Franchi Model 48 20 Gauge Shotgun

Why is it neccessary to place a shell into the chamber first to fire. Why can one just work the bolt to place a shell from the magazine into the chamber ?

If I understand your question correctly, you are trying to load the magazine through the gate and then cycle the action to chamber a round?

On Beretta autoloaders, there is a push button that sends a shell out of the magazine onto the feed gate, and it can then be loaded.

Some autos don’t allow this on purpose so that you can take a shell out of the chamber for safety reasons such as crossing a fence, then drop it back in and close the bolt. Beretta has a hold-open button to do this, but I believe some Benellis worked in this way.

Grouse

What would be the benefit of reducing the amount of ammo in the magazine in a hunting situation? Understand some guys like the convenience of being able to do it the other way, but not how the gun was intentionally designed.

Have owned a 48 AL 20ga for a very long time, absolutely love the gun. It’s beat up and abused, rarely gets cleaned and just keeps on cycling rounds. Have never had a need or desire to get a round from the magazine without cycling the gun by firing it at a bird or just loading the gun the way it was designed.

Personally like the way it loads and unloads the round out of the chamber, way safer imo. And am use to it. Makes any situation you have to unload and reload for safety reasons quick and that action stays fully open and visibly to others. Can pull a shell out of the chamber and not worry about another shell somehow entering the chamber if I or one of my kids falls and bumps something. Then it’s easy to put a round back in the chamber and still have a full tube. Especially important if you’re wood cock hunting with a plug in the gun and only have 2 shells in the magazine.

Not sure it helps, but that’s just my $00.02 and have used the gun for over 2 decades. And maybe it’s weird if you are use to a different cycling gun and it’s just normal to me cause it’s like 2nd nature and am acclimated to it, idk.

basseyes wrote:

What would be the benefit of reducing the amount of ammo in the magazine in a hunting situation?

The reason I don’t fill my magazine with those 2 extra shotgun shells is because of the added weight. My Benelli is perfectly balanced and the slightest added weight of those 2 rounds sitting there towards the front of the stock isn’t to my liking. That is why I keep the plug in there instead of 2 added rounds.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>basseyes wrote:</div>
What would be the benefit of reducing the amount of ammo in the magazine in a hunting situation?

The reason I don’t fill my magazine with those 2 extra shotgun shells is because of the added weight. My Benelli is perfectly balanced and the slightest added weight of those 2 rounds sitting there towards the front of the stock isn’t to my liking. That is why I keep the plug in there instead of 2 added rounds.

Agreed.

My plug stays in mine. So no reason to pull one of those 2 shells in the magazine out imo. But maybe I’m not understanding the original question.