Caesar Guerini: absolute quality, no compromises, and all in the name of beauty
Ever since it entered the market, the Caesar Guerini brand demonstrated a clear, solid vision of what it wants to achieve in terms of company image: to become a leading international gunsmith business while, at the same time, maintaining its products accessible to the widest possible market pool. In short, its corporate philosophy is based on some sort of “democratization” of both quality and taste, translated into practice and turned into a long string of market successes as one could reasonably expect from any uncompromisingly “Made in Val Trompia" gun.
Here as well, we find sleek lines, top-quality steel, and the fruits of painstaking technological research applied to barrels and frames, mechanics and mounts, all merged together in formal proportions without any compromise, adding up to beautiful engravings and spectacular wooden furniture topped off by thorough tooling and an absolute precision finish, as flawless burnishing and case hardening.
Ever since its onset, the Caesar Guerini research focused on two distinct worlds: semi-automatic firearms based upon highly peculiar inertia-driven systems (which will be discussed elsewhere) and of course fine hunting shotguns, which remain the core business of the small and yet dynamic Marcheno-based company that has been continuously achieving one success after another in the past years both under the spotlights of the international shooting competitions and in the shadows of the woods and fields where hunters conduct their business and practice their sport all around the world.
Ellipse Curve 20 gauge shotgun
This shotgun is the one model in all the Caesar Guerini production line that, in our opinion, probably represents the best possible embodiment of the company philosophy under all points of view when it comes to hunting guns (for their sporting shotguns, refer to our article about the Invictus model).
Its shapes capture the attention of the beholders and triggers their desire.
The painstaking attention to all details is just astounding.
The design as a whole speaks the language of balance and grace, mated to the efficiency of a gun offering unparalleled solidity and power.
We may encounter some variations in this small caliber variant, of course. The frame and the stock are dimensioned and reshaped in a pure round body fashion; but that's not all!
As a matter of fact, even beyond the magnificent engravings, the shotgun features much more that makes it a truly classic, refined and weapon – no doubts and no mistakes about.
That's of course something that doesn't immediately catch the eye – an almost micron-precision assembly; or the perfectly ergonomic triggers, so to speak. What we have here can be completely understood only after the shotgun has been removed from its case, assembled and taken to the range.
The overall engineering level of this extraordinary hunting shotgun becomes immediately evident at first touch: it is so user-friendly, it can almost be sensed how it may actually help shooters to achieve high levels of proficiency.
Extraordinary, almost perfect balance between practicality, instinctivity and ease of use are the first impressions when holding the Ellipse shotgun.
Absolute handling pleasure comes immediately thereafter: the shotgun is almost magically distinguished by the “elliptic, curved” soft lines design, with no hard edges anywhere to be found that would interfere with the shooting experience.
The Test
We tested a Caesar Guerini Ellipse Curve shotgun in its 710mm barrel version, with a 76mm/3” (“Magnum”) chamber and a single selective trigger.
Sure enough, this is the most elegant and balanced configuration available for this design.
As of today, the Caesar Guerini Ellipse Curve shotgun is also available in a 660mm barrel variant (those sportsmen who mainly hunt with dogs may prefer this configuration) and even in a 760mm barrel variant (for those who prefer to hunt “on the move” or to stalk preys that will mostly require longer-range shots).
The gun we tested was issued with five interchangeable, long-profile concealed chokes, offering the exact same ballistic performance level of standard fixed chokes; we choose *** and Cylinder chokes for our test.
When assembled, the 710mm barrel variant sports an overall weight of 2,8 kilograms – within the industry standards for a 20-gauge, 76mm/3” chambered quality hunting shotgun built around a steel frame.
The Prince of Wales style stock provides superior, steadfast comfort in part due to the well-executed hand soldering.
Speaking of... auditory terms (after all, we experience a gun with all our senses... well, almost!), the trigger action and the mechanical ejectors are almost positively musical in sound, and the case ejection is extremely energic.
The stroke of the trigger click is almost perfect in precision and fluidity, despite obviously being just as long as it should be in a shotgun conceived for heavy-duty hunting!
The Ellipse Curve is indeed a very nice shotgun, and by no means a "sissy"!
In short, this is a fine gun that can handle itself against the loudest and baddest competition...
We came to appreciate its relevant performance right from the very beginning, when the first clay targets started to fly at the beautiful San Martino di Rio Salso shooting range (Province of Pesaro-Urbino, in central Italy) – mostly known for hosting the last European clay shooting championship.
The sighting line is just fantastic: a tapered sight and the great overall balance provide an extremely high pointing speed and a great redistribution of the recoil and muzzle climb levels, allowing shooters to “double-tap” as fast as it is humanly possible and re-align the gun with the target instinctively, straight away; and, yes, we were indeed using hot sports shooting loads (no “soft” hunting shell!), without suffering any discomfort to our shoulders or cheekbones.
Aside from standard positions, we insisted on trying out special clays to recreate some typical hunting situations in the most faithful way possible.
Both quick and easy target engagement and the accuracy of the Caesar Guerini Ellipse Curve shotgun were nothing short of surprising; in combination with the ballistic efficiency of the provided barrels and chokes, those factors allowed us to break (not just “chip”!) clay pidgeons which we would have otherwise ruled out of range. All this, tested and retested again by yours truly, who – to be absolutely sure – subsequently handed the gun for a “second opinion” to our colleague, Mr. Fabio Antolini.
Needless to say, everything written so far was confirmed, leaving us with anything but the strong desire to try the Ellipse Curve shotgun as soon as possible on an actual hunting trip.
Rest assured, we will tell you more about it as soon as possible, but for now, please enjoy the video of our test (link). And in the meanwhile, please remind that the Caesar Guerini Eclipse Curve shotgun is available in 20-gauge, 28-gauge and 36/.410 gauge, all supplied in a beautiful and yet practical, velour-lined PVC carry case.
