Thebear_78
Handloader
- Sep 30, 2004
- 3,099
- 876
I recently picked up a Franchi Affinity 12g as a general purpose hunting and sporting clays gun. In the past I have had many fine shotguns from browning citori’s, Remington 1100 and 1187, Berretta a400 xcel and 301, and a benelli Ethos. Sadly most of them went down the road a few years ago after a occupational shift.
I kept an old and abused remington 1100 that while hideous has proven an excellent shooter that has broken many many clays over the years. It was originally a full choke and was cut down to 26” with a cylinder choke. I had been wanting something a little more versatile for waterfowl, predators, and sporting clays.
I had been looking into picking up a relatively affordable auto, something that would run light loads and 3” magnums equally well, not too heavy or too light. My short list was berretta A300 outlander, Franchi Affinity, or remington V3 or 1187. They had all pretty favorable reviews but the A300 and Affinity really stood out. It basically boiled down to gas vs enertia. They both have pros and cons but in the end it doesn’t really matter. After handling them both side by side it was no contest. The affinity just fit me better. The sticker price was $699, and after picking up a couple extended carlsons chokes in cylinder and Light Modified I was out the door under $800 bucks. Not cheap, but easily half of what a higher end berretta or beneli would cost and peanuts compared to most nice O/Us. It patterned well on the pattern board and came with a set of standard shims for fine fitting.
I’ve run 4 cases of 1 1/8oz target loads and a couple boxes of game loads and one box of 3” magnum 4s. It handled everything without a hiccup. So for out of the 1,075 rounds there has been zero malfunctions. It has been a mix of both staight skeet and 5 stand, about 65/45. My averages on skeet have stayed pretty consistent running 22-23 out of 25. My scores on 5 stand have improved probably due to being able to change chokes to the light modified to hit some of those longer 5 stand shots.
I had purposely avioded cleaning it because I wanted to see how well it would handle running dirty. Tonight I took it part and gave it a deep cleaning. My buddy has ran a case of ammo thru my old 1100 today so I cleaned them both. It was pretty amazing how much cleaner the affinity with its enertia system ran compared to the 1100. The affinity was hardly dirty at all. It was also very easy to strip down. The whole thing comes apart very simply with no real tools needed.
Overall I am very impressed with this shotgun and would highly recomend it to anyone looking for a good performing do all shotgun. My only complaint is the black synthetic/black metal finish aren’t much to look at. I’ll have to do something to make it more interesting to look at. I might get it dipped in some cool pattern. Zombie green camo might be neat.
I actually like it so much I’m strongly considering picking up one of the 20ga compact models for my kids.
I kept an old and abused remington 1100 that while hideous has proven an excellent shooter that has broken many many clays over the years. It was originally a full choke and was cut down to 26” with a cylinder choke. I had been wanting something a little more versatile for waterfowl, predators, and sporting clays.
I had been looking into picking up a relatively affordable auto, something that would run light loads and 3” magnums equally well, not too heavy or too light. My short list was berretta A300 outlander, Franchi Affinity, or remington V3 or 1187. They had all pretty favorable reviews but the A300 and Affinity really stood out. It basically boiled down to gas vs enertia. They both have pros and cons but in the end it doesn’t really matter. After handling them both side by side it was no contest. The affinity just fit me better. The sticker price was $699, and after picking up a couple extended carlsons chokes in cylinder and Light Modified I was out the door under $800 bucks. Not cheap, but easily half of what a higher end berretta or beneli would cost and peanuts compared to most nice O/Us. It patterned well on the pattern board and came with a set of standard shims for fine fitting.
I’ve run 4 cases of 1 1/8oz target loads and a couple boxes of game loads and one box of 3” magnum 4s. It handled everything without a hiccup. So for out of the 1,075 rounds there has been zero malfunctions. It has been a mix of both staight skeet and 5 stand, about 65/45. My averages on skeet have stayed pretty consistent running 22-23 out of 25. My scores on 5 stand have improved probably due to being able to change chokes to the light modified to hit some of those longer 5 stand shots.
I had purposely avioded cleaning it because I wanted to see how well it would handle running dirty. Tonight I took it part and gave it a deep cleaning. My buddy has ran a case of ammo thru my old 1100 today so I cleaned them both. It was pretty amazing how much cleaner the affinity with its enertia system ran compared to the 1100. The affinity was hardly dirty at all. It was also very easy to strip down. The whole thing comes apart very simply with no real tools needed.
Overall I am very impressed with this shotgun and would highly recomend it to anyone looking for a good performing do all shotgun. My only complaint is the black synthetic/black metal finish aren’t much to look at. I’ll have to do something to make it more interesting to look at. I might get it dipped in some cool pattern. Zombie green camo might be neat.
I actually like it so much I’m strongly considering picking up one of the 20ga compact models for my kids.
