#FRANCHI AFFINITY 3.5 SERIES#

Meantime, I am not convinced that camo offers any real-world advantage, but it is becoming almost a tribal fetish in some quarters. You will see quite a few wildfowlers with camo-finished guns here these days.

#FRANCHI AFFINITY 3.5 SERIES#

This camo fashion trend was perhaps most obvious in the hugely successful Duck Dynasty American reality TV series but also relates to the US gun industry pushing the militaristic look more generally amongst civilians. ‘Camo’ does not float my punt but it has a growing band of aficionados, who may adopt clothing and head gear to match. Our specimen is decked out in Realtree MAX-5 camouflage, which is the height of rural fashion in duck blinds from Virginia to Oregon.

The Affinity was clearly designed with budget-conscious US duck-hunters in mind (hence GMK can offer it at a good price to UK shooters). Beretta also has a factory in Spain making chokes.Īll of which brings us to the test gun. Beretta itself has two major factories in Gardone: ‘Beretta 1’, making standard models and military weapons and ‘Beretta Due’ making Premium guns (such as the DT11 and SO sidelocks) and housing a repair department. Corporately speaking, the Beretta empire now includes Benelli, Franchi, Sako, Tikka, Uberti, Burris Optics and Stoeger (with a manufacturing facility for budget semi-automatics in Turkey Beretta stresses that no components for its guns are made there). The latter firm has been owned by Beretta since 1983, and Franchi itself operates as a separate brand headquartered within the Benelli facility at Ubino, Central Italy.įranchi looks to Benelli to make its actions and, like Benelli, to Beretta to hammer forge its barrels. Such a gun is the Franchi Affinity 3, an inertia-operated, 3in-chambered, high-performance, steel-proofed semi-automatic, weighing about 7lb, from GMK. Not just machine made – some great guns are made by machine now – but a gun that has no pretensions of being anything other than a shooting engine. Much as I love bench-made guns, occasionally it is fun to put something different through its paces. Take a look at Michael’s review of the Guerini Forum 32in 20-bore - and find out if he prefer the 30in or the 32in. Michael Yardley is pleasantly surprised by the Franchi Affinity 3, which he finds well put together and solid - despite the garish finish.

Franchi affinity 3.5