I've never owned a double rifle and always wanted one and by chance I found a Sabatti 45/70 for sale at a local pawn shop. I know there where issues with Sabatti's regulation in the past. The gun looks to be in great condition comes with the original case and regulation target, it shows to be regulated with hornady 325gr FTX. My question is what should I be looking for and what would a fair price be? Thanks for any help or advice.

Heath

Look at the muzzles. If they look like they were ground then let it go. I have owned three double rifles. A Merkel an American custom built and the a Sabatti. I still own the the Sabatti as it shot best and I feel they are well built, mine IS accurate in fact regulated better than the others which had some issues and I let them go. You will see others knocking the Sabatti but I bet they have never shot one or are biased in some way. Hope this information helps.

What cm216 said. Check the muzzles and if round and not ground out of round you may have a good rifle. I have shot a few. Some could not hit anything and some amazingly accurate. If possible, ask if you can test fire it. Also, a friend in Zim had his .500 Sabatti barrels separate from the rib. Do this: take the rifle apart, suspend the barrels on one finger, hanging by one of the lumps and tap the barrels with a fork, or anything metal. If a ring like a tuning fork, then the barrel solder is fine. If a dull thud, walk away.
Cal

There are many satisfied Sabatti DR owners. As I remember the early problems were corrected in later production, but some guns had their muzzles ground to resolve problems and that has already been addressed by the other two responses.

Best of luck with your purchase.

Heath, depends on what they are asking for it. They originally sold for about $5K, but known issues with the ground muzzles and other regulation issues has hurt their resale value in the aftermarket. If the muzzles are untouched and the barrels ring true and the price is right, might be a great starter double.

Thanks everyone I'll check it out and let you know.

Actually the problems all seemed to be with the big NE calibers,I have yet to read a bad review on a 45-70,it's not the same action as the big guys.
Our very own Elephant hunter Will chambered one out to a 450 NE,maybe he will chime in?
These guns sold for about $3000.00 if I am not mistaken.

Yes, I was just going to say the same thing; but I owned three big Sabattis, two 450s and one 500; all were very accurate and without issues. Still have the 500.
Never heard of any issues with the little ones, of which the 45-70 is one. I think there was an 8mm too.

I think Bill is correct. All negative issus are with the nitro express calibers. Before the muzzle gridning issue came to light, Cabalas retailed the rifles for about $5000. The muzzle issue dropped the price to 3-4K.
Cal

I have owned two one 45/70 and a 450NE, both were very accurrate. The advice you have been given is spot on. The 45/70 and 9.3x74's sold for 2500-3500 New. So a fair price for one at a pawn shop would be in the 1750-2500 range in my opinion. The 450/400 and bigger sold for 5-6K.

The price stayed the same for the big ones; $5k, ground muzzles or not. Cabelas dropped the price to $3k at the end as a close out deal when they stopped carrying them. I know because I bought a 500 for $3k. Last one, super wood.
I bought the first 450 with ground muzzles, just to see what $5k would buy in a double rifle. Way before it was announced here on AR. Turns out that that was a very accurate rifle, easily shooting within 1.5 inches at 50; but after shooting it for a year, I traded it to them for another one with no ground muzzles because I knew that no one would buy it.
Anyway, not to bring up dead animals, they were good rifles, grossly mis handled by Cabelas.. I called their marketing manger, but she had no idea what I was talking about when I told her they were going to regret letting them regulate them that way.

Boy, we discussed these Sabattis back in the day here on AR, didn't we. Poor old Cabela's was in over its head. I handled a number of them in the Gun Libraries, but never had the wherewithal to buy.
We also chewed a lot of fat on the Baikal/Remington .45-70 double rifles. I did have one of those and it was too light to be much fun with any load of even moderate power. At least so my shoulder told me.

Bill, the 45-70 wasn't developed until 1873...much too modern and newfangled for your interests :-)

I have a 45-70 and the muzzles are ground. At $1750 I took a chance on it and it shoots well with the FTX load. More fun to shoot than my Heym DG double calibers.

I picked up one of the first 45-70’s and the only coin finished 45-70 92 Delux I’ve seen. It shoots great, but it only shoots the FTX load well.


Everything else shoots fairly lousy, though I haven’t done much reloading trying to address that. I think I paid 4.5 for it.

Well I'm now finally eligible to be a member of the DRSS. I went back by today and checked the muzzle and followed Cal's advice and the barrels ring like a tuning fork when tapped. It has nice wood and at the price I couldn't pass it up, hopefully it will shoot like the regulation target. Thanks everyone for the help I'm sure I'll have more questions when I get to shooting, I know they're different from my bolt guns.

For a DR to shoot one load well and everything else lousy, would be the way they are supposed to work.
One load is what they are regulated for; they follow a completely different set of rules than a bolt action.
Now, for the OP, you have to shoot exactly the ammo that the rifle was regulated with, and hold it exactly the same way. Exactly.
Do some research here on AR; it has all been discussed.

Congratulations on your new rifle.

When you tire of shooting little old deer and piggies with that big old rifle, remember that there are a lot of interesting exotics to hunt in Texas.
Like this 300 pound red deer cow and this Nilgai and both are good to eat; taken with my Simson .405 DR:



This 300 pound boar was taken with my Beretta .45-70 DR using 300 grain bullets:


Good hunting.

Awesome rifles, and game too. I sort of envy guys in Texas, not only for the smoked brisket, but for the hunting.
We have 25 million pigs here, but they are all pink and never leave a concrete floor.

Much better wood than on my 45-70. Enjoy

Well I was able to find some Hornady FTX that the rifle was regulated with and took it to the range today. I researched the proper shooting techniques on here and there is definitely a learning curve for me to shooting a double rifle. I started off getting about 4.5" groups centered perfectly at 50 yds and by the end I was able to shrink them down to a little under 2". I am more than pleased, the only negative are that the trigger are about 7lbs but at least they're crisp. I'm going out tomorrow and try to get a pig with it.

Trigger pulls can be fixed.
If you are getting 2" at 50 yards that is excellent. Even more so with poor trigger pull.

You can spend 100,000$ on a Holland and Holland and if it can shoot 2" at 50 yards everyone is happy.

You are doing well.
Cal

Congrats Hwhit on your progress with your new DR. Lookin good!


Cal = Well Said!