[tlhelmer]

tactical shotgun with the optical rails?

The price at the local dealer was 540.00

It seems a little much. What are your opinions?

Anybody got a website? I would like to find out more about it.

[Preacherman]

See here (http://www.hecklerkoch-usa.com/pages/fabarm/fabframeset.html) for the Fabarm Web site. They make very good shotguns indeed, to judge by reports: but they're expensive... I don't see many used by top competition shooters or hunters. That may be due to lack of publicity for them, but I tend to trust those shotguns that are beaten to death by high-volume users, and keep on running. I've no idea whether or not the Fabarms are in this class.

[BrobeeBiter]

Hi there!

I've recently purchased two fabarms pro-forces (their 14 inch tactical pump and tactical semi)...I'm currently waiting for the paperwork to clear so I can take them home, however I have run about 100 rounds of buck and slug through them both. First impressions?

The pump: Upon taking this thing apart to give it the brand-new-out-of-the-box cleaning, I was AMAZED at the mechanical resemblence to the 870. We're not talking about a passing resemblence, we are talking about only very, very minor differences in the mechanical workings such that I now harbour some suspicion towards HK and Fabarm! The only real difference is that this fabarm has a spring that is meant to "assist" the sliding of the forend forwards. Upon firing the weapon, I was quickly of the opinion that this spring would have to go and thankfully it was not difficult to do at all. The gun was equipped with a fixed bead/fiber optic front sight and a picatinny rail mounted ghost ring/two dot sight. The tactical styled full length pistol grip stock has a slightly shorter length of pull than a regular styled stock, and being a shooter of a shorter/stockier geometry I quite appreciated this configuration.

How does it shoot? Even with the rear sight screwed all the way down, the gun still printed 6 inches high at 25 yards with slug. I haven't been able to take the gun outside to do some trajectory testing yet, however I suspect that the big 'ol slug is going to keep going up for a while with a somewhat significant epogee. This has me a little anxious. Other than that, while the gun fuctionned well, the more I shot it the more I became aware that it was not my precious 870 and was somehow missing something.

The semi: I have no experience of significance with other semi-automatic shotguns, and as such I am unable to offer any meaningful comparisons. The gun ate everything it was fed, from light loads of #7 all the way up to Mr Magnum Slug, so I suspect there might be some substance behind Fabarm's claims of technological brilliance with respect to the action. My biggest grip? The gun bucked like nothing I have ever experienced. The muzzle rise of this thing was at least an order of magnitude greater than anything I have ever experienced, and it made me appreciate my 870s even more (especially those equipped with a telescoping M4 stock). The semi experienced the same issues with the rear sight, and I'm also anxious to get it outside and print it at 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 yards to understand it's trajectory a bit.

All in all? My preliminary impressions are that these are not bad guns. While much of what I like about the pump is "borrowed" from the 870, the gun does have some charracter of it's own. With respect to the semi, I've got a bit of work to put in before I'll know if it is something that will grow on me or if our relationship might suffer some erosion at the hands of time.

Once I get a bit more range time (and once my paperwork clears and I can take the gun home), if there is interest I'll take some photographs to post and compose more of my thoughts.

Take care,

BrobeeBiter

[tlhelmer]

Thanks guys.

Preacherman, I agree with you and favor guns that are being used by many ither shooters.

BroBeeBiter,

Thanks. Your post was full of good info. I would be interested in more info when you get more range time with the pump.