Zoli Antonio Taiga £1,395

With its blued metalwork and sumptuous walnut, this rifle harks back to a slower, more traditional way of stalking, and Bruce Potts approves

The quality of walnut was fantastic in grain and colour, with superb figuring throughout the stock older design developed by Swedish gunmaker Husqvarna. As such, Zoli has updated and, to my mind, improved a classic bolt-action rifle into the Taiga on test today. There are also Bavarian, synthetic and fluted-barrel models.

I really like the walnut stock, the highly polished blued action and barrel, and the silky smooth cycling and detachable magazine. I also like that it is available in all the popular deer calibres.

Best of all is the price of

£1,395. Considering the lovely walnut stock and performance on the range, the inherent accuracy was that of a stalking rifle twice the price. Not all deerstalkers want

The detachable, three-shot steel and polymer magazine feeds without issue