Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian, I am here today at the Rock Island
Auction House, I'm taking a look at some of the guns
in their upcoming December of 2015 Premier Auction.
And there was one that was in the rifle racks
that I figured, "You know what?
We ought to take a look at this."
It's far from forgotten, in fact I think this has
been in just about every action movie ever made,
plus most of the video games ever made.
But you know what? It's an interesting shotgun, it does some things that aren't typical.
So what the heck, let's take a look at it, this is a Franchi SPAS-12.
Now that is s-p-a-s, and that actually stands for Sporting Purpose Automatic Shotgun,
in a somewhat vain attempt to try and pass this off as a sporting shotgun
in the eyes of political institutions.
Is it really? Not so much. It certainly can be used for that,
but this was really designed with law enforcement in mind.
And the two things that make it stand out.
First off, it looks mean and very distinctive, especially this hook on the buttstock.
That's why it shows up in so many games and movies, is because it looks mean and distinctive.
And then the other thing, what's kind of interesting about it from a technical point of view,
is that it is a combination automatic and pump-action shotgun.
So you can pick how you want to operate it.
Now that may seem a bit extravagant, but it actually makes good sense when you consider that
in a law enforcement role a shotgun will be called upon to use
both heavy duty proper ammunition, buckshot and slugs,
and it also may be called upon to use less lethal ammunition,
things like beanbags, or tear gas rounds.
Shells that don't provide nearly enough energy to cycle a semi-automatic shotgun action.
So the idea here is you can pick and use either type of action.
So if you're shooting beanbags you can run the gun manually,
and if you're shooting buckshot or slugs you can switch it over to semi-auto.
It's actually a very easy conversion back and forth between the two,
something you can absolutely do on the fly.
And that makes for a pretty neat design.
Now they coupled that with a folding stock to make it more compact
for putting in a patrol cruiser.
And an extended magazine tube.
Things like that that would make it appeal to a law enforcement customer.
So these were actually purchased by the law enforcement arms
of a couple of different governments, Austria and Indonesia among others.
And certainly a lot of ... individual police departments
in the United States have some of these, or did at one time.
They were first introduced in 1979.
They were produced by Franchi in Italy until 1999 or 2000.
Although importation into the US for the civilian market ended in 1994
with the assault weapons ban, because they are a folding-stock shotgun that is semi-automatic.
This one is set up with an 8 ... shot tube magazine, which is a reasonably high capacity.
And it's got a big ol' set of ghost ring sights.
We'll take a look at those a little closer in just a moment. ...
Alright, so one thing I do want to touch on before we look up close at this gun
is what this hook is supposed to be used for.
Because it's certainly distinctive and different,
but it's not really necessarily obvious what you're supposed to do with this thing.
Well first off, it doesn't do anything when the stock's folded,
with the possible exception of acting as a carry handle.
What you are supposed to do is actually use it with the stock unfolded.
Now there's a big spring in here, and I can push down on this hook,
and rotate it to the side like so.
And then when I unfold the stock
I have this hook sticking out on the side of the gun.
What that allows me to do is brace the back end of the gun on my forearm,
and makes it a lot easier to support, and if you wanted to, shoot this thing with one hand.
So I can actually just barely hold it out at arm's length.
This is a heavy gun, this is like a 10 pound shotgun.
And this hook is actually sort of acting ... like the original Sig brace, you might consider it.
It doesn't actually strap to your arm, but it does counterbalance some of the weight of the gun.
So that's what that is actually there for.
And I will also point out ... if we push it down and rotate it rearward like this,
it actually comes out so you can take it off the gun entirely, which really wouldn't be a bad idea.
It doesn't look quite so cool, but it's a little more practical to use the gun without it, so.
Alright, the first thing I want to mention here is actually a potential safety issue,
and also a cool collectability note.
This is the original configuration of the SPAS-12, it has this big lever-type safety.
So that's safe, and that's fire.
These guns were actually recalled by Franchi because there was a potential defect,
and some of the guns could actually fire when the safety was moved from safe to fire.
So a definite safety issue, it's something that they fixed by replacing this lever
with a push button, like a cross-bolt style of safety.
So this has not been upgraded.
If you're a collector that's kind of cool, to get the one that hasn't been changed.
This is the way it came out of the factory.
This particular gun, in my little bit of experimentation here,
does not appear to have that safety flaw.
However, if you are going to shoot this,
either, get the parts and make that change, which I believe you can still do today.
Or ... make a very conscious effort to not depend on the safety,
and only point the gun in a safe direction when you are disengaging the safety.
So, obligatory safety comment out of the way.
Let's take a closer look at some of the other elements here.
Our stock is held in place by this spring-loaded detent.
So to deploy the stock you push that ball bearing in, you can then rotate the stock down.
You'll notice there is this curved portion right here to push that detent in for you,
and it locks in place like that.
This is for a sling swivel.
Then we have a similar detent folding mechanism right here.
So if you don't have the hook on, you typically want to have the stock
in this straight configuration when it's folded.
Which makes it lie nice and flat on the gun.
I will point out ... I can't get a good camera angle on it,
but you cannot see the sights through the stock when the stock is folded like this.
Now speaking of the sights, what we have is a big huge ghost ring sight right here,
to go along with a really nice big blade sight on the front.
We've got a big old heat shield over the barrel, and this forearm is plastic.
And it's kind of interesting, because of the dual nature of the action
the handguard is not actually attached to the action of the shotgun.
Instead it pushes on the action inside,
and it actually rides in these two recesses in the heat shield.
So it's not necessarily as smooth of an action as you would get on other guns.
Now there is a big ol' button on the bottom of the handguard.
This is what allows you to change between automatic and manual mode.
So I push the button in, pull the slide back just about a quarter-inch,
that locks it in the manual mode.
And then when I unlock the slide I can now pump open and closed.
In fact, due to a little bit of a quirk in the design,
when it's in manual mode you can lock the thing open,
and then in order to close it you actually have to hit the shell release here on the left.
Now when you're using it in manual mode,
you are actually compressing the action spring, just like in automatic mode.
So you have a little bit more resistance when you're opening the gun,
but you also have the spring assisting when you close the slide.
So I'm not sure if that's really a net positive or negative, it's just kind of a feature.
Now to change the gun into automatic mode,
we push the button down and slide the handguard forward.
It snaps into position and now it doesn't move.
Now (if I unlock the gun), now you can see that everything is still running here inside.
(Hit the shell release there.)
This all moves without the ... handguard moving anywhere itself.
So in automatic mode ... it's designed to run on full power ammo.
So high brass birdshot, or buckshot, or slugs.
You may find it doesn't actually run reliably on the light loads, like the el cheapo birdshot.
You may need to use manual mode for that.
And of course you would use manual for things like bean bags or less lethal ammunition.
The one other thing I would note: I have not taken this gun apart, and I don't plan to for this video,
but there is actually a recoil buffer.
It was a ... rubber pad in the back of the receiver.
And that's an important element in there, both to protect the receiver and to reduce felt recoil.
Often on guns that haven't been shot much, that have just been sitting,
those will have got very hard and brittle, and aren't going to function properly.
You can still get replacement buffer pads today.
And just judging from the fact that this still has the original safety,
I suspect this gun probably ought to have a new buffer pad if you plan to shoot it a lot.
Well, thanks for watching guys, I hope you enjoyed the video.
Got to take a little bit of a closer look at a gun that you
typically only see in Hollywood and computer games.
And hopefully you learned something today.
If you'd like to own this one, of course they haven't been imported into the US for
about 20 years now, so they're a little bit scarce,
and they have a cool cachet from all of their Hollywood use.
If you take a look at the link in the description text below,
you will find Rock Island Auction House's catalogue page on this gun.
Where you can see their pictures, and their description,
and place a bid right online and make this thing yours.
Thanks for watching.
[ ... ]
Clever girl.