By Mike Schoby
I like interesting guns. Guns that take a pile of machining and hand fitting. Guns that are not mass-produced, stamped, molded, injected, poured, or cast. As you can guess, I’m not a fan of Eli Whitney, or the entire American industrial revolution for that matter, interchangeable parts be damned.
As much as I fancy cool firearms, I’m ashamed to admit that I had not heard of Cosmi shotguns until my late 40’s. Even though they have been around since 1895, the Cosmi legend is not that of Holland, Purdy, Boss, Westley, or Rigby, but should it hold the same revere? After shooting and hunting with one and admiring the internal hand-fit construction, I believe so.
Cosmi shotguns are of an interesting design. It is a semi-auto, yes, but with the grace and refinements of a London Best side-by-side. The action is meticulously handmade, the 100 plus pieces individually hand-polished. Working the action feels like playing with the mechanism of a Swiss watch. Lubed soaking may be a more accurate description.
The stock is of the finest walnut and the wood to metal fit is exquisite. The top and bottom tang extend into the wood like a tree grew around it. The fore-end is slim and contoured and allows easy purchase, and since there is no magazine tube to design around, it feels like a dainty side-by-side instead of a bulky semi-auto.
The action itself is wholly unique. If someone didn’t show you how to operate it, it would be almost impossible to figure out on your own. I shot one a couple of years ago, and I still had to have a refresher course on how to load it.
You start with breaking it open (yes, just like an over/under or side-by-side) with the top lever. Pull the bolt back within the action internally. Load a shell into the chamber then load seven shells into the tubular magazine (five for US imported guns) that feed rearwards into the buttstock. When you have it fully loaded, you snick the action shut like any other break action gun. It seems like a lot of work to go through, unlike a standard break-action gun, until you realize you have more than two shells at your disposal; then it is love.
When you first swing it, you appreciate the revolutionary design. As previously mentioned, with no tubular magazine under the barrel, the foreend is thin and the weight up front is nonexistent. The action itself is relatively heavy and when you get it all loaded up, it is even heavier, but the weight is distributed between the hands, towards the butt, so the benefits are minimal recoil combined with a featherily light barrel that swings like your neighbors with an upside-down pineapple in their front yard.
Being a semi-auto, the recoil combined with the center balance minimizes recoil dramatically and makes it somehow swing and recover from shot even better than a well-balanced over/under.
The gun takes down much like an over/under. Remove the fore-end by unscrewing the front sling swivel nut, slide off the fore-end, and break the action open to remove the barrel and bolt assembly. The recoil system is contained under the barrel, it comes with heavy and light springs to adjust for various loads. Don’t ask me how to take the action apart. I looked at the numerous highly polished unrecognizable bits and pieces and I just wiped it down with a soft cloth and a light coat of Ballistol and left it at that. If it required more than that it would go back to the manufacturer. Simple, it is not.
Cosmi shotguns are bespoke affairs—custom fit, custom wood and the long beautiful action can be engraved to the owner’s particular desires and tastes. As you can imagine with 200 hours of construction in each firearm plus the bespoke design and custom engraving, Cosmi’s don’t come cheap. Base models start around $20,000 and go up from there.
So with such a price tag, why would anyone buy one? I guess ask yourself, why would anyone buy a Panerai watch? Or a Maserati? Or Gucci loafers? Because Italians have a sense of style and class melded with performance that is hard to beat, and for those with the means, owning the best, most stylish of any category is reason enough.
Pros – You will be the talk of your sporting clays club.
Cons—You will be constantly asked to pick up the bar tab at your sporting clays club as you obviously have means.
