Franchi Spas 15

[Cavalier Knight]

Does anyone know if this is civilian legal? I'm in New York NY so if it is for you it's probably not legal for me anyway, lol.

 

[Bad Penny 03]

They are about as Legal as the USAS 12 is now.

I price checked one in the lat 80's/ early 90's and it was $4k as they only imported a few.

Chances of finding parts or Mags is probably slim.

 

[rcmodel]

BATF declared that it was "not suitable for sporting purposes" several years ago, and they cannot be imported.

Then, Franchi stopped making them.

It's become an expensive collectors item you can't get parts for now.

rcmodel

 

[Sonic]

Then, Franchi stopped making them.

The SPAS-15 is still in production as far as I know (the SPAS-12 is the one no longer being made). Franchi is under the Beretta corporate umbrella now, and the SPAS-15 is still listed in the tactical shotgun section in the Beretta Defence catalog (http://www.berettadefence.com). The ones that are already in the U.S. are perfectly legal for civilian ownership as far as federal law goes (individual state laws are of course another matter), but as already mentioned the ATF made the 'non-sporting' ruling on them some years ago, so the only ones in-country now are those few that were imported before then. Because there are so few in circulation here in the U.S. you would have difficulty finding one, magazines are also exceedingly rare, and of course they are very expensive.

With the Saiga 12 available in both importable sporting configuration and converted '922r' compliant variations these days, if you wanted a box magazine shotgun I really wouldn't see the point of getting a SPAS-15 instead (except as a collectible). The Saiga 12 also has the advantage of being able to use both 2-3/4" and 3" ammo (the SPAS-15 takes 2-3/4" ammo only), and both russian made 5-round and U.S. made 10-round magazines are fairly easy to find for the Saiga, not to mention the Saiga is much less expensive than the SPAS-15 (even if the SPAS-15 was still importable). The SPAS-15's only advantage over the Saiga 12 is that it has a pump action mode to fall back on if the shooter is using ammo that the Saiga 12 can't cycle (though the Saiga 12 has an adjustable gas valve that enables it to cycle with all but the lightest loads). If you want to see what's possible with domestically converted '922r' compliant Saiga 12s these days, check out the shotgun section on the Tromix website (http://www.tromix.com/Welcome.htm).

 

[jlbraun]

Agree - with the Saiga-12 the SPAS-15 is merely an expensive collectors' item.

 

[Cavalier Knight]

Thanks for all the input very informative.