EricB wrote:
In what ways is the Beretta far superior to the Franchi?
Do you shoot it better or is it in the machining, fit, finish?
Just based on the couple Franchis we've owned, and now five A300s / 400s in the house...
First of all there's the "click" on two-out-of-two Franchis, which is admittedly not a big sample size but it's still 100%. I agree with someone above that perhaps it's just inherent to the inertia design that the spring has to be relatively light.
As a hunter this left me with a gun that was, hopefully, reliable if I ran it wet
and if I made sure to close the bolt hard with the release, making a resounding CLANK. Kind of puts you in a pickle when you're getting out of the pickup with your hunting partners, and just over the crest of a hill is the pond with several hundred geese honking. Everyone else is loading up, and quietly and gently closing the action on their pump 870, break action, or gas autoloader before you all spread out and creep over the hill together. You also quietly close your inertia action (so as to not be "that guy" who makes the deafening goose-honking turn into a sickening two seconds of silence before the sound of wings flapping -- just out of range). But by quietly closing your action you have to wonder if your first shot will be a click, followed by some profanity, followed by fumbling for the little carrier release button at the front of the trigger guard, then jack the unshot shell out of the chamber, let the bolt fly forward to chamber the second (of only three) shells, shoulder the gun again, get on a goose again, and hope it doesn't click this time.
The same concept goes for quietly getting out of the pickup before you walk a strip of grass for a pheasant, except that rooster isn't going to give you a chance for a second shot after the click.
The one Franchi I sold also had another problem where a shell would not release into the action (either when firing, or when pressing the carrier release button) and the carrier (or elevator, lifter... whatever you want to call it) remain locked down, basically acting as if it had fired the last shot in the magazine when it hadn't. I could have sent it in, but I sold it with full disclosure of the issues.
I've not had a single malfunction, jam, anything with any of my Berettas ranging from 7/8 oz ultra-light loads to 3" magnums. Again, yes it's a small sample size and I may just be lucky with one brand and unlucky with the other. But I do note there are
not dozens of threads on this forum dedicated to "The Beretta Click".
Fit and finish seem *slightly* better on the A300, but still a gun you won't be afraid to carry around behind the seat of a pickup. A400 obviously much better wood than the 300, and yet cheaper than most Benellis, I believe.
I didn't care for the Franchi recoil pad design where it had a weird curve to the plastic, meaning the wood stock was not a straight cut at the butt. It seemed pointless except perhaps to force you to buy their proprietary replacement butt pads if you wanted to change the length of pull.
I guess maybe I just like gas guns better.