Ladies and Gentlemen:

Well, I beat the crowd this morning at Cabelas of Hamburg, Pennsylvania, and took a long, hard look at a Merkel 140 in 470 N. E. and three Sabattis in 450/400 3", 470 N. E. and 500 N. E. Here are my impressions after examining and shouldering all four double rifles.

The Merkel is a serious and beautifully made double rifle at $14,000.00. The wood fit is slightly proud, but has no gaps in the inletting. The recoil pad is functional and slippery enough to shoulder the rifle well (I purposely had a sweater on to see if it would grab). The wood has a well figured grain and nicely finished.

The Merkel's metal fit and finish is flawless. Up front the regulation wedge sits out about 3/16". The bores and chambers appear to be well cut without any imperfections that I could see. The greener cross bolt drops home well, but the greener bite is definitely in the way if you wanted to reload fast.

I did not pull the trigger, so I had no knowledge of the trigger weight or let off.

The comb is lower, and the sight plane is corresponding lower. Actually, it fit me much better than the first time I threw it up two weeks ago. With my eyes closed it falls into place, but the comb is a bit narrow for my taste.

I'm 5'10", 205 lbs with square shoulders.

Its a heavy, but well balanced rifle at about 10.5 to 11 lbs.

The three Sabattis were all about the same.

The wood fit was a bit more proud than the Merkel, but only one had a little relief behind the trigger guard, where it mates with the stock. Otherwise there were no gaps in all three rifles' wood fit.

The finish is a standard, sprayed on I assume polyurethane. Too glossy for my taste. The forearm was so tightly held in place, that even after pressing the release button, removing the forestock would be a bit of a chore at first blush.

The Merkel uses a hinged release on the forearm. I did not disassemble it.

The red rubber recoil pad on the Sabatti is a POS, it caught on my sweater every time.

The sight plane, comb and heel are considerably higher than on the Merkel. A much straighter stock. With my eyes closed, it still fell into place, but the comb is a bit high even for me.

The sights did not look Mickey Mouse to me, but almost identical to the Merkel. Newer production?

The metal fit was flawless. The engraving was well done, but the the release lever has a weird animal where I'm not certain of its heritage at the upper part of the lever. A bit odd.

Mechanically, both the Merkel and Sabatti were quite tight.

The Sabatti is noticably lighter around 9.5 lbs. and is very well balanced.

The bores and chambers looked flawless, and there was no "grinding issue" at the muzzles.

I asked the head of the Gun Library, "Joe" about the muzzle grinding issue, and he said they didn't have any there with that problem.

My conclusion based only upon inspection and shouldering: I'd buy the Merkel in a heartbeat, if I had a spare $15,000.00 laying around, but not in 470 N. E.

I'd buy one of the Sabatti's in 450/400 3" for $5,000-5,500.00, and go shoot the hell out of it. I haven't seen the internals, but as a functional double rifle, it doesn't appear to be a piece of junk. If it shot well, and the regulation was not an issue, all you'd have to do is dump the recoil pad and maybe shave the comb down a bit.

At $5,000 to $5,500, Cabelas may have a winner. Joe told me they have sold a lot of them.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

Thanks a bunch. I've been looking for the comparison.

Yale, there's no reason to spend $14K on a Merkel 140....$9,500 to $10K would be about right.

Dear Biebs:

Yeah, I know, a shop down in Austin, Texas has one for sale NIB at a starting price of $10,000.00 as advertised on Gunbroker.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

You can find them lightly used for $8,000-$8,500 as well.

Yale
I have a Sabatti Deluxe in .45/70. The animal on the lever is supposed to be a European fox. The Italians seem to like them a lot as I have a very nice 28 ga shotgun by another maker that also has one.

I stripped the finish off my Sabatti and reshaped the forend and added a shadowline to the cheekpiece. I also shortened the length of pull and added a Pachmeyer sporting clays decelerator pad. My forend release was stiff also but a little file work was all that was required to make it work properly. I sort of expect to have to do a few small jobs to any machine made gun in order to make them suit me.

I didn't take the action apart, but while I had the stock off I lubricated all the working parts that I could get to. The quality of fit and finish was equal to any other gun in the same price range that I've worked on.

Dear MacD:

Your inspection of the Sabatti internals corresponds to what some other Sabatti owners have discussed with me via PM's. It appears to be a solid workable rifle.

Shooting a 9+ pound one in 500 N. E. has to be the type of thing one would only do when a bit drunk though.

That is a weird looking fox. It almost looks like a Sci-Fi version. On the other hand the Sabatti engraving was tasteful and not overdone in my opinion.

Thank you for your input.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I really liked my 450-400 but it just would not shoot, crossing at 50 yards with 5-6" groups no matter what load I tried. It went back to Cabelas. I still would like one that I knew was properly regulated though.

MACD: How are the triggers on your .45-70? What loads are you shooting in it?

quote:

Cabelas of Hamburg, Pennsylvania, and took a long, hard look at a Merkel 140 in 470 N. E.

I looked at the Merkel this morning. While definitely a nice double, I'll stick to the Sabatti I have. Yeah, for a new gun, I had to replace the recoil pad and have the rear sights worked, but it shoots well and I could have 2 of the Sabattis and be in it for less than the price of the Merkel. I also found the Merkel a bit heavier but for a .470, that may be about right. My Sabatti just throws to the shoulder comfortably and has a nice feel. Couldn't justify the extra expense for the Merkel.

I have shot and looked at several of both now.

Neither is a first rate gun, but both are functional doubles IMO, the Sabati is a steal at the price but I am not fond of the big ugly forend, but hey you could afford to fix and change a Sabbati and still not have much in it..

The Merkel feels good, shoots good and is nice looking gun, but if I'm going to spend that much money its going to be a much better gun than a Merkel..I can find a nice Jefferys or even one of Searcys guns for that kind of money..I see used Merkels from $6000 to $9000 and thats probably a great buy depending on the caliber..I would not buy one of the early Merkels in 416 Rigby or 375 H&H if they were selling for $1000..

quote:

MACD: How are the triggers on your .45-70? What loads are you shooting in it?

Not to jump in and steal MACD's thunder, but I've used the 300 gr Hornady bullets behind 46.9 grns of IMR 4198 on my Sabatti 45-70. This is the most accurate load out of my gun.

Tyler

Tyler
I also use the Hornady bullets. I got sidetracked with another project and haven't finished working up a load. I bought a couple of boxes of the Hornady ammo that it was regulated with to hold me over. The Sabatti shoots them very well. Have you tried any other powders?

The triggers on my rifle are pretty good but not great. The pulls are relatively light but the back trigger has too much creep. I plan to work on them when I get a chance. I lubricated the action innards with medium density grease when I had the stock off to shorten it and install a recoil pad. The grease took a great deal of grittiness out of the pulls. Actually, I guess that's why I sort of put the trigger job on the back burner.

Great post, well balanced and devoid of emotion. One of our members had an extensive post of the quality of the Sabbati's iternals and it was quite good. Mine had the same issue with the forend. Extremely hard to remove. Mine shot very well too, but I just could not live with the ground crowns. Anyhow guns like everything else is value for monies paid and in my view the Sabbatis are a great value. jorge

Thanks for the comparison. I lusted after a Sabatti double until all the problems arose. Lucky for me as I found a pair of very sweet doubles later instead.
The little animal to which you refer is called a "Volpe". It is seated in post Heraldic symbolism. I have one on an Italian 16 ga. by Rambati or Rumati. If you look closely you will see the Irish Setter or Spaniel, your choice.

Thanks Frank, so "volpe" is Italian for fox.

It sure makes a top lever look like crap! Next project is to weld this up and make it look like it should.

quote:

I also use the Hornady bullets. I got sidetracked with another project and haven't finished working up a load. I bought a couple of boxes of the Hornady ammo that it was regulated with to hold me over. The Sabatti shoots them very well. Have you tried any other powders?

I also used RL7 but the felt recoil was a lot sharper and I didn't like it as much. I shot a Muflon sheep with 300 grn lazercast bullets, but have since just started shooting the 300 grn Hornady hollowpoints.

quote:

Originally posted by Frank Martinez:
Thanks for the comparison. I lusted after a Sabatti double until all the problems arose. Lucky for me as I found a pair of very sweet doubles later instead.
The little animal to which you refer is called a "Volpe". It is seated in post Heraldic symbolism. I have one on an Italian 16 ga. by Rambati or Rumati. If you look closely you will see the Irish Setter or Spaniel, your choice.

To me this looks like a dog vomiting. I am not trying to be flippant, it honestly does.