Bettinsoli | Diamond DeLuxe shotgun | 12g OU

Famed for making well-built, attractive, affordable shotguns, Bettinsoli has enjoyed popularity among many shooters and the guns have a reputation for longevity and performance. I tested the latest version of its DeLuxe game gun and the build quality impressed me.

• The wood-to-metal fit was good and the blacking on the barrels was deep and lustrous.
• Our test gun sported a dark stock, which set off the action nicely, and its straight, close grain would indicate that it would be strong enough to stand up to the rigours of use in the field.
• Some will like the Sporter-like schnabel tip fore-end, rather than the more traditional beaver-tail design, but whatever your preference the fore-end filled the hand nicely and gave good control over the gun.
• Chequering was deep, giving good grip, and the stock had a nice oil finish.

Being just over 6ft tall and on the ‘chunky’ side, I found the gun fitted well. The length of pull at 14¾in was just right when wearing my winter coat and the steep angle of the grip meant my finger came easily to the trigger. On some Italian shotguns the height of the comb can be a little low, but the DeLuxe was about right for me.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the DeLuxe is a sidelock because it sports handsomely decorated sideplates, but these are dummies and the gun is actually a boxlock. Many excellent Italian gunmakers use dummy sideplates, such as Beretta, Fausti and Rizzini, as a canvas for fine engraving. On a more affordable gun, this could have been a misstep but the laser engraving and game scenes are good, giving the gun an expensive look. There is even detailing on the metal catch of the fore-end.