We can affirm that the last sixty years have been for Italy, or at least for a conspicuous part of it, a period of marked evolution in the hunting sector where it has gone from restricted Alpine territorial areas in which chamois was hunted, to the Maremma. kingdom of the wild boar, to the whole remaining territory where the smooth reeds dominated, threatening the sedentary with dogs and the migratory with an individual art to which only the stupid and obtuse ignorance of certain laws could almost put an end. Who has never attended a roccolo or in any case a stakeout in the high lands of Lombardy, or a barrel in the valleys of Veneto, Emilia, Puglia or the tops of the oaks in the Marche and Umbria waiting for melt them it has lost situations that strongly affect the human soul.
You can partially make up for it with the readings of the themed classics and with good videos widely available today. In recent decades the development of ungulates not only throughout the Alps, but equally in many other areas suited to roe deer, red deer, mouflon, fallow deer has created an intense and marked diffusion of ball hunting with interesting numbers for rod sales. striped. The opening hat serves to introduce a type of rifle that for many years was the heritage of Central Europe with followers of the caliber of Merkel, Sauer and Franz Sodia, just to name a triad known by all fans.
This shotgun is billing and the combination usually takes place on the basis of an over-and-under with a rifled lower barrel and a smooth upper barrel: it is part of the largest congerie of the so-called mixed rifles where two, three and four barrels add up to allow the mountain hunter to carry a single weapon on his shoulder while having different shots for the different hunting opportunities that can be revealed by climbing towards the most prestigious destination: the high altitude meadows where there is the chamois or that certainly not much less represented by the mixed woods of conifers and broad-leaved trees where the deer and roe deer insist. The road is long and perhaps, well before reaching the points where it bends to identify the groove to direct the shot of the rifled barrel, a beautiful fox crosses the path to which a substantial cartridge of 12 with shots of 5 or 4 there is no denying it: fur always makes a good impression and for meat there is also a way to serve it on the table. Let's not forget that the economy of mountain areas before mass tourism was devoted to consumption parks and the ethics of not throwing anything away.
The technical plant
Seals and closures are based on the system that has become usual for many manufacturers in the area, so much so that it is currently called "Gardonese": it consists of a receiver with high and flattened sides whose thickness represents the two parts of the table, obtained by forging a hot from a solid alloy steel and CNC machined. Internally you can observe the split hinge, the half-pins with prismatic reinforcements, the median rise under which the battery armament slide slides, the face with the firing pin holes and, at the bottom, the locking piece controlled by the key. These components are joined by the barrel group with monobloc joint: it is from this solid element that the lugs for coupling to the half-pins and the two rear tenons side by side are obtained, which insist with their sides on the inside of the receiver walls while their part the lower part is housed in the mortises obtained in the back and the front profile is placed against the median relief, contrasting the advancement of the barrels under shot; the rotation torque that is generated is inhibited by the plug protruding from the face and inserted in the slots made on the back of the tenons. In the thickness of the block, at the middle of the upper barrel, the half-planes are obtained and, in special guides always obtained in the sides of the monobloc, slide the stems of the extractor equipped with a relief for the contrast with the protrusion obtained inside the receiver, close to the half-pins, carrying out their movement while on the opposite side there are the grip glasses.
The barrels, the shots and the stock
The 60 cm long chromium molybdenum steel barrels are traditionally drilled for the smooth, cold hammered for the rifled: the smooth one can be in 12/76 or 20/76 gauge and the fixed choke is *** (M = Average). A solid rib is mounted, raised in the first third into which the retractable rear sight is inserted and threaded holes are provided for mounting the bases of a scope; the same continues low to rise towards the muzzle forming the support base of the grain front sight with round brass sight. The clicks include the two triggers with direct release or, in the Forest STE model, with French stecher on the first; the safety is the classic one with a slide button mounted on the upper tang, behind the opening key. The selected walnut stock features Italian lines, without trespassing of Germanic taste: thus we have the pistol grip, the thin nose pad and the linear back of convenient thickness for a comfortable support of the cheek; the wide section beavertail shaft allows a safe swing in moving shot as well as a solid support in the still one. The manual knurling offers an adequate grip even with wet hands and the oil finish guarantees waterproofness and a characteristic semi-matt appearance. Sling link t-shirts and black bakelite buttplate complete the necessary equipment.
Calibers proposed and weights
Let's give a hint to the calibers by pointing out the smooth / striped combination. With the smooth in 12/76 you can have: 7x57R, 7x65R, 8x57IRS, 9,3x74R, 6,5 × 55 SE, .30-06 Sprg., .308 Win. while the .20 Hornet and the .76 Rem are offered with the 22/222. The weights are respectively 3,4 and 3,2 kg. As good lovers of German collar cartridges for tilting we observe how today's commercial thrust has made the 6,5 × 55 SM prefer the 6,5x57R or the performing 6,5x65R; in small calibers, after a reverent homage to the ever-green .22 Hornet, we will see well, perhaps alongside the .222 Rem. the very valid 5,6x50R DWM widely diffused, or the less diffused, but soon very 5,6x57R of the RWS. Then, to get back down to earth, try to think which wild of our areas could escape you with a 7x65R.
The recipe for cooking the fox
The three Lanzo Valleys are located just north of the Val di Susa and well below the Val d'Aosta: they have no road outlets to France and are therefore discarded by mass tourism. This limitation has favored the maintenance of traditions in the ways of doing and building, with painful exceptions that disfigure the pretty villages, which came up with the economic boom of the 60s: once these are removed, many masterful stone constructions can still be observed and in the most share pretty villas of the Turin people who, between the end of the 800th century and the first half of the 900th century, appreciated these areas. The cuisine, as always, is a qualifying element of the territory and of the people who live there: to many thinking about eating a fox moves a sense of rejection, but even this wild deserves, in times of hardship, a culinary decor with the gratitude to Mother Nature. Something tells us that we have reached the halfway point and we are retracing the known road in the opposite direction.