look what I found in my gun safe

[Harold Lee Pickens]

While looking around thru my small gun safe(not the big one), I pulled out a gun that has not seen the light of day in many years. I bought this gun used back in the late '70's while still in optometry school after reading Frank Woolner's "Grouse and Grouse Hunting"--a Franchi 48 AL 20 ga with a polychoke. I never did shoot it much as I also had a Ruger Red Label 20 sk/sk.
I distinctly remember missing a grouse 5X as it flew over me from one spoil bank to the other around Piedmont Lake in Ohio. My Brittany Jess had pointed it( yeah, I used to hunt with Brittanies, but one day the Lord spoke to me and showed me the error of my ways, and introduced me to SXS's and English Setters).These guns weigh only 5 1/4 lb and have a very sharp recoil. Brought back a lot of memories of when 20+ flushes/day were the norm in Ohio. I actually shot my first grouse as a teenager with my uncle's Stevens 12 ga SXS.
Cleaned the Franchi up and put it back away, maybe carry it one day just for old times sake.

Just kidding about the Brittanies guys, they are wonderful, loving dogs and I may have another in the future.

[Dean Romig]

Of the small bore Franchi's I've shot (never wanted to own one) I found them all to be pretty light and the shooter, not the gun's mechanism, absorbs the recoil. Not much fun to shoot feathered game with and they must be worse when shooting clays.





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[Daryl Corona]

So true Deano. I had a Franchi o/u 20 that was light as a feather and was a fantastic quail gun. But it literally beat the snot out of me. Of course that was long before I discovered 3/4oz loads.:eek:

By the way Harold, I kinda like Polychoked guns. A few years ago I bought a M12, solid rib 12 with 30"full and a 26" with the adjustable polychoke. I need to shoot it more often, after all it is a classic in it's own right.

[John Dallas]

Isn't the Franchi 48 action the same long recoil systems derived originally from the Browning Humpback, then revised as the Remington 11-48?

[CraigThompson]

My first trap gun was a Franchi O/U-Top Single combo . I broke many many many targets with that thing before I realized real clay target shooters shot Krieghoff's or Perazzi's :rotf:

[Dave Suponski]

Or Parker single and double trap guns...

[Jerry Harlow]

My uncle from Georgia sold his 12 Sterlingworth that he had sent back for a second set of 26" barrels for bird hunting, and working for the Pullman company while in NY purchased a 48AL in 20 with a non-rib improved cylinder gun. Being a small man, it fit him and was over two pounds lighter than the Fox. He seldom missed with the 20 and I have it now along with all the memories it made. Just last year I traded a 12 ga. A5 for a 48AL in 28. I really like the guns and the recoil has never been noticeable when shooting them with the light loads and the spring/spacer (just like the A5) set to the proper position for smaller loads.

If the spring/spacer are set to light loads and you shoot a heavy load it will jar your teeth (on A5s that is how you often get the 6 o'clock cracked forearm).