Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Europe Common calibers in Italy

What are the most commonly encountered hunting calibers in use for hunting in Italy?

Thanks, RS

6.5mm, 7mm, 308 and 27.

What does one hunt in Italy. I'd go just for the good food and wine. Throw in some good hunting I might not come back.

I saw wild boar up in the Dolomites.

There are lots of hunting possibilities in Italy. Roe deer, red stag, boar, chamois, pigeons, woodcock, ducks. Unfortunately most that I have looked into is very expensive.

RS

RipSnort,

If you are going to be in Italy (I am working in Sicily), you should look into hunting in Romania. It is a two hour flight to Bucharest, and Horia from Unforgettable hunting can get you on all on all of the game you listed above.

I have hunted with him twice, and PM me if you would like more details.

Caleveras,

PM sent.

Caleveras,

PM also incoming.

Gotta be a lot of 6.5's there

I worked there in 2000-2001, for eight months, in central Italy. I managed to join up with a hunt club outside Riete, and hunted wild boar with them for 12 weekends in a row, killing 63 pigs total. I borrowed their firearms to use, as it was too much hassle to take my own. By far, the most common guns used were Browning BAR's in either 30-06 or 300 win, for the guys that could afford them. The best hunter in the group had a H&K in .308 and was VERY deadly with it. The guys that couldn't afford multiple guns tended to settle on double barrel shotguns, shooting slugs....they frowned on buckshot, as it tended to wound so many pigs. The gun they gave me to use was a Winchester 94 big bore in .375 win, of all things. Being from western U.S., they offered me the "John Wayne" rifle, as they called it. The crazy thing was ammo was available for it, at all ammo stores! I don't recall many euro "mm" calibers...mostly 30 calibers from the states. Andy#3

Did they make you wear a cowboy hat and chaps too? You can tell us the truth, they only used 6.5 carcano's there right??

"The rest of the story" stays in Italy! :o)

Hello everybody, I am sorry for the late reply to this thread, but i only just joined the forum today.

Well to make it short, my early impression is that the 308, 30-06, 7x64 brenneke (a european catridge basically equal to the .280 rem), and the 7 mm rem mag are the most common calibres in use by rifle hunters here. At least for bigger game.
Take it with a little grain of salt though, as i have only just passed my italian hunting license recently, and havnt been much in the field yet.

As for the type of game huntable here, the ones mentioned above seemed correct. However exactly which animals you can hunt where, depends a lot on the given region of italy you're in.
In Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany for example, you'll find that deer, crown deer and wild boar are huntable, whilst in the alps chamois might be a more typical legal medium sized game. In other regions it might be different still. So researching what's huntable in not just italy, but in the given region of italy you're interested in hunting in, is probably a good idea.

Lastly there can be a difference between the rules of normal state land hunting, (which is what most normal italian hunters do), and private hunting establishments. So again, get down to the specifics of where and how you'd like to hunt, and then research it from there.


Best of luck , if the hunt is yet to happen ,)

Hugin

Welcome to the Fire.

DF

Photo Bucket is "F"ed up right now so I can't post pictures but, I just got back from Rome where I visited a nice gun shop. Besides the expected metric calibers in the ammo display there were a few oddballs like .356 Winchester and .35 Whelen. Lots of .308 so I guess the Italians appreciate a good thing when they see it.

Thank you, Dirtfarmer

@klondike_mike: yeah, or a readily available and better priced thing at least ,) ,)

Hugin welcome.

I was intrigued to hear about Italian Mt. hunters and they are just as loony as the American hunters in a good way. I have heard of Italian hunters specializing on Chamois using hot shot cartridges like the .240 & .257 and metrics like the 5.6x57.
I even heard of one Count who had a double rifle made in .257 Weatherby probably drives a Lamborghini too. Is there Ibex hunting as well?

Hello Tejano and thank you for the welcome

Yes, in Italy the alpine hunters is a group of their own. Literally. After you pass your hunter's exam, you have to specify which type of hunting you want to do, and if you chose alpine hunting, youre tied to that and nothing else. So they per definition become a group of their own, and also do specialised extra courses, just to become licensed alpine hunters.

I for example will also hunt the mountains, but some smaller ones, who max out at around 6000 feet. However if I like that, I might want to progress to alpine hunting one day, as it does look a most amazing type of hunt.

As for their equipment, the billing, a double barreled rifle/shotgun combo, is known to be more frequently found amongst alpine hunters,but i don't know how frequent. I don't know which calibers they prefer either, but if they are mainly shooting smaller sized, and not too sturdy, bovine and deer, and are shooting at longer distances, then cartridges like the 25.06 and .257 roberts would likely make sense
But that's just me guessing here.

And yes, the ibex does live in the Italian alps. It's called Stambecco In Italian, but it's a protected species at current.

I hope that answers most of your questions


H

Cool I hope the Ibex thrive. My problem would be I would enjoy the local so much and the Vino that hunting would fall to the wayside.

Haha, well that's alright,as the vino and food comes after the hunting hehe ,D

Let's see see what occurs. As mentioned I will be hunting the smaller mountains myself this next year, so let's see what happens and which calibres I encounter. A presto!

H

Welcome to the 'Fire!

Please keep us posted on your experiences in the hunting fields of Italy.

Thanks, RS

Hello RipSnort

Thank you, and i will aim too (Y)

Tuscany is the place for wild pigs. It seems they like grapes and do a considerable amount of damage to vineyards. We had 4 couples traveling 2 years ago and visited a vineyard that belongs to a friend of my brother.
There was a small but beautiful Inn and restaurant on the property and since the villa we rented was only a mile away we became regulars for our afternoon wine and snacks.
One afternoon we were sitting enjoying the view of the vineyard when several hogs came in and started on the grapes (late September). One of the other couples included a friend I hunt and fish with frequently and I got his attention and pretended to have a rifle and aimed at the pigs. That's all the waiter needed to see, he ran over and asked "you want shoot?" Abso-efen-lutely. he walked out to his car and brought back a pre-war mod 70 30-06 and a box of cartridges. He said an American GI brought the gun over and gave it to his father after the war, I'm guessing as some sort of returned favor.
He explained none of the local law enforcement have a problem with them killing the pigs while the grapes are hanging so long as they get their share of the meat. We went back the next day for a very well prepared meal of "cinghiale" ragu over the best home made pappardalle pasta I ever had.we shot 4 pigs that day and 6 more 2 days later.
Can't wait to go back.

Thanks for bringing this thread back to the top. Here's a photo of the ammo case in the Roman gun shop.
and the front of the store.

THAT is one of the best hunting stories ever!

On a side note, our German hunting class (2013) taught us that in France and Germany, one could not use cartridges that were originally military, e.g. 8x57IS, 30-06. However, I learned that sometime not too long ago, both countries made a number of specific exceptions, such as for the cartridges listed above.

My wife and I were in Italy last September. Never saw a gun shop but we spent most of a week in the Dolomites near Forno Di Zoldo where my mothers grand parents came from. Saw lots of deer sign in a few areas that must've been from red deer based on the size. Never saw any deer but one of my relatives had an alarm set-up near his garden to keep them out. He said they are large animals 150 -200 kilos.

split-tail

That is an impressive range of calibers on the shelf! I love the two boxes of 44-40 in the middle! Very out of place. And, Damn! - they like some big bores over there! 338 Laupa, .500/.465 at the top, 9.3x74R, etc. The ones in the middle are quintessential European - 6.5x57R, 7x64. I would imagine these would be very popular in the combo rifles.