doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Franchi Aristocrat O/U

is there something inherently wrong with these that makes people not want them? reason i ask, am considering a trade for one. price seems very reasonable to me. but i checked on gunbroker and auctionarms and what few there were seem to either go for nothing or not sell period. and this one's been on the rack a good while.

i figure if the guns are sound it's probably
a) nobody wants 26" barrels any more, like every one i've checked has
b) nobody wants a gun w/o choke tubes
c) everybody looking in this price range ($500) would rather have a brand new gun made in turkey w/ longer barrels and choke tubes than a 40 yr old Italian gun.

i on the other hand would far prefer the latter. but i've never owned a franchi anything and only person i've known who did is an uncle w/ an autoloader. altho i wouldn't have any double with an aluminum receiver but the aristocrats were apparently steel.


roger

This really isn't any help, Roger, but if you don't see anything wrong with o/u fixed choke with 26-inch barrels---and I don't because my 20ga SKB Model 500 is my go-to gun---why not buy if it fits?

I have the same questions about these guns. The 60's-70's Aristocrat guns were built very well.

I think there is a great deal of confusion around the Aristocrat,vs Peregrine,Falconet and other iterations that don't seem to have a model name. Many dealers don't know the difference and there is very little reference material.
I've owned all of them, and the older Aristocrat is head and shoulders a better finished gun,wood and metal, than the Peregrine and Falconet series.

I have an older Alcione SL, that is a very nice over under.It doesn't resemble the new line of Alcione's. It has high quality hand engraved,game scenes,high LPI checkering,and beautiful wood.
It is hard to sell a Franchi, but I've always found the O/U's durable, and when you look past the models that are low budget junk, a real nice quality gun to own at a low price.

King, i see nothing at all wrong with 26" bbls and fixed chokes. i love the current fad of long bbls and tubes. makes a lot of older guns be ignored and go for bargain prices. one has to wonder how anybody managed to successfully hunt and shoot clays for the last 100 years! amazing.

jbauer, i suspected this was the issue - just general lack of familiarity. i've never been afraid of going to "off brands" as long as the stuff is good. if all one is after is performance for the cost it's great.

will be wednesday before i can get back to see it but if it's still there and i can get any decent trade at all i'm getting it.

roger

in fact, there was a nearly identical gun except case hardened instead of blued at another shop about 2 yrs ago, tagged at 650 or 700 and i think offered to me at $600. didn't need it and passed. it sold for something not long after.

No one out there even knows what the Aristocrat is. The fact that most are not marked "Aristocrat" doesn't help. The Aristocrat sold in the fifties for at least a hundred dollars more than Browning Superposed. It was and is a high quality gun. I just sold a mint, double trigger Aristocrat and, except that I collect Supers, I would never have let it go. The Blue Books that I have examined are silent on the Aristocrat and a gun dealer would have no idea what he has. The absense of significant engraving makes it look like a low grade gun on the surface. The wood on mine was pretty plain also. In the mid fifties, Stoeger priced the base Aristocrat at $396, the reason we don't see them in this country. Mine was for the European trade, not a Stoeger import, since it has sling swivels, straight grip, and double triggers. The fellow who paid the big buck for it is very happy. As I remember, the proof date on mine was about 1955.

i had to do some detective work to figure out what model this was. forget what the tag said but IIRC was what would have been a 70's era aluminum frame gun. i had to start going thru old shooters bibles and working backward and going off memory of appearance to figure it out. i'm now curious enough about it i want it.

roger

What is the date code? What kind of forend release does it have? Does it have Stoeger import markings?

I believe the case hardened model is the "skeet" version of the Aristocrat. Also a really nice version, I've only seen one. I had a Silver King model as well, and sold it. I didn't like it. The engraving left me unsettled, and I didn't like the wood.

I prefer the deep blued steel with almost no engraving except around the edge of the receiver. The Aristocrat's have slightly wider dispersion of checkering on the pistol grip and forend, and this readily distinguishes them. I've often noticed swivels on them, and seen the double triggers a few times. I haven't ever encountered an english grip on one. If I had seen eightbore's for sale, it would be in my safe!

The blued Aristocrat is an elegant gun. I have not seen any of the other variations jbauer mentions. Stoeger only pictured the blue variation as far as I know.

Here is another one for sale:

"Franchi Aristocrat Field 12 gauge shotgun. Italian made over/under field gun with single selective trigger and auto ejectors, 26” Mod/Imp. cyl. barrels. $895.00 Item# S2363 Request Info"

http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/admin/product_details.php?itemID=16731

Best,

Mike