Franchi semi-auto question

[Jspy]

I have a particular Franchi semi-auto shotgun I acquired several years ago which I believe is their standard model. I have long since giving up doing any shotgun hunting, so therefore never had occasion to even take it out to try firing it. However, just yesterday I participated in a European style pheasant hunt so I decided to use the Franchi. I must say the hunt went well and the the gun performed without any problems. Never having had a semi-auto before I was curious about one thing in particular about this gun. I tried loading up the magazine first, and then cycling a round into the chamber. It wouldn't pick up the round. So after I manually loaded the first round into the chamber and fired, everything functioned fine. No probems. Now if you ejected a round manually (to change stations with your chamber open) it woud eject the round and then stay open. In other words when you would fire a round, everything functions normally, but if you manually rack the action, it ejects the round in the chamber and doesn't pick up the next round out of the magazine. Does this seem normal ? So if you have rounds in the magzine, how would you get them out? Is there such a thing as a trigger activated release which would allow the next round in the magazine to spring into position? Thankfully I figured out all of this before going hunting yeserday, but honestly I still have rounds in my magazine that need to be removed.

 

[Chris Rhines]

Franchis, Benellis, and Berettas all operate in roughly the same fashion - cycling the action will only advance a shell from the shell lifter into the chamber. To advance a shell from the magazine to the lifter, you have to do one of two things:
- Pull the trigger, or...
- Press the little tiny stud in front of the trigger guard.

Although the system takes some getting used to, it has major advantages over the traditional system (in which cycling the action advances a round directly from the magazine into the chamber.) To wit:
- You can change out the chambered round easily, by pulling the bolt to the rear, holding it there, and inserting a new shell into the chamber. Very handy for select-slug drills.
- If you have a feedway stoppage, it's much easier to clear when the gun isn't trying to jam a new shell into the chamber.
- You can (in some guns) increase the capacity by one by placing a shell on the shell lifter while the gun is in battery.

To remove shells from the magazine, you need to trip the shell latch inside the loading port. It's easier to show you on the gun, but if you flip the gun over and press up the shell lifter, you'll see a little flat spring on the left-hand side, inside the reciever. That's what holds the shells in the magazine tube. Press that spring, and a shell will pop out. Literally - watch your eyes.

Hope this helps.

- Chris

 

[Jspy]

Thanks Chris for the information. I had noticed the spring holding the shell in the mag. tube. I will try that to release the rounds in the mag. by depressing the spring, but it seems odd that would be the only way to get them out. I'm pretty sure I had tried to pull the trigger (on an empty chamber) thinking it might activate that spring and let one pop out, with no luck.