M&W
Franchi SPAS 12 (Combat Shot gun)
"Clever
Girl..." was the last thing Muldoon, the
park ranger, said in the film Jurassic park.
But did you notice the gun that he was using
to take pot shots at those 'Raptors?
Well in
actual fact it was a Franchi SPAS 12. The
real SPAS 12 is made in Italy By Franchi, a
long established shotgun producer that just
ranks below Berreta,
A stable
mate of the "normal" SPAS 15
sporting shotgun, The 12 is a pump action
combat shotgun that is used by special forces
the world over. Although not on general issue
to UK. armed forces, it is believed to be
used by the S.A.S. among many others. Built
like a military weapon and as such
exceedingly "butch" looking the 12
has been very popular in action films over
the past few years.
DODGY
So
what would the Airsoft version be like? With
such a interesting history and inherent
hardness, the SPAS was eagerly awaited in the
UK. when it was first announced by M&W.
As a relative unknown in the Airsoft field,
people really didn't know what to expect from
M&W who have only broken into the UK.
market with some cheap bottom of the range
Airsoft guns like the CZ100 and Vektor??
which barely resembles a real gun, both
retailing for under a tenner. Apparently some
of M&W's earlier products were complete
dogs dinners so the out look did not look
good. Everyone hoped that the SPAS 12 would
be a turning point.
HOT
CAKES
The
"12 " hit the shops in February
1997 for a not un-reasonable £54.99, this
price quickly plummeted to just £39.99 the
next month due to financial problems in the
far east, At the time of writing the best
price for the 15 is a minuscule £29.99! This
tiny price, which incidentally, makes it only
a few quid more expensive then a HOP hand gun
sent sales sky rocketing. Rebel troop sold
through their inventory ( 144 guns ) in less
than 3 days, Model mart have had back orders
piling up for the past few months.
Probably making this the most popular Airsoft
shotgun ever. Many people have been bitten by
the pump action bug and sales of other pumps,
like the Remington wingmaster, have been
brisk. This buying frenzy was capped by
glowing review from Gun mart magazine who
gave it a resounding thumbs up, resulting in
the SPAS acting like high temperature pastry
products, except without the raisins.
Lock
and Load was happily able to find one of
these, fast becoming legendary , shotguns for
a bit of a test. Mel from Model Mart warned
us that " It looks a little bit
tacky..." PMH commented " It looks
better in the photographs" hmmm.. Did
this mean that M&W had bodged the job up?
Could massive back logs in orders and
hundreds of sales be wrong? We decided to
have a closer look.
Lookin'
good
Starting
from the hand grip we find that there is no
stock. A bit a disapointment but non the less
expected. The grip is a military looking
affair with horizontal grooves running along
it. It is vaguely reminiscent of a tokerov.
The grip is held together by several shiney
silver screws. Moving forward we come to the
sction and trigger mechinism which is made of
black plastic.The ejection port is a nicely
milled shape with the entire carrier
assembly, which conects to the pump, fitting
smoothly into the main body. The trigger is
housed in a generously proportioned
trigger guard with the safety blade ,
again
chromed and silver on the left hand side. The
safty lugs are present on both sides of the
trigger guard and lock positively and firmly,
although they felt slightly loose when
disengaaged. The cocking handle, which is
present on the real gun is also present here,
as a small blade protruding perpendicularly
from the carrier assembly. Although , as
noted by Gun mart, you probably wont use it,
we tried to any way! On pulling it, the
entire mechanism, pump included, slides back
and locks in place. Smart but thouroghly
pointless. moving on from the trigger area we
get to the pump and above that the heat
sheild.
Pump
it up!
The
pump is a very lage rectangular, and curvy
affair. It could be much smaller, i.e.
remington esque, but instead they decieded to
put this massive chunk of plastic on it,
which frankly makes the gun look even
"harder" then it needs to be. The
pump also features the grooves seen on the
hand grip and is made of the same textured
gray plastic which makes it very nice to
hold. This military styling is continued in
the heat sheild which the grip is set into.
The entire length of the sheild is ported
with rectangular holes. reminiscent of the
green bit at the front of SA80's. Set into
the top of this is the back sight, which is a
vertical H shaped bar about two inches tall.
This can be flicked forward to select triple
shot or backward for normal shot
configerations. Coming out of the front
of the heat sheild, we finally get to see the
barrel. At the end of the barrel there is a
flash hider, made of, you guessed it, chromed
silvery stuff, which we have never, ever seen
on pictures of real SPAS 12's. Usually there
is a muzzle exetention instead. Unfortunetly
we did not get the chance to try and Unscrew
bits to see if we could fit one. This
shortend barrel gives the SPAS a stubbier
chunkier look then the military versions we
have seen, the lack of stock could also point
to the fact that this replica could be based
on a Police specification model . On the top
of the flash hider there is a nice and thick
silver blade for a front sight. Below the
muzzle is where the ~ 15 inch tube magazine
slots in. The magazine it self is nicly made
but lacks detail. It also had a tendency to
turn while locked in place! but this did not
affect the gun in any way.
The
good
Ker-chink,
ker phut! Onamatapiicly the SPAS
sounded fine, a brilliant action fed the
rounds into the chamber smoothly and with no
hassle and the gun sent rounds sailing down
the range quickly and easily punching its way
into our targets in rapid succession. The
ergonomic pump was easy to hold and the
pistol grip was nicely textured. even the
iron sight was nice and tall. Although the
safties were a little tempremental they were
very easy to use with a clever design. The
range was decent enough and power couldn't
really be faulted...(for the price!) The
Triple shot facility did exactly what it said
on the tin and launched a wodge of pellets
down range. lovely. Even the magazine loaded
eaily and put up with our cack handed
attempts at using it without engaging the
magazine spring. ( a mistake which you can
easily make with many airsoft rifles )
The
Bad
ArrgH!Was
this the same gun in the photos? From the
Black and white photos in Gun Mart, we
thought that the SPAS was going to be a nice
combat green and olive colour. The box showed
a black and grey gun, ho hum, Cést lá vié.
On opening the box we were met with a shiny
plastic monster. No textured finishes were
apparent and the whole thing was as bright as
a plastic bag. Plastic, Plastic and very
plastic.
The
Ugly
the
worst was yet to come. The review in Gun Mart
had stated that the silver bits were a bit
intrusive but nothing prepared me for how
shiny they actually were. You could almost
comb your hair in them. Some sort of
burnished effect would have been nicer. The
Lack of the foldable stock was also
troubling, not for actual use, although that
would have been a bonus, but becaause it
would have added additional gravitas to the
whole ensemblé, check out the real SPAS 12
to see what I mean, as well as some badly
needed weight to the very light feel of the
gun. Having said that the 12 is very nicely
balanced.
Airsoft DolphiNs Southampton.