I need some help understanding a trigger issue.

I have a Franchi Instinct II o/u 12g. I have noticed the trigger as a small amount of "slack" in the trigger before one gets to actually reach the resistance that needs to be overcome to release the trigger. I thought this was my gun's problem, but then I checked out a Beretta SPII and a Zoli and they all had the same very slight slack before getting to the "glass rod" feeling and make the gun go bang.

I was told this is the nature of Italian "Inertia" triggers.

In my shooting group, I was able to get my hands on a Krieghoff and a Blaser and neither one have this slack feeling in the trigger.

Is this something to do with "Italian" style triggers or is this just a sub-$2000 gun vs higher end guns?

Any insight into this would be helpful. Thanks!

This ^^^^

Ok, I have to ask. What Zoli, and where did you find one at sub 2k?

I dont know which Zoli it was. It was one of the range rental guns. I will get back to you on that one next time i am at the clay range.

I have owned 2 Krieghoff K80's and they have the best triggers.

I have back problems and have trouble shooting a 10# gun.

I bought a Beretta A400 because it is only 7.5#.

It has the worse trigger I have ever shot. It was so hard to pull that I kept flinching and still do.

There is a very big difference in triggers.

On the A400 have you considered going to a K20 or even K20 parcours instead?

Have you had Coles do a trigger job? Worth the $100

I had a friend give me a Cole trigger.

It is like a new world.

The best trigger I have had was a new out of the box Perazzi w/ out selector (Bottom bbl 1st all the time).

What you encountered is what everyone encounters on a $2000ish gun.

Thanks all for the info....glad to hear it is not my speciifc gun....just seems what is to be expected at this price point.

Thats ok....i will just keep busting as many clays with it as I can until I can fill up the piggy bank with some more coins for the next gun.

Many gun makers in Italy, Turkey and Spain use a variant of the Italian "Rizzini" action, also known as the Brescia action. The trigger design on these is a copy of the Miroku built Browning Citoris, which always have some free play unless tweaked, even the two or three 725s that I've tried had a little.

The only guns of that family that can easily be set to have no free play are the CGs, but then CGs aren't sub $2000 guns. They have an adjustment setscrew to take up the slack in the linkage - if that's what the user wants. Not everyone does though as I know a few people who're quite happy with a little free play which is how CGs come from the factory or back from service.

Thank you Trickster for the education on this topic. I always enjoy the history behind what we have or do.

So, if I like the Italian style guns in terms of how they aim and feel, but want a better trigger, do you suggest I look at an entry level CG? [always assuming the gun fits me good when I shoulder it, etc..]

...or should I look to the Germans with the Blaser F16

..or do you have some other suggestion of where to look next?

Lets say $4000 -ish price point

thanks

Check out https://fabarmusa.com/elos-n2-sporting/

$2,950 MSRP

Thanks again for all the advice!

You've got choices at the $4K point. Personally, I'm a reformed Beretta man. They're very reliable but too low in the comb for me, the trigger pulls aren't a patch on a CG and in my opinion, they're overpriced.

I shoot a CG for sporting and have no desire to move on to anything else, but if I were starting over, the F16 would be strong contender. A pal has one and it weighs 8lb 3oz, exactly the same as my CG and it shoots about the same too.

Browning of course have the 725 in that segment. A little agricultural for my taste but the Pro versions seem fairly popular in my neck of the woods.

My F16 probably has the nicest trigger I've ever felt on a shotgun.

My Zoli Kronos trigger is pretty damn nice too tho.

That “slack” you’re encountering is the free travel in the trigger before the trigger actually engages the sear and starts to move the sear to allow the hammer to fall. Virtually *every* gun has this. Once this slack is taken up and you feel the resistance of the trigger engaging the sear, some guns have a relatively light amount of resistance (about 3.5lbs i’d pressure) over a barely discernible amount of travel before letting the hammer fall; these are generally considered light and “crisp” (good). Others have have higher amounts of resistance (heavy) and/or have longer travel (even rough, uneven travel) to release the hammers (creep) and are considered inferior.

Yep, if you continue to shoot a bad trigger you will eventually develop a flinch. To that end, I've had Briley do trigger jobs on 391s, SX1, Perazzis, and Fabarm L4S with very good results. The cost is reasonable to relieve yourself of this problem.

My A400 had a trigger that was hard to pull. That made me flinch a lot.

The Cole trigger took some of that away but not all of it.

I had a Cole Beretta 391 trigger and it was almost perfect. Had them do an A400 and no comparison to the 391.

In just sent an A400 trigger to Briley for their Match Grade conversion using their hammer and sear. Hopefully this will be close to a 391.