# Franchi Brescia 12ga 48AL



## Hamster (Mar 13, 2013)

Greetings everyone, I just purchased one of these used and know next to nothing about it (and have no owners manual) so, I'll be asking plenty of questions about it. The main thing that sold me on it, was the Benelli Inertia Drive system.

What I do know is that this one was made in Italy and just above the serial number is what appears to be a star in a circle, an X in a square, 2 more stars with the letters F and P under them, one more star, an F and a O, then 2 A's in a square.

This model has a short barrel.......about 22" or so and no place to even mount a choke as far as I can tell and appears to be chambered for 2 3/4" shells. My main question is, what types of ammo are safe to use in this gun?


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## Hamster (Mar 13, 2013)

Eh....my bad. I finally found and downloaded an owners manual. It does NOT have the Benelli ID system. It has what is referred to as a "long recoil" system.

In any case, it's lighter than gas piston semi-autos, cycles faster, has less moving parts, is very versatile as far as ammo, easier to clean and from what I've read, far more reliable.


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## glen (Nov 26, 2007)

The Franchi 48Al is a icon in Europe popular for pass shooting migrating pigeons in the alpine mountain passes, the 20ga and 28ga are renowned upland guns the world over and arguably the best handling semi auto ever for these tasks. The 12ga was discontinued about 5 or so years ago but the 20 and 28 are still produced to the present day.
They did produce a quite rare 3 inch magnum version of the 48 this differed in that it had a heavy steel frame and sported a 32 inch barrel i still have one of these today, they are very reliable like the Browning A5s they are modeled on and although i would never give up my A5s the franchi has features like fast field striping with no screwdriver that the browning cant match. Overall a good gun and often overlooked.


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## Hamster (Mar 13, 2013)

The version I found, has a rather short barrel.............21.5 inches and will shoot birdshot, buckshot, slugs and magnums as long as they are 2.75 inches.

Here's a pic.









Please ignore the clamp. I added that as part of the magazine extension kit before I found out what kind of recoil system it has, and haven't taken a new pic yet.


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## darkgael (Feb 10, 2006)

Just picked up an AL48 in 12 gauge, a used gun. Less than six pounds, it will be my Upland gun next season, along with or replacing my older Winchester Model 59 (also a lightweight). 
It is a fine handling gun. I am looking forward putting more shells through it. I did shoot some 16 yard Trap with it and was pleased with the hit ratio
Pete


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