Indians For Guns

my father just bought a very old second hand 12 bore luigi franchi repeater, semi auto but when i tried it out the gun doesnt seem to be able to reload on its own..i need to pull back the loading lever everytime after i fire to eject a cartridge and to load one inside the chamber...any reasons for this ...the model name is not there but im guessing its a franchi 48AL...

Welcome to the forum!

From what I understand, Semi-auto are considered Prohibited Bore in India. Do post pictures of the gun.

hope these photos help...it says 5shot repeater in the license....sorry for the poor quality of the pics....the licence was an old one, never got around to buying it till recently..thanks

another pic..

Which ammo are you using ?

best,
Rp.

I truly envy your shotgun. If this is of any help, i've read somewhere in this forum or somewhere that indian manufactured shotgun shells cannot cycle automatically on foreign made shotguns.

I would like to give you few suggestions :

1) Use fresh ammo. Store the ammo in the box in which they are sold in cool and dry place.
Never use cartridges from ammo belt as they catch moisture and then they don't function properly in a semi-auto.

2) Instead of using regular 65 mm size ammo use 70 mm ammo, with more gun powder they will be able to genetrate more power needed to cycle the round.

3) Keep it very clean as fouling can cause any semi-auto firearm to jam.

4) If all this does't help then change the main spring of the gun. If the gun had been used extensively or if the gun is too old then there are chances that its main spring may not function properly. A dilapidated recoil spring in an semi auto shotgun allows recoil to batter internal parts and reduce feeding reliability.

Hey Aditya,
your dads Franchi Semi Auto shares many similarities with the iconic Browning A5 to the point its almost a clone.
Both operate on the long recoil system which means a lot of metal is moving back and forth and that translates to a significant weight/mass of metal, whose inertia has to be over come by the detonating round. While the advantage is in gentler felt recoil, it does require fairly brisk loads to operate optimally.

From your description, the feed, extraction and ejection appears to be functioning normally albeit manually. So the only problems would be with inadequate motive force or poor bearing surfaces. Bear in mind, this gun also has friction rings like the Browning. They probably need to be flipped forwards or backwards or positioned forward or aft of the recoil spring to adjust for light or heavy loads (I'm not sure which one but I think its called the recoil governor or something). If you can locate a manual online you could check this out. I should think it's not too different from the Browning...so you could also look up that manual too (which is readily available for download). If the manual cycling of the action is smooth and devoid of 'friction', roughness or undue resistance, the problem can be distilled down to incorrect friction ring position or ammunition with low mojo.

Unless its a really stiff mainspring deliberately installed for hot loads, 'damaged' or older/slack mainsprings usually wouldn't cause a 'no-recoil' condition unless the damaged or broken spring 'binds' or physically gets in the way of reciprocating parts. The ability to manually cycle the action precludes that.

Is it chambered for 3" rounds? The proof marks usually will indicate that.

regards,
cc

does it have a switch of a kind ? which turns it from semi to pump? if so have it checked out.

I don't know what model you got but they got a splitter switch, a notch, slide or some thing. Trust me, you look carefully and usually it's in the safety slide switch. It's going to say some thing like single or semi. Don't ruin it if you don't know what are you doing - Haji

To clear up misconceptions, not all Franchi shotties have that slide-semi combo feature and Franchi does make or at least use to manufacture a largish product range of shotties. In fact, if I recall clearly, it's only the relatively recent SPAS 12 and SPAS 15 that have that switch over feature and both are gas operated.

This one, apparently, is the older Model 48/AL , and borrows from a technology of significant vintage.

Interestingly, has anyone noticed...? The 48/AL in the picture appears to be a south-paw version.... that is, unless the pictures have been flipped for whatever reason.

regards,
cc

Hammerhead wrote:I don't know what model you got but they got a splitter switch, a notch, slide or some thing. Trust me, you look carefully and usually it's in the safety slide switch. It's going to say some thing like single or semi. Don't ruin it if you don't know what are you doing - Haji

Not a chance of that with this model. Also, the safety is the typical push-through through the back of the trigger guard.

Even more intresting is the fact that u have a semi-auto in India. If you could manage that I'm sure other problems will be overcome too.

p.s.: are you or your dad left handed?

thanks all for the helpfull replies...i was using rc4 trap shot ammo on them...maybe i need to adjust the recoil spring...will check it out.. cottage cheese, these are for 5 round, hammerhead, nagarhole no switch of any kind..te pics seem to have been flipped for some reason thats why it looks left handed although both my dad and me are left handed shooter doue to a dominant left eye..

not sure how we managed to get a semi auto, that too with a legal license...will have to find that out..