Of course, it tipped the scales at just over 10-pounds even when unloaded, but hey, you can’t say it’s not rugged. Check out the thickness of the barrel.Ĥ1-inch long Italian beast down to size, it was equipped with an over-receiver folding stock that would chop the overall length down to a stubby 31-inches. To shrink thisįranchi SPAS12 as seen from the front. The large capacity magazine tube of eight 2.75-inch shells fit flush under a European style cylinder bore, with a 22-inch barrel. It also used a magazine loading door for those grunts in low crawling situations to keep debris out of that open space normally seen in commercial shotguns. The SPAS12 covered all of these bases and then some: a huge heat shield, giant rifle-style front and rear combat sights, a thick and solid with phosphate coatings (with no wood or embellishments), an internal recoil buffer to help keep high power tactical loads from eating up the gun and a threaded barrel for accessories. Franchi engineers also wanted to accentuate the combat shotguns known virtues-the ability to make fast shots on moving targets in the nightmare of urban combat-by incorporating oversized sights. To accommodate this brutal use, a purpose made combat shotgun needs thicker construction and a heat shield to better protect the user from burns in the field (like when having to break from cover with a smoking hot gun). Chemical salt bluing, scrollwork, small bead front sights (none on the rear) and checkered wooden furniture was common.įire several dozen rounds rapidly. These guns are carried for miles without cleaning or even being shot, dragged around everywhere, dropped in the mud and muck, then expected to fire reliably every time under harsh conditions. Military and police shotguns at that time were usually commercial designs adapted for use in the battlefield or on the beat after all the life of a military shotgun is much the same as your average duck gun in many cases. Designed from the ground up for military sales

With a 30-year itch coming on to offer a military design once more, Franchi redirected its experience in making some of the best scatterguns around to designing a combat shotgun. After flirting with a number of failed submachine gun and carbine designs for the military market in the 1950s, the firearms firm had settled into the commercial shotgun niche with their Black Magic series autoloaders (still imported to the US by Benelli as the 48AL) and the Aristocrat series of over and under shotguns. was still owned by the same family that started it back in 1868. In the late 1970s, the Brescia, Italy-based firearms legacy of Luigi Franchi S.p.A.

Shotgun from jurassic park