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Description
A birthday gift to myself, my parents chipped in one the first down payment as an early birthday gift a few months ago, I've had this for a few days now I just never got around to taking any decent pictures and I didn't want to upload until I had a picture that would do the gun some justice.

This is the Franchi SPAS-12, made in Italy by Luigi Franchi, the SPAS is actually a fairly old design despite it's futuristic appearance, originally designed in 1972. F.I.E imported the SPAS for years until they shut their doors due to bankruptcy, the second organization to import the SPAS American Arms, also had gone out of business later on. It is estimated that only five percent (1,850) of all Franchi SPAS-12s ever manufactured made it into the United States. And I'm very proud to own one, the model I have is one of the more desirable models, 8+1 capacity, folding "dog leg" stock, original stock hook, "combat" bolt release and, the cross bolt safety. During the time the SPAS 12 was being imported it was recalled due to an issue with the safety mechanism, which was originally a lever style safety, it was discovered that these safeties could wear down and actually cause the weapon to fire if moved from safe to fire while having a loaded chamber. My model has an S and F mark on either side of the crossbolt safety, leading me to believe that my model had actually been sent back to Italy for a replacement safety, or was modified while in the hands of Franchi after it was manufactured.

The peculiar thing in my mind about this shotgun, is that it has the "new style" receiver, containing a straight walled rubber recoil buffer inside the gun, (or at least it did, I'm waiting on a replacement from www.spas-12.com/ ) while the "old style" buffer was tapered to a point, however my model has this "new style" buffer, but was made in 1975 (using the Italian date code system, and it also has the post recall safety, leaving me very confused about the story behind this shotgun.

However it's still an amazing piece of machinery, capable of both semiautomatic and manual pump action fire modes, although it is intended to be used in semiautomatic unless less lethal or specialty rounds need to be used, the shotgun was designed to appear very aggressive because of it's original intention of being a purpose built MIL/LE weapon, which, especially in the hands of law enforcement less than lethal rounds could be necessary, and most less than lethal rounds (CS Gas, rubber baton, rubber ball, etc) lack the energy to cycle the heavy bolt of the gun, allowing the pump, which is really a handguard, to attach directly to the gas piston to allow the user to manual cycle the weapon. The SPAS actually has a magazine cutoff switch to prevent another round from being drawn out of the magazine, allowing the user to switch ammunition types with ease.

Description
A birthday gift to myself, my parents chipped in one the first down payment as an early birthday gift a few months ago, I've had this for a few days now I just never got around to taking any decent pictures and I didn't want to upload until I had a picture that would do the gun some justice.

This is the Franchi SPAS-12, made in Italy by Luigi Franchi, the SPAS is actually a fairly old design despite it's futuristic appearance, originally designed in 1972. F.I.E imported the SPAS for years until they shut their doors due to bankruptcy, the second organization to import the SPAS American Arms, also had gone out of business later on. It is estimated that only five percent (1,850) of all Franchi SPAS-12s ever manufactured made it into the United States. And I'm very proud to own one, the model I have is one of the more desirable models, 8+1 capacity, folding "dog leg" stock, original stock hook, "combat" bolt release and, the cross bolt safety. During the time the SPAS 12 was being imported it was recalled due to an issue with the safety mechanism, which was originally a lever style safety, it was discovered that these safeties could wear down and actually cause the weapon to fire if moved from safe to fire while having a loaded chamber. My model has an S and F mark on either side of the crossbolt safety, leading me to believe that my model had actually been sent back to Italy for a replacement safety, or was modified while in the hands of Franchi after it was manufactured.

The peculiar thing in my mind about this shotgun, is that it has the "new style" receiver, containing a straight walled rubber recoil buffer inside the gun, (or at least it did, I'm waiting on a replacement from www.spas-12.com/ ) while the "old style" buffer was tapered to a point, however my model has this "new style" buffer, but was made in 1975 (using the Italian date code system, and it also has the post recall safety, leaving me very confused about the story behind this shotgun.

However it's still an amazing piece of machinery, capable of both semiautomatic and manual pump action fire modes, although it is intended to be used in semiautomatic unless less lethal or specialty rounds need to be used, the shotgun was designed to appear very aggressive because of it's original intention of being a purpose built MIL/LE weapon, which, especially in the hands of law enforcement less than lethal rounds could be necessary, and most less than lethal rounds (CS Gas, rubber baton, rubber ball, etc) lack the energy to cycle the heavy bolt of the gun, allowing the pump, which is really a handguard, to attach directly to the gas piston to allow the user to manual cycle the weapon. The SPAS actually has a magazine cutoff switch to prevent another round from being drawn out of the magazine, allowing the user to switch ammunition types with ease.