Target Sports

FACTORY VISIT: STYLE AND STRENGTH

Created on 14th May 2009

RICHARD ATKINS visits the Fabarm factory in Brescia to see how this Italian maker has developed its product line

ANYONE WHO has spent time looking at the lines of guns in a few well-stocked gunshops will have noticed that Italy is now the nation at the forefront of shotgun manufacture. There are dozens of makers there, from major players like Beretta to smaller family names, as well as highly-prized but more expensive models like those from Perazzi. Besides these are hand-built models that rival the best that London gunsmiths can produce. Italy can cater for every need, but it is in the volume markets that it is perhaps best known.

Time was when ‘volume' also meant something rather ordinary and perhaps uninspiring, if functional. Although still applicable to some extent, in recent years the strong rivalry between makers attempting to attract customers and new production methods has seen the standard of guns and their features gradually improve, so now even a volume-produced gun can be sought after and well-respected. Along with some other UK journalists, I had the opportunity to see how an emerging Italian brand now manufactures its guns. That company is Fabarm and its products have seen significant development in recent years. As we have said before, the UK shotgun market is quite conservative by nature and it's difficult for any of the lesser-known brand names to gain a firm foothold in a market dominated by a small number of big names.

However, Fabarm truly took the bull by the horns a few years ago and adopted a strategy to put its products where it was confident they belonged - at the forefront of the shooter's mind, yet in that very difficult part of the market where they are competing head-on with established makes. Part of that strategy involved taking on a marketing man who had spent several years working for Browning - Laurent Gaude. It was Laurent who explained fully and frankly how Fabarm has approached the task of developing both the product range and the marketing strategy. Having heard it explained in the boardroom and then seen the descriptions being put into practice in the modern factory in Brescia, I can vouch for both the soundness of that approach and the quality of the Fabarm shotguns produced today. No questions were shied away from and everything that was claimed was backed up during our tour.

In essence when Laurent came to Fabarm he realised that to make the strides desired it needed the best products. This was not to be a marketing exercise that relied on fancy promotions; this was a strategy that would see Fabarm make changes to its products, based on the experience of its current lines, studying the best and also weaker points of their competitors' products and marrying this with the evolving desires of buyers. The market has changed too, and today's shooter is a little more accepting of a new product if he can see it's good. So, the strategy for some time now has been to develop the Fabarm product range to have very well-designed products that are both modern in style yet retain traditional aspects that assure pride of ownership as well as longevity. The firm also wants the support of a dealer network that can sell products secure in the knowledge that they are dealing in high-quality guns. This is not an easy process, it is one that gradually builds - but Fabarm is seeing this. Customer satisfaction brings shooters back to the shops with their friends, and that is a more satisfying and long-lasting way of building a name than short-term hype can ever achieve.

Having set out the mechanical requirements both in terms of function and looks, Fabarm has reversed the roles somewhat by setting challenges for its rivals to meet. For example, so confident is Fabarm in the superiority of its actions and barrels in design, construction and materials, that the firm has voluntarily entered into an arrangement with the Italian Proof authorities (who test each gun and stamp it before it can be offered for sale, as our London and Birmingham proof houses do in the UK) for its guns to be proofed to a higher level than the CIP Rules of Proof currently require. This is indeed a bold move, but does show that Fabarm has the ultimate confidence in its guns. This new proof level, which is set at 1630 Bar, is almost 20% higher than the current CIP proof pressure (1370 Bar) required for a 12-gauge shotgun and exceeds that for magnum steel shot loads.

Future-proof

One may wonder why Fabarm has taken this route when it means it will have to achieve ever-finer engineering in terms of materials used, the designs employed and the finest fit of parts - but that's the whole point. By doing this it has a product that is future-proofed - so in the event of steel shot loads (for example) becoming more commonly used, with a consequent need for even higher velocities, these Fabarm guns are already there and able to cope. The marketing strength of this when it is the independent proof authorities that are vouching it sound must be a huge feather in Fabarm's cap. Fabarm has truly raised the bar - it's now for the other makers to see if they can leap equally high!

This will surely prove a very interesting time, as Fabarm did not reach this point by accident. It has ensured that the design and construction of its action and barrels was well up to withstanding this degree of stress from the outset of its refinement of its new lines of over/under and semi-auto shotguns. It has recently changed the construction of its Axis O/U forged steel receivers to a two-piece construction instead of the more usual three. Barrel extensions of its XLR 5 semi-autos have also been simplified and refined. The company already knows that its locking bolts, hinge trunnions and receivers will withstand these pressures long-term; some others may be found in need of reinforcement to keep up, but that we must wait to see.

Fabarm barrels

Fabarm is proud of its barrels. Having seen them being made I can see why. The process starts with solid bar steel rods left to age in the open before being deep-hole drilled to form tubes. They are then milled on CNC machining centres, bored to their specially formulated ‘Tri-bore' internal profile and externally profiled ground and then meticulously laid by hand before being silver soldered in a furnace, hand stripped, then re-checked for alignment and straightness before final finishing and chemical blacking. Deep-hole drilling is a costly and time-consuming means of producing a barrel tube and there are faster methods in use today: Fabarm has shunned these to maintain total control over the quality of the steel used and stresses that remain after machining. It is 100% confident that the deep-hole process cannot be bettered for producing uniform barrels that maintain their point of aim under any degree of use, are uniformly consistent in wall-thickness and capable of coping with the extra-high proof pressures. Fabarm also accepts that its barrels are not the thinnest or the lightest, but they are demonstrably stronger than currently called for, without being unduly heavy either. Fabarm makes no apologies for its approach and doesn't intend to go the super-lightweight route. It has created a niche for itself in guns with a very recognisable and modern styling that allows it to stand out from the crowd. Its guns are made to supremely fine tolerances by a precise blend of modern machinery and traditional skills (like hand barrel tube laying and straightening after viewing by the eye of the bore tester) along with nicely-finished wood options and some excellent engraving. Engraving is also achieved by modern methods as the price they intend to sell for dictates, but by a clever blend of chemical and EDM (electro-discharge-machining) they achieve very pretty results without enormous expense.

Fabarm developed its factory complex to produce the Tri-bore internal barrel boring profile and has married this to the longest internal choke tubes currently offered in any make of commercial shotgun. These chokes tubes are patented and have a hyperbolic internal profile that further smooths the passage of shot through the choke constrictions, be it steel or lead shot, producing premium patterns as well as lower forces within the choke tubes. These tubes, in conjunction with the Tri-bore barrels, give a unique combination that also achieves not only superb patterns, but something else that sets them apart: they are the only choke tubes that the Italian Proof Authorities will accept for proof testing in ‘full choke' choke boring. No guns from any firm other than Fabarm are currently accepted for proof with internal choke tubes of greater choke constriction than half choke.

Fabarm's latest brochures make clear its pride in its new line of shotguns: ‘Today, no shotgun is safer than Fabarm.' In combination with fine style, this has to be a formula for a sound future.

FACTORY VISIT: STYLE AND STRENGTH

Related Links

GUN MAINTENANCE: KEEP IT CLEAN

GUN LUBRICANT: SLICK AND SMOOTH

ON TEST: CLEAN UP YOUR ACT

SCOPE MOUNTING GUIDE: ALL SCOPED UP PART TWO

PRODUCT TEST: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

PELLET SIZE: A SENSE OF PROPORTION

SPECIAL REPORT: LONDON CALLING

FACTORY VISIT: ABSOLUTE PRECISION

FACTORY VISIT: BUY BRITISH

FACTORY VISIT: A PASSION FOR PERFECTION

Get a copy of Sporting Rifle

FACTORY VISIT: STYLE AND STRENGTH

Related Links

Newsletter