Cosmi has a well-deserved reputation. The Italian manufacturer hand-builds since 1895 the world’s first and finest “break open”, barrel long recoil action hunting shotgun. The Cosmi luxury gun has been traditionally available in three gauges, 12, 16 and 20, and since its inception is a status symbol for hunters and collectors the world over. Every single one of the over 100 mechanical parts is hand built in-house, painstakingly milled and fitted to each other in a clockwork precision interlocking mechanism. It takes over 400 hours of manual labor to just build the base gun, completely finished with a buffing polish, and on top of that, the custom work is done to make each produced model unique to the desires of the client, with such details as barrel length (with or without a muzzle brake), stock quality and measures, additional finish and engraving. We are talking about a gun that since the early 1930s has been built just about 8000 times.
And now, Cosmi introduces the company’s first rifle: the Rigato
This is a rifle that will be initially manufactured in a limited edition run of 20 guns celebrating a tribute to the city of Florence and marks a definite turn in the multi-century long history of shotgun-only manufacturing by Cosmi. The Rigato has been in the making for years, because although still based on the same “break open”, barrel long recoil action of the shotgun, with a tubular magazine in the stock, the action and mechanism had to be completely redesigned for the quite different behavior of a center fire rifle round. The Rigato will be built in two powerful hunting calibers, the classic .45-70 Government, and .444 Marlin.
Only the best materials and workmanship
The steel used for the receiver is a nickel-chrome-molybdenum alloy with vacuum refusion to eliminate all impurities, while the barrel is built using Krieger blanks in 416R “oxgray” stainless steel, with a 1:20 twist for the .45-70 Govt. and 1:38 for the .444 Marlin. Every part of the Rigato action and mechanism is hand built, fitted and mirror polished. The calibers used have been carefully chosen for compatibility in the tubular magazine and the best performance in shorter barrels, with excellent stopping power and terminal ballistics. The barrel uses an elegant quarter rib, made from a solid piece of steel, with classic folding iron sights for shooting without optics. Thanks to the magazine in the stock, the weight balance of the Cosmi Rigato is much different than what we would expect, with an exceptionally light muzzle and lightning-fast swing and handling.
The Rigato is the only luxury semiautomatic rifle in the world, and as such, just like the smoothbore Cosmi gun, every aspect of it can be personalized by the customer: length of the barrel (from 19.7"/50 to 22"/56 cm), grain and measure of the stock (basic model comes with a Grade 3 Walnut stock), finishes, engravings, magazine capacity to comply with the customers’ country hunting regulations, the option of a quick-release pivot mount on the action to fit a modern riflescope, and last but not least, the option of a removable muzzle brake with radial cuts to reduce felt recoil by almost 50%.
As said, the Cosmi Rigato will be initially available in a limited edition run of 20 guns, after that it will enter “normal” production; lead time for each Rigato is about six months, and the indicative prices excluding VAT and taxes, is 17,900 euro for the Florence City tribute limited edition model, and 13,900 euro for the basic production model. Of course, all engraving and custom work is TBA.
Find all the news from SHOT Show 2021 on all4shooters/all4hunters.
