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The Italian Firearms Group STR (Sabatti Tactical Rifle) is a well-equipped adjustable brace bolt-action that dropped into the new gun market in early 2016. The gun’s design can be categorized as ultra-modern black minimalist.

We’ll delve into the details in a moment, but first some context might help. Italian Firearms Group is the American importer/distributor of Sabatti and three other Italian gun manufacturers. Italian Firearms Group is based in the Texas panhandle city of Amarillo. But Sabatti is based in the picturesque town of Gardone Val Trompia, in Brescia, in the Alpine foothills of northern Italy east of Milan. And it’s been making arms for roughly 350 years. Yes, 350.

Now back to the STR. It’s hard to recall any other rifle that’s so skeletonized. And it takes extensive work and thinking to pare back weight, visual and physical volume, etc. Sabatti has succeeded though.

The gun comes in three calibers: 6.5x47 Lapua, .308 Win and 300 Winchester Mag. The first has a 1 to 8” twist, and the other two have a 1 to 11” twist.

Each caliber has two barrel length choices: 24” or 25.5”. The barrel exterior is smooth rather than fluted and cold hammer forged. The guns also include a threaded 5/8”x24 TPI muzzle thread, thread cap and a muzzle brake. But most interesting, perhaps, is that each barrel features multi-radial rifling.

Multi-radial rifling is a Sabatti innovation other firms are now adopting. Essentially it uses a tighter squeeze bore that’s more circular rather than the faceted sides and sharp-corner grooved interior cross section of traditional rifling. The result is higher velocities and greater accuracy. There is also less fouling, less wear and the barrel interior is easier to clean.

The handguard is very minimalistic, but it covers about half of the barrel length. It eschews the usual M-LOK slots in favor of smaller attachment points on the flanks and bottom. But it comes with short Picatinny rails mounted in those directions. The top of the handguard and receiver are crested by a long continuous 20 MOA Picatinny rail that bridges the ejection port and ends just before the bolt arm. The safety is behind the base of the bolt arm.

The bolt arm has a nice throw and ends with a fluted knob. The pistol grip has three nice finger recesses and a contoured palm swell.

Moving to the back, the Ergal 55 aluminum alloy is milled to make the adjustable ultra-skeletonized stock. The butt attaches to the comb via a double-triangle lattice and, in turn, the comb attaches via a tube to the receiver. Both the butt and the comb are height adjustable via two simple round-knob. Length of pull is also adjustable. The gun also has a no-stock optional configuration.

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