Franchi and Stoeger get Benelli's inertia drive

Guns Magazine, Sept, 2005 by Holt Bodinson

There are some real pluses to being a gunmaking dynasty. Beretta now owns, among other companies, Benelli, Franchi and Stoeger and has taken the remarkable step of spreading Benelli's inertia drive technology across the other brand lines.

The three leading semiauto shotgun systems are gas, Benelli's inertia drive, and Browning's long- and short-recoil systems.

Benelli's inertia drive system is noted for its simplicity since there are only three primary parts--the bolt body, rotating bolt head and inertia spring. It's also noted for its speed--no shotgun action is faster--its cleanliness--it's not tapping off gas and accumulating carbon--and for its versatility, since it can handle without adjustment everything from 2 3/4" field loads to 3 1/2" Magnums. It also weighs little, making the Benelli--and now Franchi and Stoeger--some of the lightest, most streamlined and best balanced semiauto shotguns in the world.

Until recently, only Benelli models sported the inertia drive system, sometimes referred to as the Montefeltro action. It has broad applications.

When the US Marines went looking for their next combat shotgun, they chose Benelli's M4. While the M4 utilizes the inertia drive system, it is given a boost by two small gas-driven pistons to compensate for the added weight of night vision scopes and other specialized hardware that might be hung on the gun, as well as for low impulse, low recoil buckshot and slug tactical loads. Needless to say, Benelli's reliable M4s have seen a bit of tough combat recently.

When it comes to the question of the action's cycling speed, well known trick shooter Tom Knapp, a world record holding legend, shoots a Benelli M2 with an extended magazine. Holding the gun in his left hand and 10 clay pigeons in his right, he hand throws the clays in the air and breaks all 10 individual clays before they hit the ground. That's 10 individual shots, and it takes Knapp only 2.2 seconds to clean the air. Just try throwing and breaking two hand-tossed clays some day. If you can catch Knapp on tour, do so. He puts on an unforgettable show.

By licensing Benelli's inertia drive technology to Franchi and Stoeger, Beretta is triangulating the semiauto market by keeping Benelli at the top end, carving out the middle market under the Franchi brand, and bringing in the big-box stores under the Stoeger name.

Think of the plan as having three broad price points for semiauto sales. The price of a Benelli Super Black Eagle hovers around $1,300. Franchi's completely new Italian built I-12 is half that price and Stoeger's M-2000 is retailing for around $400. All three brands share the inertia drive technology, but the differences in fit, finish and materials differentiate the brands. The Stoeger line is built in Turkey, for example, to moderate labor costs. Moderate them it does, with the new Stoeger P-350 pump with 5 chokes retailing for $229. There's also a cantilever, rifled slug barrel available at modest cost.

This past spring I carried a Franchi I-12 wrapped in Advantage Timber camo to do some turkey hunting at the Dream Catcher ranch in Texas. I was very impressed with the fit, finish, balance and sleek lines of this new 7.5-pound model. One of great features of the gun is that there are three different pad options to adjust the length-of-pull from 14 3/8" to 14 3/4", plus the pads accommodate three different strength gel inserts to truly soak up recoil. There is even a gel pad in the rear of the triggerguard to protect your middle finger. The Italians know a thing or two about fitting out shotguns.

Opening morning of the Texas spring season found me along a tree line with a brushy open field to my front. I was shooting 1 3/8 ounce of Federal's new No. 5 HeavyWeight shot in a 3" shell. My Franchi was mounted with a red dot sight from Burris, another company in Beretta's portfolio.

Working the slates, my partner, Jake, and I spied a hen emerging from the tree line to our left. I had the Franchi up and in position when a Tom showed up a minute later. We were well hidden in a natural brush blind, but the Tom, in an instant, looked our way, craned his neck, cocked his head, looked again and scrambled out of sight.

I was stymied. There was no reason for him to have focused on Jake and me the instant he cleared the tree line. In the course of the morning, I happened to notice that when the front lens of the Bums red dot sight picked up direct light, the lens reflected a bright red color. It was the lens coating, and I'm sure that's what grabbed Old Tom's attention that morning.

The next morning I decided to keep the red dot pointed toward the ground until the very last second. We were settled into the same location when two large Toms broke the tree line to our right not 35 yards away. Shifting the Franchi to my left shoulder, I did a double shuffle on those birds and neither one even flapped after being hit with HeavyWeight shot. Jakes' immediate comment was, "You know, I heard that gun work. Man, it's fast!"

Anyway, if you've ever wanted to try an inertia-driven shotgun and have been put off by the Super Black Eagle's super price, take a look at the Franchi I-12 or Stoeger M2000. The I-12 is currently available in 12-gauge 3" and will soon be chambered for the magnum and in 20-gauge as well.