Franchi Affinity not cycling properly when my son shoots it

So, with me being an idiot and never having owned a recoil/inertia type shotgun before now, it never crossed my mind that my son's Franchi Affinity might not cycle as well with him shooting it. He shot it several times this weekend with 7/8 oz. loads and never could get it to cycle on the first shot. Runs like a sewing machine when I shoot it.

Other than swapping over to our hotter, 1 oz. dove loads and cleaning it up real good before he tries it again...do you guys have any additional pointers I can share with him? He is 13 years old and weighs about 100 lb.

Teach him to lean into it. No different than limp wristing a pistol and it not cycling. Or thats my advice anyway.

Any inertia operated gun is going to need a good base to cycle correctly. If he will shoulder it good and a subtle lean into the shot I bet it works fine.

^^this^^

I shoot a Stoeger 3500........same Inertia design...

I have 2 suggestions...

First, make sure he's not pulling away from it when he shoots, as others have said

but mostly, ditch those light loads and shoot at least 1 1/8 and at least 3 dram.

my gun is "questionable" with 1oz loads, so I'm sure you're in the same boat with the 7/8's. if you lean into it good and hard it will probably work fine, which is why it shoots fine when YOU shoot it, but not him. go to 3 dram, 1 1/8 loads and I bet he'll be fine.

If you haven't already done so, make sure to "break it in". Inertia guns need a break in period on the recoil spring in order to cycle lighter loads to their full potential. go buy 2-3 boxes of the heaviest magnum waterfowl loads you can find and shoot them all. It's gonna suck, but it'll be worth it.

Oh, and if you do decide to try some heavier dove loads, stay away from the Remington Heavy Doves (green/orange box). they're tempting for "heavy dove" shells b/c they're cheap, at around $5-6/box. but I had one where the brass cap separated from the hull last year and left the hull in my chamber, and chambered another round behind it. bolt closed but didn't go into battery and just went *click*. another 1/8th of an inch and I'd have blown the barrel off where it meets the receiver.

A Remington rep admitted that "Cap pull-off" was a known issue but that it was with older lots of the shells and not currently in circulation - but I'd bought the box new at academy 2 days before our dove shoot last year, so they're still out there.

Those are kinda hard to find for a 20 gauge pal.

Really appreciate the info from you and the others as well. Good stuff to think about and try! Keep em coming please!

Oh I didn't know we were talking about a 20g..........but yeah, inertia guns in general don't like super light loads.

Is it a youth model? He's pretty tall for his age, or so it seemed like he was when we went camping. The reason i ask is because it would be the reason hes not "leaning" into the stock.

I used to have a Ruger Red Label. I loved that gun, but it only had a standard LOP. My shooting coach told me because I was so big, I'd let it float out in front of me, and resulted in the firing pins not resetting. This meant only one barrel would shoot at a time.

It's a different issue, but caused by the same problem, not having the butt of the gun seated firmly against his shoulder.

It's the compact model with the 24" barrel. We added the 1/4" shims until he said it didn't feel short to him anymore. I need to measure his current LOP vs. what the gun is currently sitting at I guess. He liked having 3 of the 4 shims in place the best, which according to Franchi's website....should be 13 1/8" LOP.

There ya go. How hard is it to add the shims? Do you have more? If so add them and see if it fixes the prob.

My 10 year old daughter is shooting hers with 7/8 oz loads no problem. I bought the compact model as well. She weighs 80 lbs.

We are using one shim and a small slip on Limbsaver pad. We were shooting Remington Premium STS 7/8 oz #8 at 1200 fps 2-3/4" length and 2-1/2 DR.EQ

Just a thought. Is this a Dicks gun? I don't know if it matters but Dicks was running some real cheap and I was wondering if it might be slightly different in some way the way Wal-Mart does things. Sometimes they offer a gun that is nearly the same but speced slightly different to meet a price point.

I honestly don't know (the box doesn't have any indication that it came from Dick's though). I bought a pair of them, slightly used, for a good deal via shotgunworld. Both of them cycled el cheapo 7/8 oz. loads perfectly for me and I traded one of them to Johnal3 on here and kept the other for my son. Saturday was the first time he has shot it.

Jughead,
Someone mentioned to me that I needed an oring for my 620 vs and that if you have a rotating piston to be sure that it is turned in the right direction per manual. The oring size for my 620 was 11/16" and I put clp on it for temp control. Worth a shot

Call Franchi CS. I had great service from them helping me get set up with an adult stock to go with the compact. Maybe they could give you some suggestions.

I would say take it apart and make sure there are no burs or rough spots in the bolt. Clean it good and put some good slick oil on it, not very much. Then run a 100 rounds of something heavier through it and try it again.

I think the Franchi manual for that gun might specify seven-eighths ounce loads at 1275 FPS or faster.

It's not the light loads doing it, or it wouldn't shoot with Chad! I am going with 3toe on this one.

Yes, but it could be a combination of the shooter and a rough bolt or spring tension off just a little.

Mine cycled both for my 10 year old girl and when I let my 5 year old boy shoot it holding it under his arm with me holding it up.Neither time was it held rock steady.

Thanks fellas. I think I'm gonna try running some heavier loads through it first to loosen up the spring, clean it good, and then see how it will cycle (with him shooting it) some hot, 1 oz. Rios that we always use for doves. Will keep an eye on him to see how much lean back he is introducing as well. Maybe we'll get it all squared away before next weekend. Gonna have a backup gun or two with us on opening day though....just in case.

An 870 shoots anything you put in it. Just saying.

If the gun is inertia driven, they make a mercury/ lead cyclener, that you can drill a hole in back off stock and add weight to gun. They sell them at brownells. I read an article in a gun magizine about a women that shoot = or was trying to shoot for the Trap team and used this for Inertia= the weights , to make gun cycle

good gun but the Affinity is lighter and has an operating system that has proven to be more durable in high volume shooting. Most people won't ever shoot either one enough to make a difference.

All good advice^^^^

I was taught to measure the LOP for shotguns by placing the butt of the gun in the crease of your arm where your bicep meets your forearm, the palm swell should mate with your hand in a natural position. If the palm swell is on your palm or wrist it's to short, if it's on your fingers it's to long.

A good break-in period should get the job done. My M1 wouldn't cycle 7/8 loads either until I read the owner's manual again and put it through a break-in period of 3 boxes of heavy field loads. It will now cycle them fine.

Decided to try the reduced recoil loads today in my franchi since I put the o ring in. Budda! Dude I'm telling you, $2.50 well spent

Update for all of you. We went and shot some skeet. Turner's gun did great (with him shooting it) with hotter, 1 oz/1250 fps loads like we dove hunt with. After shooting a couple boxes of them, we went back to some 7/8 oz/1200 fps loads and it cycled them like butter for him as well. I think just breaking the spring in a little more was the trick.

Glad to hear it.