New acquisition here. I've done some thinning of the herd, and blown the proceeds on another game gun. I've never shot light guns very well, but it's a skill I've always wanted to master at some point. I'm not going to live forever, so have decided that 'this time for sure'.

It's a B. Rizzini 'Upland EL'. It sort of found me in an interesting way, and I'm the first owner to actually shoot it. Here's the link to when WLM had it for sale. I'm pleased to say that I didn't pay anything close to the posted price.

http://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-fo...un_id=100704579

It has a long barrel set and a high stock. If I cheek it hard and pull it in tight both barrels shoot to point of hold.

The bore measures .626, so it's somewhat 'overbore' for a 20 although I realize this gauge has a wide range of 'normal'. Chokes are .015 and .022 which is sort of tight by my preferences but it does reach out for those lengthy sporting clay targets.

Triggers are usable as is, not K-gun quality but pretty decent. The safety is non-auto which I don't have a real strong opinion on either way. There is a slight cast off.

The date code shows 2007, which I find interesting. Those Gunsinternational ads seem to never go away. I wonder how much of that stuff is still actually for sale. The dealer I bought this one from claims to have had it for about 3 years, and got it in a trade from WLM.

First outing today went fairly well. The easy going away targets gave me confidence that the gun does shoot straight, in spite of dire and somewhat dated warnings by Rizzini bashers. I do need to work on a smooth swing with the lighter gun, but this was not unexpected. The long barrels help, and the high stock is something I prefer on any gun. All in all I did well enough to be able to file the day away as 'fun'.

Gonna try it at skeet tomorrow, if I get off my butt and load a few spreaders up for that left barrel. It may go on a preserve pheasant shoot next weekend if it behaves.

So, how about that? A double gun post on the Doublegun BBS.

I'd be interested in hearing about others who have used the Rizzini SxS guns. They don't seem common. Batista sells a lot of O/U guns but not many in the Elmer Fudd configuration. I wonder why. This one sure seems competitive with other brands at it's price point.

WLM- William Larkin & Moore?

that is a dandy. Bobby

Yes Fox. Long time importer of B. Rizzini.

Although, the keel rib shows 'Hi-Grade Imports'.

The gun is also marked William Larkin Moore on both the bottom of one barrel, and on the side of the barrel opposite the 'Rizzini Marcheno VT Italy'.

HGI must have done the actual import work for WLM.

That's a pretty little 20 bore. 5 lbs 15 oz, just shy of 6 lbs.....perfect game gun weight. Any lighter than that seems they are pretty hard to shoot. Recoil shouldn't be too bad either. I bet if you give it a chance and work with it awhile, you will find its not that hard to shoot. Nice gun.

I really like the Rizzini over unders. I'm sure the SXSs are nice too. I would much prefer them over the RBL if I were in the market for a new boxlock.

Adam

This makes sense to me: " If I cheek it hard and pull it in tight both barrels shoot to point of hold."

But this doesn't: "The easy going away targets gave me confidence that the gun does shoot straight, in spite of dire and somewhat dated warnings by Rizzini bashers
." What does that mean? I've never seen one that shot in a curve. They may not shoot where you're looking, but they all shoot straight.

SRH

I have the same exact gun. Beautiful in all ways. Unfortunately I'm thinning out my collection to a couple 28's. My Upland EL is listed in the FS section of DGJ. Wish it was a 28 ga.

Now Stan... certainly you know..... both sentences mean the same thing, i.e. the gun shoots to point of hold once I get in behind it.

There is still plenty of copy extant about induction brazed barrels that very much do not shoot to point of hold or 'don't shoot straight' in Americanese. The Brit's refer to such guns as poorly regulated. Think Gold Label.

If you want to get technical about it, they all in fact shoot in a curve. 32' sec^2 straight toward the center of mass of the Earth.

Then there's the Coriolis thing, but you had enough of that with the hurricane.

Thanks-- A shooting pal from our local pheasant club has a Rizzini SC 12 bore O/U with the L.L. Bean name on it- 28" barrels, great feel and balance. He also bought a M21 12 gauge pre-WW2 skeet gun from WLM about 6 years ago, and felt he was very well treated in the entire transaction.

I'm trying to figure out if this was a standard catalog item or if WLM ordered a batch made like this.

I'm pretty pleased I found this 'new old stock' item.

The currently made model 550 SxS seems to have gained weight, lost a trigger, is stocked lower and shorter, and has become a 'round body'. The price went up too, although you can get choke tubes if you want. It's also coin finish and engraved, so it's quite a different gun.

Market forces at work I suppose. It did take this one almost 10 years to find a customer.

Skeet went well. I don't even need spreaders for the doubles.

I just took delivery of a BR550 round body 20 with 30" barrels and weight of 6 lbs 7 oz. I like the weight. Mine has choke tubes and I have started with M/IM on clays. It is great to reach out and destroy far targets.