Franklin Armory Does It Again!

[CLP]

The cat is out of the bag. Straight rifling. No spin imparted to the projectile.

Essentially, it's chucking a 1900mph knuckleball.

Can't wait to see the slo-mo videos on this one.

I will be sticking with rifled barrels however- I may not be shooting 1000 yard targets, but I do like to make small(ish) groups at 100-250 yards.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

If it was in a large caliber it could have made sense, 450 Bushmaster is a short range option to start with so something like that could have made a little sense to me. Not enough to open my wallet but would be more interesting.

 

[MistWolf]

My crystal ball will be going back to the factory for warranty work.

 

[taliv]

ok, so the real question now is, if you buy one, and replace the factory barrel with an aftermarket barrel, does it then become a rifle? or is the receiver still whatever they designated?

 

[CLP]

ok, so the real question now is, if you buy one, and replace the factory barrel with an aftermarket barrel, does it then become a rifle? or is the receiver still whatever they designated?

Unless they tried that in R&D testing and found a fat bullet going slower was even less accurate...

 

[Dr.Rob]

My guess is like the shockwave it can't be built from a rifle or a pistol, it's a 'firearm' receiver.

I suspect on review this barrel will show poor accuracy and key holing.

 

[CLP]

ok, so the real question now is, if you buy one, and replace the factory barrel with an aftermarket barrel, does it then become a rifle? or is the receiver still whatever they designated?

Good question. I don't see what the problem would be though if the barrel was 16" inches and the OAL remained 26"

 

[CLP]

My guess is like the shockwave it can't be built from a rifle or a pistol, it's a 'firearm' receiver.

I suspect on review this barrel will show poor accuracy and key holing.

Of course. They'll look like this, just 2600-2700 fps faster...

 

[kozak6]

Keyholing at 50 yards? Might as well stick with a brace.

I suspect a rifled choke/brake could work out for pistol cartridges. Sounds more expensive than a brace, though.

 

[Gtscotty]

It's also worth noting that while you can use a suppressor to knock down the obnoxious (especially 5.56) blast of SBRs or braced pistols, that wouldn't be an option with this gadget. Or at least there's no way I'd chance ducking an unstable rifle bullet through my cans. I'd give FA points for the stick in the eye they're giving the ATF/NFA with this thing, but that's about it.

 

[Art Eatman]

I don't see how it would serve any purpose better than many other options costing one-fourth as much, if not even less.

Reminds me of the saying about cocaine: "Cocaine is God's way of telling you that you have too much money."

 

[Dr.Rob]

Also saw they are going to offer a 'football with fins' kind of bullet to better stabilize in flight.

That's spending a lot of money to replicate what can be done with a pistol lower and a brace. Brownell's has a real Colt Commando SBR that can be had for about the same price as this 'work around.'

 

[Hasaf]

Also saw they are going to offer a 'football with fins' kind of bullet to better stabilize in flight.

That's spending a lot of money to replicate what can be done with a pistol lower and a brace. Brownell's has a real Colt Commando SBR that can be had for about the same price as this 'work around.'

It didn't take much looking to find a Colt Comando SBR for close to $1k. I see the Franklin as being very overpriced. Someone said tooling costs explain it. A case of rifling buttons isn't going to cost more than one or two thousand. All other tooling would be the same. It is just overpriced. As far as actual performance, none of us know yet.

 

[quest4perfection]

I'd personally stay away from this one. Whatever loophole these guys found, it can't be very big, and I doubt it would be hard for the ATF to close it.

Then, too, we don't know the future political climate. It seems some are always trying to criminalize what has been attained through concerted and ambitious efforts.

 

[rodregier]

It will be interesting to see what their pricing on the "football with fins" (finball?) projectile ammunition is going to be.
Since it is proprietary for now I would expect it to be breathtaking...

 

[Swing]

A $2,000 rifle that is maybe capable of 4-5 MOA at 50-yards and keyholes at said range? LOL! No thanks.

And I've built SBRs for around half that, including the NFA tax.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

I dunno...my old Mini-14 only shot around 5 MOA and it had a rifled barrel! I don't see the problem with this aside from the price. If other companies follow suit and produce their own PDW weapons with grooved-but-not-rifled barrels I'll give them a look. I dunno what most folks want to do with their SBRs but to me the killer app would be as an HD/zombie gun, for use inside the house our yard. The kind of thing that a lot of folks would use a sidearm for. At 50 feet I would think it would get the job done.

 

[Elkins45]

Flechette rounds with discarding sabots are the next big thing in ammo technology, I hear.

 

[Darkbob]

This article from OutdoorHub says that Franklin is claiming their Football-with-Fins ammo will produce 1 moa at 100 yards. Not that that makes me interested, but I'm looking forward to seeing some testing with it.

 

[easy]

Biggest let down since the Saint. All hype and no real news.

 

[CoalTrain49]

I'm wondering what sucker got talked into financing that project. Bank loan officer maybe? I've seen a few of those that were a little slow.

 

[JeffG]

No thanks.

 

[Panzerschwein]

I too wonder how accurate the Nerf bullets will be.

 

[JohnKSa]

I too wonder how accurate the Nerf bullets will be.

Read one article where they claimed 1MOA with the football bullets and 3-4MOA at 100yds with standard ammo.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Read one article where they claimed 1MOA with the football bullets and 3-4MOA at 100yds with standard ammo.

Hmm meh I'll wait for an independent tester or two.