Franchi 48 AL Restoration

Q

Quigly

CGN Regular
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Location
Southern Ontario
Hello All,

I hoping someone can help me out. My dad recently gave me his one and only, do it all shotgun. He is 94, and I don't think he's going to be around much longer. This shotgun has so many great memories associated with it. It was the shotgun he used for everything, incliding duck, woodcock, grouse, and rabbit. It's a Franchi 48 AL. As you can imagine it is pretty beat up. He always kept it clean and oiled, but he didn't baby it. He fired a lot of 2 3/4 inch magnums out of it. It's a light shotgun so all that bashing has subsequently caused the stock to crack on both sides, just behind the receiver. As well, the bluing is worn, and the stock and forend are beat up.
I want to honor my dad by hunting with his one and only shotgun. However, before I can do that I need to restore to it's former glory. You should have seen the shots he made on high flying ducks. He hardly ever missed. He grew up dirt poor. He hunted to feed his family afer his dad died suddenly. Every shot had to count. As a consequence I hardly ever saw him miss.
I digress. As I've already wrote I need to have it restored. I would like to do it myself, but I want it to look as new when it's finished, and I don't think I can accomplish that. So, that leaves it at getting professionaly restored. Now, if you've managed to read this far, I need your help locating a professional
that can restore it to it's former glory. Your help would be much appreciated.
Thanks, in advance.
 
The Franchi 48 is my favourite shotgun. I’ve owned dozens of them over the years. Still have a handful of them in my safe.

Unfortunately many people have shot heavy loads with the governor ring set to the light load position or put too much lube on the mag tube. This allowed the barrel to recoil harder into the receiver which often times caused hairline cracks in the wrist and/or forearm. If the stocks are not horribly spongy because of soaked in oil, those hairline cracks are often easy to deal with. Bluing the barrel is also fairly easy to have done especially if it doesn't have a rib. Unfortunately it will be much more difficult to finish the receiver as it was originally as its made of aluminum alloy.

Hard to give an accurate assessment without seeing photos of the gun. As for recommended smiths who can get the job done, Chris Dawe is the first that comes to mind. Unfortunately the Franchi 48 doesn’t hold much in terms of value, so your restoration really needs to come from the heart. The amount of money it can cost depending on what is required will far exceed the cost of a replacement in excellent/near new condition

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Personally I would leave your dads gun alone, find a nice shape replacement to shoot and store the two together. Then your kids will have both grandpas and dads guns with the associated memories. They aren’t expensive and usually not too hard to find. It just doesn’t make sense to restore it imo.
 
Buckmastr said:
Personally I would leave your dads gun alone, find a nice shape replacement to shoot and store the two together. Then your kids will have both grandpas and dads guns with the associated memories. They aren’t expensive and usually not too hard to find. It just doesn’t make sense to restore it imo.
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This is exactly what I did. The bottom two guns in my photo are twins. The bottom one was my fathers gun and the other was purchased as to avoid messing with my fathers gun. I think I paid the duplicate around $400 and it was like new in box. Sure I was lucky to find it, but they aren’t obscure and impossible to find.
 
Thanks for your thoughts, and input. It has me thinking what I should do. The cost would not be a concernconcern. On the other hand, I would consider using it as is, except, I don't want to fire it, and make the cracks worse than they already are. If I get the cracks fixed, that guarantees, the stock being refinished. If I do that, then I almost certainly have to do the rest of the shotgun.
 
I would leave the gun the way your Dad used it. Stabilize the cracks without refinishing the stocks.
 
Is the stock oil soaked? How bad are these cracks?

If they are just hairline cracks and the wood is clean, you can stabilize the cracks with CA glue and some clamps. CA glue can really work its way deep into the cracks. Once you are satisfied that it has worked its way deep, clamp it down for a day and use acetone to clean off the access amount that squeezes out after you clamp it down. When cured, it will be a very strong bond.

The alternative is to find another stock set for it and leave your dads stocks untouched. If its an early model, it may have a collared stock where the wrist mates with the receiver. Those stocks are impossible to find
 
1963beretta said:
Is the stock oil soaked? How bad are these cracks?

If they are just hairline cracks and the wood is clean, you can stabilize the cracks with CA glue and some clamps. CA glue can really work its way deep into the cracks. Once you are satisfied that it has worked its way deep, clamp it down for a day and use acetone to clean off the access amount that squeezes out after you clamp it down. When cured, it will be a very strong bond.

The alternative is to find another stock set for it and leave your dads stocks untouched. If its an early model, it may have a collared stock where the wrist mates with the receiver. Those stocks are impossible to find
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. What is CA glue? I think I may actually go that route. He bought the shotgun in the early seventies.
The stock is in good shape, except for the cracks on both sides.
I watched a You Tube video, recently, where the gun smith drilled small diameter holes over the cracks, then filled the hole with gorilla glue. Then he packed the glue right to the bottom with a very fine long dowel. Once that was done he pushed the dowel into the stock for added support. Would something like that work?
 
Quigly said:
Thanks for the info. What is CA glue? I think I may actually go that route. He bought the shotgun in the early seventies.
The stock is in good shape, except for the cracks on both sides.
I watched a You Tube video, recently, where the gun smith drilled small diameter holes over the cracks, then filled the hole with gorilla glue. Then he packed the glue right to the bottom with a very fine long dowel. Once that was done he pushed the dowel into the stock for added support. Would something like that work?
Click to expand...

CA glue is Crazy Glue. Its very strong when cured on clean, dry wood. Just make sure to use the liquid type, not the gel. If the cracks warrant pins, that can also be done. I’ve done this many times after using CA glue. If just hairline cracks, you can often times pin it in areas that are not visible like on the mating surface of the receiver. I’ve successfully pinned stocks with very small dowels as well as toothpicks. When gluing dowels, I’ve always used TiteBond 3. Thats very strong carpenters glue. And I’ve pinned after the CA glue has already cured. You can also use CA glue to bed the mating surface once the repair are done. Bedding the surface helps prevent future cracks
 
There are different CA glues. Have a look at Lee Valley.
For reinforcing pins, I like small diameter brazing rods that I have run through a die. The threads help lock the glue.
Little grooves can be cut in the hidden areas across cracks, and rods epoxied in.
Done carefully, repairs are unobtrusive, but strong.
 
1963beretta said:
Is the stock oil soaked? How bad are these cracks?

If they are just hairline cracks and the wood is clean, you can stabilize the cracks with CA glue and some clamps. CA glue can really work its way deep into the cracks. Once you are satisfied that it has worked its way deep, clamp it down for a day and use acetone to clean off the access amount that squeezes out after you clamp it down. When cured, it will be a very strong bond.

The alternative is to find another stock set for it and leave your dads stocks untouched. If its an early model, it may have a collared stock where the wrist mates with the receiver. Those stocks are impossible to find
Click to expand...

The cracks go right through, and are about three inches long. My dad, in typical fashion, had the pistol grip wrapped with electrical tape.
 
Quigly said:
The cracks go right through, and are about three inches long. My dad, in typical fashion, had the pistol grip wrapped with electrical tape.
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Not very uncommon. I have seen more Franchi 48’s with electrical tape around the wrist than I can count. Cracks is a very common issue for the reasons I mentioned earlier.
 
Quigly said:
That's good advice The only issue is finding a good gunsmith that I can trust with my dad's gun.
Click to expand...

Talk to Chris Dawe. He's a member here. He has reasonable turn around time and very reasonable pricing.....many very good gunsmiths operate in terms of years. He is particularly good at wood issues.... seeing his work on a destroyed SxS stock is what led me to him in the first place. I own $500 shotguns and $25,000 shotguns and many valuations in between.....I have no hesitation entrusting any of them to Chris for work.

Also, as other's have suggested.....stabilize the cracks, don't restore the gun. Buy another to shoot. Trust us on this.....you will be happier in the long run.
 
canvasback said:
Talk to Chris Dawe. He's a member here. He has reasonable turn around time and very reasonable pricing.....many very good gunsmiths operate in terms of years. He is particularly good at wood issues.... seeing his work on a destroyed SxS stock is what led me to him in the first place. I own $500 shotguns and $25,000 shotguns and many valuations in between.....I have no hesitation entrusting any of them to Chris for work.

Also, as other's have suggested.....stabilize the cracks, don't restore the gun. Buy another to shoot. Trust us on this.....you will be happier in the long run.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. I am leaning more and more towardsjust getting the cracks addressed. What's Chris's handle on the site?
 
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