Clive yes the Italian guns can be made to shoot. Some of them take alot of horsing around to get the bullet sized right, and chambers up to an extra .2 long arent' uncommon. Just have to make take some time to make em work.
Nope buying a Big Timber rifle won't make you a better shot.
I've seen some 38-55's out shoot 45's at 1000 even in heavy winds, but there again, it's more the skill of the trigger yanker.
My point is was and always will be that at the current exchange rate, the Italian guns are a poor buy when compared to the price of the Big Timber , and other (CPA,Winchester, etal). Just take a minute and do some price comparisons, and it'll soon be quite obvious that getting maybe as many as 2 Italian guns for the price of 1 USA built rifle are gone gone gone. Most of the time if you look reall close , by the time you get it all in and all done at todays dollar, the USA builts will be cheaper in some instances, and the resale value of the USA built guns will always be far and above any of the Italian builts.
Of course that applies mostly to those of us here in the USA, what things are for you folks off shore I have no idea.