly aware of the riskiness of this step in the current state of affairs on the arms market, he nevertheless made it. Did and did not lose. The decision is bold, even desperate, but the quality of the gun's workmanship speaks for itself.
