doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A & S Famars Gun

A & S Famars Gun. Any of you guys great fans of these? I am speaking to folks who own, have owned or wish to seriously buy one. Love to hear your thoughts and input.

John Boyd
Quality Arms

I had a friend a few years ago order a couple of over unders. Waited over a year. Got the gun and went to the club and the gun would not fire. Sent it back and still had more problems.
Get a Perazzi.

In my very humble opinion, A&S [FAMARS] make some of the finest guns in the world today. Some of their creations made during the late 1980's and 90's are beyond compare; with exquisite metal work combined with engraving of the highest order by artists only recently acknowledged. My Ca. 1988 "unique, one of a kind" custom hammergun, made specially for a well known live pigeon shooter and early Italian gun writer, is an incredible work of precision with beautifully struck chopper lump barrels and sculptural traditional action filing. The action is left "in the white" with little engraving except for some outlining and a few flourishes of fine relief scroll surrounding a small "A&S" on the bottom of the action; all done with taste and restraint. The trigger plate is proudly engraved "Pedretti Inc."

Best, Mal

My friend went to their shop in Italy for a bespoke sidelock gun. I think it was a bit over $45k. Waited a year plus to get it. Arrived and started shooting it....action spring broke. Had to send the gun back for a new spring to be made to fit. Got it back over six months later...hasn't shot it much since. I don't think he wants it to break again. Beautiful gun though to look at.

John,

In my limited experience the quality of these guns is spotty. Some are of the highest workmanship, as I'm sure Mal MacGregor's is. Some are not.

Some years ago I bought an A&S 28gauge SxS sidelock ejector from a California gun dealer. It was a best quality gun, supposedly. It was supposed to be unfired. I was excited to have it on the way. When it arrived I was disappointed; not in its condition, but in its build quality. It did indeed appear to be unfired. There were no marks anywhere.

My first observation was that it was built on a 20 guage frame. It looked like an attractive lady a bit broad in the beam. My calipers confirmed the action was about 0.025" wider than my Piotti Monaco 20 gauge. Then I took note of how it was jointed. There was no looseness between the barrels and action, but I could clearly see a sliver of light between the rear of the barrels on the right side and the right side of the standing breech. There was no light on the left. This would suggest someone had sprung the action with a serious overload on the right barrel, but there was no evidence of such. The gun appeared unfired. There were no marks on the standing breech anywhere. It seemed plain to me the barrels and action simply weren't properly smoked in.

I sent the gun back.

Here are a couple of photos I took of it when I had it in my possession. The date stamps on these photos are Aug. 21, 2004:





I hope this helps in some small way.

Curl

One complaint, Hmm, okay, anyone can build a bad gun.
Two complaints, Hmm, okay, give them the benefit of the doubt.
Three complaints, Hmm, okay, what's going here.
There was also a complaint about an A&S over on the Shotgunworld forums.

I owned three of them at one time not long ago. The only reason I don't still own them is the economy tanked and I needed the money. I had a pair of 12 ga. Castore hammer guns and a Pedersoli engraved 28 ga. I shot some clays and hunted the hammer guns they were beautiful guns of the best quality. I had a small problem with a sticky ejector that Remo Salvinelli repaired for me while I waited at the Vintagers in Millbrook, NY. I shot and hunted with the 28 ga. as often as I could and never had any problems with the gun. If I win the mega millions tonight I will be trying to buy the 28 ga. back tomorrow. And I will take a trip to Italy soon after to order something else from them. The are beautiful guns. I have only good things to say about the entire Famars family.

Bill G.

A now departed friend had an A&S 12 SL O/U that he ordered while at their shop some years ago. It was as well made as any gun I have ever seen, period. He was not kind to his guns and broke the stock at the wrist, twice that I know of. It was shot often and a LOT [pardon the redundancy, RWTF] inclusive of many trips to S.A. and mostly w/36 gram loads state side and the GUN never had an issue.

I've seen and handled and shot a handful of A&S/Famars guns over the years, inclusive of one of their four bbl'd .410's & a self cocking hammer double. All were very well executed and functional. The O/U gun mentioned above was as fine as one could imagine or wish for. FWIW, it was their best quality gun at the time, early 80's.

I'm not refuting any of the previous comments, so please don't read it that way. I'm 'just saying', that's all.

I dunno if this is what you wanted, John, but it is my experience/observation from the near side line.

Well I will add that the guy I mentioned about having the problems shyed away from Famars for awhile. But I hear he has recently ordered another couple of guns from them.
I am not saying I would not buy one, especially a nice pair of 20 bore round actions.

Hello Bill,

Just to clarify what you mention you had and not meaning to cause any undue distress, here are a couple of pictures of your ex Castores:




JC