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Rizzini BR550 shotgun review

There are many wings to the Rizzini gun making dynasty in Italy, simply because there are a number of Rizzini brothers, and they each have their own gun making company, completely independent from each other.

This particular gun comes from the factory of Battista Rizzini (this firm traces its origins back to the 1960s) and the range will be distributed in the UK through ASI, a company well known to British shooters as importers of AYA shotguns.

As an aside, in recent years there’s been a significant collaboration of gun making skills and ideas between B Rizzini and Ivano Tangfoglio.

Ivano is another well-known gunmaker (who operates under the name of Ferlib) building high-quality, handmade, guns that are sometimes seen in the UK.

This collaboration has resulted in a new range of guns that will be hitting the dealers’ shelves very soon, and one of their first versions is this side by side model called the BR550.

It’s a 20-bore with 28in multi choke barrels, it has 76mm chambers with special steel shot proof, and comes with a set of five chokes. The concave game rib is finished with a small silver foresight.

The woodwork is excellent and the stock has a semi-pistol grip, which is not quite the same – but is reminiscent of a ‘Prince of Wales’ in style; particularly in the way that the chequer bows forwards with its line. The chequer itself is good and has been machine cut. There are no border lines, unfortunately, which might improve the overall look of the gun. The splinter fore end is nicely proportioned and shaped and this gun has a slim, wooden butt plate.

Down to the action, we have a single trigger with safe selector button as well as auto safety. Barrel selection, ie which one do you want to fire first, is by way of moving a positive button in the middle of the safe itself. There are small red dots to indicate which barrel is selected. Coil springs are used to power the hammer forwards, with the sears suspended above. The hammers themselves are rebounding to prevent striker drag.

In short, the set-up is basically an O/U trigger mechanism put into a side-by-side action, which could be said to be the best idea to ensure single trigger reliability.

When looking at the overall appearance of the gun, the action frame is finished silver with some scroll engraving in a number of positions over the frame, top lever, guard and fore end iron. The action frame itself is machined from a solid billet of steel and consequently has a strong and quality feel about it. As well as this, it is sculpted with a type of scroll back, which is both attractive to look at, and adds some strength to the stock to action fit.

The furniture – top lever, safe, trigger guard and fore end iron – are finished gloss black to match the barrels.Wood to metal fit is very good, as is the quality of the wood itself – which has some nice figure and contrast. The woodwork is finished with an attractive gloss oil finish.

The gun comes in a good quality, lined, ABS case with combination locks. Spare chokes and key are provided in a separate plastic case. There’s also a tin of gun oil.

 
 

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