I miss my Franchi SPAS 12

I nearly bought a USAS-12 while on leave in 1990. Got a Steyr AUG instead. Rejected it because it was so large and bulky feeling. How I feel remorse for that decision today.

USAS-12 = civie greatness


Jokes on them, because my M4S90 entry lands next week. Hooyah.
 
Friend used to have one but had to give it up when they went prohib. It jammed a lot and was a heavy beast but fun nevertheless.
 
Had one on lone from a co-worker many years ago. Kept it for a month, he wanted my S&W 629 on trade. I took it out many times and it was cool. Only fired No 2 Imperial High brass through it. It worked fine both pump and in semi.
Click that round button under the pump stock, slide back a little and..... way to go!, shes a SEMI-AUTO!:)
 
My uncle had a SPAS-12. The elbow-hook model made famous in so many movies and TV shows. When I was a young-un he'd let me blast away with it at his farm. Fun gun. Somewhat heavy. I like my Benelli M2 Tactical, however. It serves the same purpose.
 
From what I heard, they were heavy contraptions that pretty much did the same thing as your standard tube-fed pump or semi auto scattergun, but looked cool (or ugly depending on your point of view). There was its successor, the SPAS 15 which was similar, but mag-fed rather than tube fed, and sadly, also caught up in the gun control hysteria that was reaching its peak during the early '90s.

The only thing special about them, was as mentioned, they had the ability to switch between pump and semi-auto only operation.

There were some Benelli scatterguns (Namely the M1 and M3 tactical models) that were also banned with the SPAS, possibly because, to the clueless gun grabbers, the pump/semi-auto select switch sounded too close to a "Select fire switch". They had to backpeddle a bit to exempt a number of hunting shotguns which used the same basic action as the M1 and M3 series, and some mag-fed versions also got through as well...
 
They needed heavy loads and were terrible in the pump mode. I wouldnt take one into battle. Compared to your standard autoloader they sucked. They have an evil look and a cool name....but not as cool and evil as the, " street sweeper"! I remember the goofy hook the most...and yes I ran around the bush playing silly bugger with one.
 
jamiejaf said:
They needed heavy loads and were terrible in the pump mode. I wouldnt take one into battle. Compared to your standard autoloader they sucked. They have an evil look and a cool name....but not as cool and evil as the, " street sweeper"! I remember the goofy hook the most...and yes I ran around the bush playing silly bugger with one.
Click to expand...

I don't think "SPAS", which sounds close to "Spaz" is a cool name...
 
If I could go back in time and have one gun for the rest of my life it would be the SPAS 12 based purely on its "evil" appearance. Never seen or held a real one, have a few combat shotguns but to me nothing matches the mystique of the SPAS. Could have bought a complete parts kit for one a few years back minus the reciever from a police department in NS who were getting rid of it but to me it would be like buying a '70 Chevelle SS without the 454 :( Second choice would be a Streetsweeper with the 12 round revolving drum :D
 
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