Franchi the best shotguns most people have never heard about

[Bill B]

I have a Franchi Alcione Field grade that I bought 2 years ago. It was not my first O/U. I have a couple other target guns made by that company with the gold buckmark. They are fine guns but were too heavy for the field and I wanted an inexpensive serviceable O/U that didn't weigh me down. So off I went to the local shop. They had a bunch of O/Us on the rack and I went through them all looking for one that fit me best and was nice and light. Some didn't have the quality I was looking for and others just didn't feel right; too muzzle heavy or the stock didn't fit. Then I was handed the Franchi. The what? Franchi, the guy said (he pronounced it Fran-chee not Fraun-key). Anyway, it felt great. The action was tight without being too stiff. The fit was perfect, the balance right on. The looks were Ok but I was more interested in fit and function. I bought it.

That hunting season just about anything that I pointed that Franchi at went down in into my game bag. I couldn't get over it and my arms didn't feel like they were dragging the ground at the end of a day. It soon became my upland and waterfowl gun. I also looked at the Franchi 612 autoloader and was impressed with it. A year later I recommended the 612 to a buddy looking for his first real shotgun and he bought one. I took him and another buddy, shooting a new Beretta 391, to the skeet range. Guess what? The Franchi handled my light 1 oz target reloads without a hitch, the Beretta jammed a couple of times and he had to move up to a heavier load. His Franchi 612 has never given him any problems and he shoots it very well for a beginner. I am a big Franchi fan and if I ever wanted to buy another autoloader, it will be a Franchi 612 even though I can afford the higher priced Italian autoloader. I think the Franchi is just better.

[Shotgunner]

I'm thinking about buying the franchi 612 it's about $600.00 Does the recoil reducer help?

[ July 28, 2003, 04:50 PM: Message edited by: Shotgunner ]

[Bill B]

Originally posted by Shotgunner:
I'm thinking about buying the franchi 612 it's about $600.00 Does the recoil reducer help? Sure it will help even if just by the fact of adding additional weight. It's a gas gun and won't be that hard on you anyway. When I shot my friends I didn't think the recoil was bad at all.

[Hawkeye421]

I purchased a Franchi 612 about 6 weeks ago and unless you are going to shoot magnum loads the recoil for 1-1/8 to 1-1/4 oz loads is minimal. I bought the 24" barrel for hunting and have recently been using it for skeet. I can shoot 1-1/8oz loads all day long. I patterned the gun with various chokes and loads at different footages and it is dead on the money. It is the easiest gun I have seen to take down and clean...the recoil spring and gas piston are in the forearm which makes cleaning even easier. Get you a couple of pipe cleaners for the two gas ports in the barrel. So far, it has cycled everything I have fed it without a single hiccup. It has great balance and comes with shims to adjust cast and drop...I actually used one of the shims to raise the barrel some and now it fits perfect. This is a great gun design and so far I can not say enough about it.

[cswaffie]

Originally posted by Bill B:
Guess what? The Franchi handled my light 1 oz target reloads without a hitch, Hey Bill, what was the dram eq. on your reloads? Do you load below 3 dr. eq? I read somewhere that we can only fire 3 dr. eq. or higher in the 612.

[Hawkeye421]

I have a chronograph and use a MEC 600 Jr reloader. I have a RCBS Electronic scale plus a RCBS beam scale. I have been loading shotgun shells, rifle and pistol shells for 20 plus years. I wanted to see if my Franchi 612 would cycle some 1oz fairly low velocity reloads. So the following was my recipe, which was from the Hodgdon powder manual;
Remington STS Hull
Winchester W209 primer
1oz of #9 shot
Claybuster wad equivalent to the WAA12SL Wad
16.4 Grs of Hodgdon Clay Powder.
I weighed each powder throw to make sure I was at the 16.4 grs of powder as well as the 1oz of shot.
I loaded 2 boxes of shells (50 shells)
The load averaged 1097 FPS
I have the 24 inch barrel on my Franchi 612 and used the Comp-n-Choke Skeet choke. It cycled all the shells without a single hiccup and also patterned nice at 21 yards. Normally when I reload once I have established the powder thrown from a given MEC bushing, I normally only spot check every so often. Since I wanted this test to be as accurate as possible I weighed and adjusted each powder throw. This is one sweet shooting gun.

[Bill B]

Originally posted by cswaffie:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Bill B:
Guess what? The Franchi handled my light 1 oz target reloads without a hitch, Hey Bill, what was the dram eq. on your reloads? Do you load below 3 dr. eq? I read somewhere that we can only fire 3 dr. eq. or higher in the 612. </font>[/QUOTE]My 1 oz. loads are 2 3/4 drm equivalent load with a bit over 1200 fps in vel. Very light kicking load that I use in my O/U. I don't know if every 612 will handle such light loads, but his certainly did. My one oz. load is very similar to Hawkeyes. I use Win AA hulls, the same wads and powder and I think at about the same weight mine might be 16.9 grains. I'll have to check my load info when I get home.

[ August 18, 2003, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Bill B ]